Critical success factors for sustainable packaging adoption in fresh and short food supply chains: evidence from a qualitative study

Purpose This study aims to examine sustainable packaging adoption in fresh and short food supply chains (FSFSCs). It identifies the critical success factors (CSFs) that shape adoption and explains how institutional pressures interact with organizational and inter-organizational environmental capabilities. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative exploratory design using reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine CSFs for sustainable packaging in FSFSCs. Thirty-four semistructured interviews were conducted with stakeholders across all stages of the FSFSCs, including primary producers, food processors, distributors/aggregators and retailers. The data were analyzed iteratively to develop codes, subthemes and higher-order CSFs. Findings This study identifies eight CSFs that play complementary roles in the adoption of sustainable packaging in FSFSCs. “Institutional pressures influencing organizational action” serve as antecedents, while “legitimacy, reputation and market acceptance” provide motivation. “Resource readiness and capability availability,” together with “cost structures and investment constraints”, establish the boundary conditions for adoption. Implementation is supported by “supply chain alignment and collective resource deployment”, alongside “operational and environmental capability development.” “Technological and infrastructure enablement”, combined with “organizational learning and environmental capability accumulation,” supports renewal. Adoption thus emerges as a reciprocal process in which legitimacy demands stimulate action, available capabilities shape organizational responses and implementation reinforces normative and mimetic diffusion. Practical implications This study emphasizes that sustainable packaging preserves freshness and food safety while reducing material and energy burdens, supporting traceability and enabling feasible reuse or recovery. The findings provide guidance for producers, processors, packaging providers, distributors, retailers and policy and industry bodies. Originality/value This study integrates institutional theory and the natural resource-based view through a legitimacy capability co-evolution mechanism. It also introduces localized circular supply to explain how proximity, shared infrastructure and coordinated routines for return, reuse and recovery support sustainable packaging in FSFSCs.