The power of disruption: A multi-stakeholder exploration of the potential for an eCommerce platform to disrupt power dynamics in the coffee value chain

Sammanfattning: Many companies have introduced initiatives to achieve environmental sustainability and improve the wellbeing of the producers. This is the goal of the Era of We – an online platform that strives to disrupt the current market practices, promote environmentally sound coffee production and empower farmers. This thesis explores the perceived power dynamics between different stakeholders and how are they affected by this new, disruptive innovation. By engaging in nine semi-structured interviews, it outlines the experienced power dynamics of three stakeholder groups – coffee producers (farmers or their representatives), purchasers (roasters and platform developers) and customers from the hospitality industry. To achieve this, it is grounded in the power typology proposed by Dallas et al. (2017) which outlines four types of power relationships. The results show that all four types of power are present, but the most often noted and therefore also the platform’s central point of interest is the bargaining power of farmers. Whilst the platform has the potential to achieve a disruptive scale, the research shows that the platform’s future development needs to acknowledge other types of power relationships due to their interconnected nature.