TY - JOUR
T1 - Food Banks as Platforms
T2 - Upgrading Pragmatic Legitimacy through Digitalization
AU - Murillo, D.
AU - Yter Gimeno, Mireia
AU - Arroyo Moliner, Liliana
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Society for Third-Sector Research.
PY - 2026/5/4
Y1 - 2026/5/4
N2 - Food banks (FBs) are perceived as important nonprofit actors in tackling both hunger and food waste, yet their organizational model remains questioned in multiple ways. While digitalization and platformization offer new organizational possibilities, proper analyses of such initiatives over food waste recovery remain marginal. This research analyzes how the current drive toward digitalization in the food waste orbit can address some of its organizational shortcomings that appear as related to a deficit in its pragmatic legitimacy. To address this gap, the paper i) identifies the current institutional and organizational pressures that FBs face; ii) analyzes how digital transformation can address some of these limitations; iii) introduces a sample of digital platforms that seek to overcome the identified deficits through processes of digitalization; and, finally, iv) presents a set of insights for upgrading the organizational model of FBs through digitalization. Our contribution invites a reappraisal of legitimation strategies that prioritize pragmatic legitimacy concerns, particularly in a context where FBs—whether by design or default—are likely to remain indispensable institutional actors for the foreseeable future.
AB - Food banks (FBs) are perceived as important nonprofit actors in tackling both hunger and food waste, yet their organizational model remains questioned in multiple ways. While digitalization and platformization offer new organizational possibilities, proper analyses of such initiatives over food waste recovery remain marginal. This research analyzes how the current drive toward digitalization in the food waste orbit can address some of its organizational shortcomings that appear as related to a deficit in its pragmatic legitimacy. To address this gap, the paper i) identifies the current institutional and organizational pressures that FBs face; ii) analyzes how digital transformation can address some of these limitations; iii) introduces a sample of digital platforms that seek to overcome the identified deficits through processes of digitalization; and, finally, iv) presents a set of insights for upgrading the organizational model of FBs through digitalization. Our contribution invites a reappraisal of legitimation strategies that prioritize pragmatic legitimacy concerns, particularly in a context where FBs—whether by design or default—are likely to remain indispensable institutional actors for the foreseeable future.
KW - Digital platforms
KW - Digital transformation
KW - Food banks
KW - Food waste
KW - Pragmatic organizational legitimacy
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105038387063
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14342/6564
U2 - 10.1017/S0957876526000264
DO - 10.1017/S0957876526000264
M3 - Article
VL - 37
SP - 197
EP - 207
JO - VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations Organizations
JF - VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations Organizations
IS - 2
ER -
ODS 1: Fin de la pobreza