Integrating stakeholder value network with strategic issue management for multi-stakeholder needs and requirements analysis of vertical farming systems

CONTEXT: Vertical Farming Systems (VFSs) are considered an evolutionary jump in humanity's quest for a reliable, sustainable and healthier food supply, and their design and implementation require bringing multistakeholder together to achieve values co-creation. However, there is a lack of the qualitative and quantitative analysis from the perspective of multi-stakeholder's value exchange to explain the complex need relationships among related VFSs and their multi-stakeholder and a lack of the research on VFSs needs (VFSs-N) from the strategic issues view to consider the balance of conflicting needs. OBJECTIVE: To transform stakeholder needs into stakeholder requirements and capture the comprehensive and consistent VFSs requirements (VFSs-R) list. METHODS: This paper proposes an approach integrating stakeholder value network (SVN) and strategic issue management (SIM). This study offers a systematic framework to get a VFSs-R list. The SVN is employed for structuring a four-step needs analysis process and viewing multi-stakeholder direct and indirect need relationships as value exchanges for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Integration of stakeholder relationships and SIM is presented to reveal additional insights into the balance of conflicting VFSs-N and reduce the dimensionality of the complex relationships in SVN by issue networks (IN). In addition, based on the above analysis results, needs-to-requirements transformation can be achieved by adding identity (ID), name, description, and rationale. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: When the framework was applied to the multi-stakeholder needs and requirements analysis of the Robotic Vertical Farming Systems (RVFS) project. We can get 52 needs including 3 conflicting needs and eventually analyse and balance the needs to get a RVFS-R list of 13 well-formed and prioritized requirements. SIGNIFICANCE: These research results can help the designer identify the relatively more important requirements, whether direct or indirect, and assist the VFSs projects achieve value co-creation among stakeholders.