Determinants of ICT innovation and imitation in the agrifood sector

Diffusion of innovations has gained a lot of attention and concerns different scientific fields. Many studies, which examine the determining factors of technological innovations in the agricultural and agrifood sector, have been conducted assuming the widely-used Technology Accepted Model (TAM), for a random sample of farmers or firms in agricultural sector. In the present study, a holistic examination of the determining factors that affect the propensity of firms to innovate or imitate, is conducted. The diffusion of ICT tools of firms which are engaged in the NACE 02/03 as well as in the NACE 10/11 classifications for 49 heterogeneous national markets is examined, using the Bass model. The innovation parameter is positively associated with rural income, female employment, export activity and education of farmers, while the imitation parameter is increased in societies with large uncertainty avoidance

Factors affecting innovation and imitation of ICT in the agrifood sector

Diffusion of innovations has gained a lot of attention and concerns different scientific fields. Many studies, which examine the determining factors of technological innovations in the agricultural and agrifood sector, have been conducted using the widely used Technology Accepted Model, for a random sample of farmers or firms engaged in agricultural sector. In the present study, a holistic examination of the determining factors that affect the propensity of firms to innovate or imitate, is conducted. The diffusion of ICT tools of firms which are engaged in the NACE 02/03 as well as in the NACE 10/11 classifications for 49 heterogeneous national markets is examined, using the Bass model. The innovation parameter is positively associated with rural income, female employment, export activity and education of farmers, while the imitation parameter is increased in countries whose societies are characterized by uncertainty avoidance

Technological Innovation and Agrifood Systems Resilience: The Potential and Perils of Three Different Strategies

The interest in technological innovation has burgeoned in recent years. Theory and research support the vital role of innovative technologies in enhancing agrifood systems resilience. In this theoretical contribution, focusing on different sets of technologies, we present three technological innovation strategies, discuss their potential for strengthening resilience, and expose some open issues that need to be addressed. Responsible technological innovation arose as a response to the growing concerns about the possible unintended impacts of mega-technological trends, like digital farming tools or nanotechnologies, on agrifood systems. Although responsibly innovating is far from easy, and despite the gaps between theoretical ideals and innovation praxis, responsible technological innovation is a promising development since it can prevent counterintuitive effects of technologies on resilience. On the other hand, poly-innovation emerged as a social practice in which internetworking technologies facilitate—and create bundles with—organizational, social, and business innovation. In that strategy, technology represents a mediator of resilience-enhancing social behavior. However, by promoting the uberization of agrifood systems, poly-innovation is associated with various uncertainties. Finally, micro-innovation refers to the incremental adaptations of existing technologies or the development of new ones through bricolage and tinkering. The commercialization of such innovations through open design can increase the resilience of small-scale farming, especially in low-income countries. Nonetheless, the lack of financial resources, technical assistance, and institutional support hamper the full exploitation of micro-innovation

New Challanges for Industrial Policy

This paper calls for a fresh look at industrial policies in the light of recent trends and developments in the global economy. In particular, five new challenges and their implications for industrial policies are discussed. These have been neglected in the debate on industrial policy and include (i) the increasing globalization of the world economy, most pertinently the rise of global production sharing, (ii) the recent crises in food, fuel and financial markets, (iii) climate change, (iv) the rise of China and India, and (v) the rise of the ‘entrepreneurial economy’. Directions for further research are outlined. This paper is a follow-up to the earlier WIDER Working Paper entitled ‘Industrial Policy: Old and New Issues’.industrial policy, structural transformation, development, financial crisis, climate change

THE IMPACTS OF OPEN INNOVATION STRATEGIES ON INNOVATIVE PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF COLOMBIAN FOOD AND BEVERAGE FIRMS

The Open Innovation theory has received great attention in the international literature, but their study is non-existent in Colombia´s academic spectrum. In this sense, the aim of this paper is to fulfil such academic gap by the identification of the open innovation strategies effects on firm´s innovative performance, measured by the share of innovative sales. The partners and objectives of cooperation were the main open innovation strategy used for the estimations. The analysis was made taking into account three different novelty levels of innovations. We conducted the analysis with a sample of 1404 Colombian agrifood industries, finding that in early stages of the innovation process the main strategy of open innovation to impact firm´s performance is to cooperate with suppliers. Meanwhile, at a radical level, cooperation with the objective of R&D is the key OI strategy to improve the innovative performance

A Balanced Theory of Sourcing, Collaboration and Networks

In a synthesis of recent advances, this article gives a fresh, balanced theory of inter-organizational relations. It integrates competence and governance perspectives. It considers the choice between mergers/acquisitions and alliances. It offers a toolbox of instruments to govern relational risk, and the contingencies for their selection. Relationships can last too long. Therefore, the article also looks at how to end relationships. Beyond dyads of collaborating firms, it includes effects of network structure and position.corporate governance;inter-organizational relations;organizational behavior;inter-firm alliances;collaboration

Network Competence and Open Innovation Behaviour in the Food Sector: An Empirical Investigation

In today business world where knowledge and resources are increasingly spread among organizations, enterprises often develop a wide variety of relationships with other organizations in order to access new technologies, know-how and resources. Increasingly, the use of external resources for innovation – also referred as inbound open innovation in literature – is seen as a key factor to remain innovative and hence competitive. While the impact of open innovation on the firm’s innovativeness and performance has received quite some attention by scholars, the mechanisms that push firm to open up their innovation process remain under investigated. The aim of this paper is to contribute to fill in this gap by developing and testing empirically a research framework on the firm specific factors impacting the firm’s degree of openness. In order to reach the research objective, an extensive literature review was performed based on which several research hypotheses were developed. A web-questionnaire was then designed and distributed to the CEOs of food SMEs in Europe. A major result of this study is that network competence – defined as the firm’s ability to establish and use relationships with other organization – drives the firm’s openness in terms of ambidexterity (i.e. new versus existing relationships) and breadth (number of external sources or search channels that the firm relies upon in its innovative activities)

Urban food strategies in Central and Eastern Europe: what's specific and what's at stake?

Integrating a larger set of instruments into Rural Development Programmes implied an increasing focus on monitoring and evaluation. Against the highly diversified experience with regard to implementation of policy instruments the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework has been set up by the EU Commission as a strategic and streamlined method of evaluating programmes’ impacts. Its indicator-based approach mainly reflects the concept of a linear, measure-based intervention logic that falls short of the true nature of RDP operation and impact capacity on rural changes. Besides the different phases of the policy process, i.e. policy design, delivery and evaluation, the regional context with its specific set of challenges and opportunities seems critical to the understanding and improvement of programme performance. In particular the role of local actors can hardly be grasped by quantitative indicators alone, but has to be addressed by assessing processes of social innovation. This shift in the evaluation focus underpins the need to take account of regional implementation specificities and processes of social innovation as decisive elements for programme performance.

CONOCIMIENTO INCORPORADO Y VÍNCULOS INTERSECTORIALES. APROXIMACIONES MEDIANTE EL ANÁLISIS INPUT-OTPUT

Esta tesis doctoral tiene por objetivo el estudio de la actividad innovadora de los sectores económicos desde la perspectiva de los vínculos tecno-productivos que se establecen entre ellos. Dentro de este objetivo general, cobra una destacada importancia el territorio en el cual se encuentran estos sectores, siendo España y la Comunidad Valenciana los casos analizados. Ante estos objetivos, se plantean las siguientes preguntas que guían la investigación: a) ¿Qué rol desempeñan los servicios empresariales intensivos en conocimiento en la generación y difusión de innovación en el sistema económico? ¿Qué contribución cuantitativa realizan tales sectores al sistema de creación y generación de conocimiento? b) ¿Cuáles son los patrones de innovación de sectores menos intensivos en conocimiento, clasificados típicamente como tradicionales, pero con gran arraigo e influencia territorial (en particular el sector agroalimentario)? ¿A qué fuentes recurren con mayor intensidad cuando el territorio presenta también bajas intensidades tecnológicas o baja capacidad de absorción (la Comunidad Valenciana)? c) ¿Qué patrones de innovación se corresponden con distintas capacidades sectoriales para crear nuevas empresas? O en otras palabras, ¿el patrón de generación/absorción de conocimiento de cada sector afecta a su capacidad para crear nuevas empresas? Para dar respuesta a estas preguntas se ha utilizado el enfoque del "embodied knowledge". Esta aproximación permite mensurar el conocimiento "incorporado" en los productos y servicios que cada sector utiliza como inputs en sus procesos productivos y que indirectamente contribuyen a su propia intensidad o esfuerzo tecnológico y de innovación. La metodología implementada puede sintetizarse en la idea de que el mayor o menor grado de esfuerzo innovador en un sector no solo estará determinado por su propio gasto en actividades innovadoras, sino también por el gasto que sus proveedores realizan en estas actividades.Alba, MF. (2012). CONOCIMIENTO INCORPORADO Y VÍNCULOS INTERSECTORIALES. APROXIMACIONES MEDIANTE EL ANÁLISIS INPUT-OTPUT [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/15181Palanci