Traditionally, the food industry has not been driven by technology. However, over the past decade, enormous changes have been introduced because of the changing demographics and evolving lifestyle of the consumer; the public health policies driving these lifestyle alterations; the growing fitness food market, which is a consequence of these changes; and the new aggressive posture taken by the food industry toward use of innovative technologies to satisfy consumer needs. This review is a brief description of the newer, nonbiotechnological food-science approaches that provide an unprecedented array of novel products to satisfy consumer preferences. These include engineered foods, aseptic processing, extrusion, hydroponics, intermediate-moisture foods, microencapsulation, supercritical-fluids extraction, and ingredient technology. Included under the last category is a brief description of fat substitutes that are likely to have a significant effect on the American diet.
In this paper, we examine how inter-firm partnerships impact long-term operating performance. With a global economy, rapid product cycles, capital constraints and advances in technology, firms seldom possess all the capabilities necessary to maintain and grow market share. Consequently, firms rely on a variety of partnerships. Theory suggests that firms enter such relationships to improve performance through access to new products, new markets, or new capabilities. Yet, relatively little is known about the long-term impact of collaborative arrangements such as alliances and established major customer relationships, although such dual partnership arrangements can have a major impact on the firms performance success. Our empirical results indicate that inter-firm partnerships affect operating performance, but the impact often depends on the industry, the nature of the firm, and the type of partnership.
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