Cooperation as the Secret Ingredient in the Recipe to Foster Internal Technological Eco-Innovation in the Agri-Food Industry

Abstract

Although eco-innovation in the agri-food sector is receiving increasing amounts of attention, there is a lack of information about the specific conditions that encourage firms to develop eco-innovation strategies internally. Our empirical method relies on the data of Spanish firms operating in the agri-food sector, and uses the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Specifically, we identify the recipes of antecedent conditions that effectively foster the internal development of technological eco-innovation, and then we analyze whether differences exist in the internal development of product and process eco-innovations. The results show that different combinations of conditions can yield internally developed eco-innovation, but all of them indicate that cooperation with stakeholders is the key to fostering technological eco-innovation in this industry. This conclusion encourages the creation of policies and incentives to promote cooperation in order to improve the sustainability of the sector.

The analytic hierarchy process as an innovative way to enable stakeholder engagement for sustainability reporting in the food industry

“…These consumer demands are encouraging enterprises in the food sector to innovate. The literature points to three main determinants of eco-innovation (Rabadán et al, 2020): (1) the market pull that can occur when consumers are willing to pay more for green products (Li & Kallas, 2021); (2) regulatory actions, whereby policies (i.e. tax and regulatory incentives) encourage market change (Triguero et al, 2018); and (3) technological developments, which can occur either internally within a company or externally via collaboration (Rabadán et al, 2019).…”

Firm Growth as a Driver of Sustainable Product Innovation: Mediation and Moderation Analysis. Evidence from Manufacturing Firms

“…Sustainable product innovation, together with its determinants and consequences, has been widely studied in the literature [ 6 , 15 , 46 ]; however, there are still some firm variables that have not been brought to the forefront and that we think are important, e.g., firm growth. Although some efforts have been made to study financial resources as an antecedent of sustainable product innovation [ 22 ], firm growth as a driver of sustainable product innovation has not received attention in the literature. Thus, this study introduced firm growth, in terms of employees and turnover increase, as a driver for sustainable product innovation, contributing to the introduction of sustainable products in the firm.…”

“…However, as noted by Tariq et al [ 6 ], extensive research supports the notion that sustainable product innovation generally drives financial performance, but little efforts have been made to study financial performance as an antecedent of sustainable product innovation. For example, we found that Rabadán et al [ 22 ] studied the influence of financial resources and profit levels in the adoption of eco-innovation in the agri-food industry. Similarly, Azari et al [ 23 ] demonstrated positive and significant associations between the firm’s growth ambition and the pursuance of product and business model innovations in manufacturing and service sectors.…”

Sustainability Strategies and Contractual Arrangements in the Italian Pasta Supply Chain: An Analysis under the Neo Institutional Economics Lens

“…However, the scientific debate on sustainable innovations, more commonly defined as eco-innovations, has only developed recently [22,23] and studies on the agri-food sector are still limited. Overall, the literature has focused on the determinants of eco-innovations [24,25], identifying three main drivers: the market pull, the regulatory push/pull, and the technology push. Specifically, the increasing demand of citizen-consumers for sustainable products and their greater willingness to pay, represent a push for companies toward eco-innovations [3,[26][27][28].…”