Disentangling Innovation in Small Food Firms: The role of External Knowledge, Support, and Collaboration

Sofia Wixe, Pia Nilsson, Lucia Naldi and Hans Westlund
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Lucia Naldi: Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership (CeFEO ), Jönköping International Business School, Sweden

No 446, Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation from Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

Abstract: This paper applies unique survey data on innovation and external interaction of small food producers in Sweden. The overall purpose is to test if firms that are more engaged in external interaction are more innovative. To disentangle innovativeness beyond new goods and services, innovation is measured as new processes, new markets, new suppliers, new ways of organization, and new distributors. Findings point to a positive relationship between firm innovation and external interaction, both in terms of collaboration, external knowledge and support from regional actors. In particular, collaboration regarding transports and sales is shown to enhance most types of innovation. Product and process innovation benefit from external knowledge from extra-regional firms as well as regional support from the largest firm. Findings suggest that current innovation policies can improve their efficiency by increasing their flexibility to enable tailor-made innovation policies at the local level.

Keywords: Innovation; collaboration; food industry; rural regions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L25 L66 O31 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2017-01-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-agr, nep-cse, nep-ent, nep-geo, nep-ino, nep-knm, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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