Innovation in the Food Industry

Twelve food-manufacturing companies in six European countries have been studied with respect to the way in which they innovate, their motivations, and their emphasis on product or process innovation. It is suggested that the traditional demand-pull versus technology-push versus a mixture of both debate is too simplistic. Firms behave differently depending on their dominant orientations towards the product, the process, or the market, the types of market they supply (particularly whether they supply branded or private-label products), the nature of their ownership (public, private, co-operative), market size and scope, and company size. The suggestions of the case studies are, in general, supported by quantitative results from a survey of food manufacturers, though the survey was not designed specifically for this purpose and further quantitative model development is proposed. The findings reported in this article and the proposed refinements are important to firms and policy-makers concerned with the efficiency and effectiveness of food industry innovation [JEL Classification Codes: L100, L200, L660