Title: Inter-organisational innovation processes in the European food and drink industry

Authors: Ana Isabel Almeida Costa; Marco Greco; Michele Grimaldi; Livio Cricelli; Vincenzo Corvello

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, Catholic University of Portugal, Palma de Cima, 1649-023 Lisboa, Portugal ' Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via G. Di Biasio 43, Cassino (Frosinone) 03043, Italy ' Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via G. Di Biasio 43, Cassino (Frosinone) 03043, Italy ' Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via G. Di Biasio 43, Cassino (Frosinone) 03043, Italy ' Department of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering, University of Calabria, via Pietro Bucci, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende, Cosenza, Italy

Abstract: Although the food and drink (F&D) industry is Europe's largest manufacturing sector, few studies have explored its innovation activities so far. Starting from the widespread assumption that F&D manufacturers are supplier dominated 'à la Pavitt', we formulated hypotheses about their innovation activities. These were tested through Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests on data drawn from a sample of 54,088 manufacturing firms (7,301 of which operating in the F&D industry) in 14 European countries, participating in Eurostat's 2008 Community Innovation Survey. The results confirm the supplier dominated nature of F&D firms, although also show that some largely anecdotal assumptions about the F&D industry's pattern of innovation cannot be empirically supported.

Keywords: capital goods investment; CIS; community innovation survey; external R&D; food and beverage industry; food and drink industry; innovation activities; internal R&D; open innovation; R&D intensity; supplier dominated; research and development; inter-organisational innovation; Europe.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2016.078198

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2016 Vol.15 No.2/3, pp.191 - 208

Received: 30 Oct 2015
Accepted: 28 Feb 2016
Published online: 08 Aug 2016 *

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