Sustainability-oriented innovation and co-patenting role in agri-food sector: Empirical analysis with patents

Linda Ponta, Gloria Puliga, Raffaella Manzini and Silvano Cincotti

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2022, vol. 178, issue C

Abstract: This study investigates sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) in the agri-food sector, which is one of the most influential industries in a country, through empirical analysis involving patents. Specifically, the causal relationship between SOI outputs and economic performance in the agri-food sector, as well as the moderating role of co-patenting, are investigated. Economic performance is measured based on firms’ production value and EBITDA growth. SOI is evaluated using SOI patents, that is, patents that refer to SOI concepts, as defined in the literature. After a general investigation involving 1,938,355 patents (the number of patents in the agri-food sector from 2000 to 2019), the panel data regression models demonstrate that in the agri-food sector: (1) SOI outputs are related to economic performance, measured as production value growth and EBITDA growth, and (2) co-patenting moderates specific circumstances. Thus, the results confirm that economic performance and SOI outputs are linked. Moreover, to increase firms’ economic performance, it may also be important to increase the development of joint patents in the agri-food sector.

Keywords: Sustainability-oriented innovation; Patents; Longitudinal study; Open innovation; Agri-food; Co-patenting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162522001275
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:178:y:2022:i:c:s0040162522001275

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121595

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().