Scaling sustainable technologies by creating innovation demand-pull: Strategic actions by food producers

Sanne Bor, Gregory O'Shea and Henri Hakala

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2024, vol. 198, issue C

Abstract: This research identifies the strategic actions that food companies take to foster sustainability transition by inviting innovations from the packaging industry. While much research has been devoted to the role of policy in creating the need for more sustainable products and services, little is known about the role of incumbent companies in scaling innovations that advance sustainability transitions. This study draws on data collected from food producers, food packaging producers, and food packaging material producers to investigate the role of food companies in scaling sustainable technologies by creating a demand-pull for packaging innovation. We illustrate five actions undertaken by food industry firms that help to scale up the technological innovations in food packaging. These are labeled (1) Signposting, (2) Demanding, (3) Incubating, (4) Orchestrating, and (5) Integrating. Our findings indicate that incumbent firms might not just work solely to protect their competitive positions but can also play a central role in scaling sustainable technologies by producing a demand-pull for innovation. The study also provides insights into how policy pressure on one socio-technical system (food production) creates pressure on another connected socio-technical system (packaging) to scale sustainable technologies through the supply chain.

Keywords: Scaling; Sustainability transition; Food packaging; Strategic action; Innovation demand-pull; Cross-system interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162523006261
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:198:y:2024:i:c:s0040162523006261

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122941

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 ().