Cooperation as the Secret Ingredient in the Recipe to Foster Internal Technological Eco-Innovation in the Agri-Food Industry

Adrián Rabadán, Angela Triguero Cano () and Ángela Gonzalez-Moreno
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Adrián Rabadán: Higher Technical School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain
Ángela Gonzalez-Moreno: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: Although eco-innovation in the agri-food sector is receiving increasing amounts of attention, there is a lack of information about the specific conditions that encourage firms to develop eco-innovation strategies internally. Our empirical method relies on the data of Spanish firms operating in the agri-food sector, and uses the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Specifically, we identify the recipes of antecedent conditions that effectively foster the internal development of technological eco-innovation, and then we analyze whether differences exist in the internal development of product and process eco-innovations. The results show that different combinations of conditions can yield internally developed eco-innovation, but all of them indicate that cooperation with stakeholders is the key to fostering technological eco-innovation in this industry. This conclusion encourages the creation of policies and incentives to promote cooperation in order to improve the sustainability of the sector.

Keywords: eco-innovation; eco-product innovation; eco-process innovation; QCA; agri-food (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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