Has Open Innovation Taken Root in India? Evidence from Startups Working in Food Value Chains

Chandra Nuthalapati and Chaitanya Nuthalapati
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Chaitanya Nuthalapati: Fintech Professional

Circular Economy and Sustainability, 2021, vol. 1, issue 4, 1207-1230

Abstract: Abstract Open innovation represents a paradigm shift in the technology development process in the New Millennium with potential positive implications for helping the food system in addressing grand challenges formalized through the SDGs. Though evidenced mainly in technology-intensive sectors of developed countries, several ‘erosion factors’ and their interplay catalyse open innovation in relatively traditional sectors of developing countries. The rise of startups with supplementary venture capital industry is hypothesized to play this role in the Indian food system. Our paper examines this hypothesis by leveraging a large database of startups. Several types of startups have come up in the last decade and are introducing innovations, apart from filling the gaps in the food value chains in infrastructure-deficit regions. It classifies the startups working in food value chains based on the main purpose of each of its functioning, though there can be several interventions at different nodes of the value chain and overlap of functions. The interconnections between startups themselves and their business partnerships with input companies, processors, aggregators, traders, hotels and restaurants, supermarkets, e-commerce companies, research organizations, various governments, international institutions like the World Bank and various crop associations like the tea growers association constitute a complex web. The knowledge flows are both outbound from the startups to the companies and other actors and sometimes in the opposite direction as well as bi-directional. These fast expanding knowledge flows have brought several innovations that could not be imagined just a few years back in developing countries. The emergence of open innovation bodes well to food value chain flows and to harness the higher level of technologies. There is a need to internalize these innovations in the national food policy for addressing issues of inclusion. The paradigm shift also calls for rigorous research on the business models and collaboration and licensing agreements between companies, universities, and governmental agencies.

Keywords: Open innovation; Startups; India; Food system; Knowledge flows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s43615-021-00074-5

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