Determinants of innovation by agri-food firms in rural Spain: an MCA PLS-SEM analysis
Open Access
- 1 January 2022
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Brill in International Food and Agribusiness Management Review
- Vol. 25 (1), 103-119
- https://doi.org/10.22434/ifamr2021.0015
Abstract
The development of a sustainable rural world must have an innovative agri-food industry as one of its bases. This article offers a comprehensive analysis of the main drivers of innovation by small and medium agri-food companies in Spain. A combined multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is performed to identify the key factors among 63 indicators in the domains of the technology-organisation-environmental approach. The results suggest an open field of research. Positively related to innovation are firm capacities and financial resources. Moreover, agri-food firms innovate in products, processes or marketing in order to increase sales, enter new markets, or increase the quality of their products. On the contrary, most of these firms did not innovate to reduce costs or time of response, meet regulatory compliance or maintain employment. Authorities should be aware that smaller and younger agri-food firms face more restrictions to innovate, and firms feel public policies could help to meet market demand as a driving force of innovation. On the contrary, essential objectives of regional development such as environmental compliance and maintaining employment seem to depend solely on public action.Keywords
This publication has 35 references indexed in Scilit:
- External and Internal R&D, Capital Investment and Business Performance in the Spanish Agri‐Food IndustryJournal of Agricultural Economics, 2013
- Structural equation modeling and principal component analysis of gray matter volumes in major depressive and bipolar disorders: Differences in latent volumetric structurePsychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2010
- The impact of customer relationship management capability on innovation and performance advantages: testing a mediated modelJournal of Marketing Management, 2010
- New Firm Entry, Survival, and Growth in the United States: A Comparison of Urban, Suburban, and Rural AreasJournal of the American Planning Association, 2008
- Factors related to innovative output in the Dutch agrifood industryJournal on Chain and Network Science, 2006
- Adoption of computer based information systems: The case of dairy farmers in Canterbury, NZ, and Florida, UruguayComputers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2006
- Social Learning and Innovation at Retail Farmers' Markets*Rural Sociology, 2004
- Determinants of innovation in small food firmsEuropean Journal of Innovation Management, 2003
- Innovation as newness: what is new, how new, and new to whom?European Journal of Innovation Management, 2001
- Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach.Psychological Bulletin, 1988