Contenu du sommaire : Agile Innovation

The United-Nations named 2016 the International Year of Pulses to promote pulses for more sustainable agro-food systems. However, pulses are hampered by lock-in and new pulse food products are required. This study analyzed pulses-based food product innovations dynamics in some Western countries, in order to provide guidance for researchers and practitioners about the factors that promote and hinder those innovations. Combining literature from innovation economics and sociotechnical transition studies, we built comprehensive guidelines to explore the multiple aspects of those innovations, applied on twelve cases studies of French and Italian firms that introduced such products in France, Italy and the US. The results show that firms' strategies were first focused on product differentiation, without specific communication about pulses' benefits. Moreover, the findings revealed that there are still too few links between food processors and the agricultural sector to foster a sustainable conception of the agro-food chain.
JEL Codes: O300, L100, M300

The new EU agricultural policy aims to strengthen actors' capacities for innovation by taking into account the complexity of innovation processes. This paper characterizes the key innovation support services (ISS) that support actors in innovating. In the EU AgriSpin project, we analyzed 57 case studies describing innovation processes. We used a common grid to characterize ISS. Our results show that ISS depends on the phase of the innovation. During the initial phases, there is a need for innovative support services (e.g. network building, support for the innovator). In the latter phases, there is a need for more conventional services (e.g. training, credit) at farm, value chain and territory level. Brokering functions and new services are key to supporting actors to innovate by facilitating interactions for the co-production of knowledge, co-design of technologies, and identification of new institutional arrangements.
JEL Codes: Q10, O31, O32, O33, O35, O52

This research investigates the purchasing function issues that create value for companies and purchasers' proactive ability to appropriate innovation in the supplier market. The buyer represents a link between the needs of companies and the offers made by suppliers, based on their technical expertise. The goal of this research is to consider the purchasing strategy focused on innovative suppliers and highlight the importance of this interaction. For this purpose, an exploratory qualitative research was required. It was based on twelve semi-structured interviews and six months of active observation, built on two car rental companies. Results show the importance of an innovative culture within purchasing departments and its implementation at the fuzzy front-end purchasing process. As open innovation remains an important paradigm for innovation today, it is crucial to consider the buyer-supplier innovation challenge when the performance of innovative suppliers makes an impact on the companies.
JEL Codes: O14, L62, L84, N74

With open innovation gaining popularity, the question is how firms view its conceptualisation. This is of particular interest for those national economies that are patchy and consisting largely of small and medium-sized enterprises, as in Scotland. To solicit views of Scottish firms a focus group was organised centred on core themes of open innovation. Interviews with Scottish Innovation Centres complemented the focus group. The outcomes suggest that canonical views on ‘open innovation' prevail, particularly for collaboration, even though its opportunities are well-recognised. It also turns out that some Scottish companies hold myopic views on innovation, which could be an explanatory factor for the oft-discussed innovation gap in the United Kingdom. Most interestingly, our study also reveals the concept of open innovation is not always understood for what it covers; it is recommended that the term ‘open innovation' is redefined as ‘open collaboration' to better reflect its nature.
JEL Codes: O32