Innovation and sustainability in agri-food companies: The role of quality

Usually the agri-food system is seen as a field characterized by low research and development expenditure, owing to its generally recognized nature of mature and relatively low technology industry, but changes in international competitiveness have now provided strong incentive to innovate, both for small and medium-sized enterprises and big companies. Regards to quality, studies focused on innovations are related to aspects such as novelty, variety, processing, origin, convenience. The aim of the work is to understand if the innovation in products’ quality and sustainability can help the success of agri-food enterprises on international markets. The used methodology is a prevalently qualitative direct investigation in two important companies, which are a symbol of Italian and French agri-business respectively and an example of a business model related to innovation and sustainability in quality. Even if it is possible furtherly to investigate in this matter, the study underlines the main role of innovation in sustainable food quality and its capacity to help enterprise to win in the modern global competition.

Gli odierni cambiamenti nella competitività internazionale hanno dato un forte incentivo a innovare, non solo alle grandi aziende, ma anche alle piccole e medie imprese. Lo scopo del lavoro è quello di capire se l’innovazione in termini di qualità e di sostenibilità dei prodotti può aiutare il successo delle imprese agroalimentari sui mercati internazionali. La metodologia utilizzata è l’indagine diretta qualitativa in due importanti aziende, che sono un simbolo dell’agrobusiness italiano e francese rispettivamente, nonché un esempio sintomatico in termini di innovazione mirata all’incremento di qualità e sostenibilità dei prodotti alimentari. Lo studio, suscettibile di ulteriori approfondimenti, evidenzia il ruolo principale dell’innovazione ai fini di una qualità alimentare sostenibile e il suo contributo nell’aiutare un'impresa a vincere nella moderna competizione globale.

Parole chiave:Competitività, consumatore, marketing, multinazionale, sicurezza, strategia.

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Flavio Boccia, Daniela Covino, Innovation and sustainability in agri-food companies: The role of quality in "RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA'" 1/2016, pp 131-141, DOI: 10.3280/RISS2016-001010