Innovation Networks: A Tool for Food-Culture Preservation and Sustainability in the Era of Globalization

Abstract

The growing exposure to globalization, since 1990s, has initiated some significant alterations to the Lebanese economy, society, and culture. For the last two decades, it has been observed that international cuisines and eccentric menu items have been invading the local market and taking over ethnic and traditional cuisines, what threatens, if this trend continues, the identity of traditional cuisine and, consequently, the sustainability of local food culture. Departing from the case of Lebanon, this paper studies the impact of globalization on traditional cuisine and highlights the role of networks in sustaining local food culture. The findings of our empirical study revealed the necessity to modernize the traditional cuisine through a coordinated set of heterogeneous and professional actors who collectively take part in the process. The ability of these actors to innovate is found related to the organizational conditions of the networks to which they belong, and to the ability of these networks for innovation, what refers us to the concept of “innovation network” that we are proposing, through this study, as a solution to the dilemma of food - culture preservation and sustainability.