Factores coadyuvantes de la innovación en las cooperativas agroalimentarias. Caso estudio de las citrícolas españolas

Abstract

Innovation has repeatedly been identified as a factor of companies’ competitiveness in the agro-food sector. It is of vital importance to study the aspects that improve competitive positions in the market, and in particular, applied to cooperatives. Few up to date studies have specifically addressed the study of internal resources in agro-food cooperatives and even fewer provide empirical evidence. The aim of this paper is to analyze innovation as a source of competitiveness, in particular, to study the factors that influence agrofood cooperative innovation. To do this, the impact of several factors such as market orientation, size, training and management profile and internationalization on innovation is studied. The data used are from a survey conducted to 45 Spanish citrus exporting cooperatives. Results show that a relationship between innovation and firm size, market orientation and the degree of internationalization exists. In addition, innovation is also related to the business profile of the manager but not related to level of education.