Innovation in the food sector: Regional networks and internationalisation

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of regional networks in processes of innovation, in relation to internationalisation. The findings are drawn from a survey conducted in the food sector in the region of Meetjesland, Belgium. The initial aim was to find out which regional characteristics are strongly related to the innovation competence of the food sector, by applying discriminant analysis. The results pointed to two factors as being the most significant: firms are classified as having a stronger innovation competence when networking within the region, and when oriented towards the international market. This finding contains an apparent paradox, which is related to contemporary research pointing at the importance of the regional business environment for the firm's performance, but also at the benefit of internationalisation. In this paper it is argued that these theories are not contradictory, and that firms gain innovation competence by searching for external knowledge on different geographical scales. The results demonstrate that the innovators in the sample tend to be operating internationally and networking within the region. Both firms and policy makers can learn from this finding by acknowledging that the region is one of the geographical scales at which the firm can make a profit. Improving regional networks is therefore a way to gain innovation competence.