Building technologies to market: can network structure and resources explain innovation in agribusiness?

Abstract

An innovation network can be understood as a heterogeneous interorganisational model, in which stakeholders interact through a series of collective actions based on innovation. From this perspective, and following a review of the literature, this paper aims to determine the factors related to international interorganisational knowledge networks that contribute to the achievement of innovation. To test our theoretical arguments, the empirical work has focused on organisations in the agribusiness sector in Brazil and Spain. In terms of the methodological aspects, the research is qualitative in nature and has used crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA). The main conclusions we have drawn are the following: a) in the context of interorganisational knowledge networks, the ‘strength of the ties’ variable is decisive and sufficient to influence innovation; b) the ‘density’, ‘size’ and ‘configuration’ variables (agglomeration, power, contractual formalisation and directionality) of the networks are not sufficient on their own to explain innovative performance; and c) despite the vast body of literature pointing to territorial agglomeration (clustered networks) as a source of resources for networks, dispersed networks combined with other configurations with a different structure can generate innovations in knowledge networks.