Document Type

Theses, Masters

Rights

This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only

Disciplines

1.6 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Publication Details

Successfully submitted for the award of Masters of Philosophy (M.Phil) to the Dublin Institute of Technology July, 2011.

Abstract

To promote industry sustainability and to catalyze links between publicly-funded knowledge providers and companies, the Irish government has invested significantly in food-orientated research and development. This project aims to facilitate a greater understanding of the motivations and barriers influencing the decision by small and medium-sized food enterprises (SME) to invest in technological innovation, emanating from research conducted in publicly-funded organisations. A critical review of the literature was used to develop a framework for investigating the uptake of technological innovations from sources external to the company. In order to ground this framework within the specific context of the Irish food industry, a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with key food industry representatives (n=7). Building from the literature and exploratory interviews, a postal survey of Irish food SMEs was undertaken (n=399). A response rate of 31.8% (n=117) was achieved. An open innovation scale was constructed from measures of the perceived relevance of academia, support agencies and publicly-funded research. Results of t-tests for independence indicated that companies which showed a propensity towards open innovation were more likely to have performed product [F(1, 118)=3.9, p=0.05] and process [F(1, 111)=3.7, p<0.001] innovations in the last three years. The proclivity towards open innovation varied significantly across sectors, with the preparedconsumer goods (x̅=3.9, SD=0.61) sector scoring a significantly higher open innovation mean than the others sector i.e. beverage, seafood and fresh produce (x̅=3.4, SD=0.57). Issues arising from earlier research steps were further clarified in a number of followup, in-depth interviews, with representatives from SMEs (n=6). By understanding the barriers and drivers to industry uptake of publicly-funded food research, targeted supports can be constructed to facilitate technological innovation within food SMEs, and in doing so, maximise return from the States investment in food-orientated R&D.


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