Networked innovation: a concept for knowledge-based agrifood business

Abstract

Research on innovation in agrifood business is looking for new perspectives and for new ways of implementing actual results and of combining different theoretical perspectives. To do so we propose the concept of ‘networked innovation’ to summarize what we consider as the core notions necessary to mobilize to understand the complex phenomena of innovation in modern agrifood knowledge-based businesses and economies. Firstly we summarize the theoretical backgrounds and propose our own definition of the concept, which is rooted in a processual treatment of knowledge creation and transformation that came out mainly from the relevant literature on organization theory, strategic management and knowledge management. Then the content of the notion is developed around three main items, which are: (1) the multilevel embeddedness of innovation; (2) the roles and forms of learning for innovation; (3) the becoming nature of innovation processes. In the concluding comments some implications of the research for agrifood business are proposed.