Open Access
Did the global financial crisis impact firms' innovation performance? The role of internal and external knowledge capabilities in high and low tech industries
(Elsevier, 2018) Zouaghi, Ferdaous; Sánchez García, Mercedes; García Martínez, Marian; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
This paper examines the role exerted by internal innovation efforts and external knowledge assets as dynamic capabilities to overcome adverse economic conditions. Additionally, we examine the differential impacts of the financial crisis in high and low-tech industries. Using panel data of manufacturing firms in Spain for the period 2006–2013, our results show that maintaining strong internal and external knowledge capabilities enables firms to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis. Findings emphasize the value of human capital, by enabling internal capabilities, as a coping mechanisms in low-tech sectors during the financial downturn. Similarly, open innovation allows firms to minimise the resources limitations and risk surrounding innovation, particularly during the financial crisis. This study provides valuable insights to managers aiming to develop strong internal knowledge bases to remain competitive under uncertain financial conditions.
Open Access
The reformulation of a beef patty enriched with n-3 fatty acids and vitamin D3 influences consumers' response under different information scenarios
(MDPI, 2020) Beriain Apesteguía, María José; Gómez Bastida, Inmaculada; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Insausti Barrenetxea, Kizkitza; Sarriés Martínez, María Victoria; Ibáñez Moya, Francisco C.; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD
The objective of this study was to investigate the sensory acceptability and willingness to pay (WTP) for a beef patty elaborated with beef from a local breed that was enriched with nutritional ingredients (vegetable oil mixture and vitamin D3). The experiment was conducted under two information scenarios (blind; full: ingredients used to enrich the patties in n-3 PUFA and vitamin D3). An in-home use test was carried out by 180 consumers to study consumer liking of two low-fat beef patties (C: conventional, M: modified). There were no differences in color and odor for the raw patties (p> 0.05). The sensory parameters of the cooked patties were assessed as being similar (p > 0.05) regardless of the information scenario. The sensory parameters remained crucial criteria for product acceptance and repeat purchase. Consumers positively evaluated the M patty. The information provided to consumers on the composition of the product influenced the response of consumers. It was also observed that the higher the education level of the consumer, the higher their scores for M beef patties in the blind scenario. It is thus necessary to implement appropriate marketing strategies in order to highlight the nutritional properties of the modified patties, making them competitive ahead of conventional patties.
Open Access
Knowledge drivers, business collaboration and competitiveness in rural and urban regions
(Springer, 2020) García-Álvarez Coque, José María; Roig Tierno, Norat; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Mas Verdu, Francisco; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua, PI035 BINACS
Many rural regions are characterised by low technology-intensive activities. Their predominant focus is often on primary, agri-food, and natural resources and services sectors, and there is a competitive gap with respect to urban regions. The objective of this article is to determine the contribution of the innovation system to regional development, distinguishing between rural and urban regions. Qualitative comparative analysis was used to study 256 EU NUTS 2 regions. The analysis helped identify 'recipes' of drivers of regional competitiveness in rural and urban regions. These innovation recipes consist of varying combinations of private and public R&D expenditure, the presence or absence of top-ranked universities and the percentage of SMEs that collaborate in innovation activities. In rural regions, excellence in higher education combined with strong public and private R&D offers an important recipe for regional competitiveness. Alternative pathways include the presence of business collaboration as a driver of competitiveness.
Open Access
Comportamiento del consumidor navarro frente a los alimentos de nueva generación: alimentos transgénicos y alimentos funcionales
(Gobierno de Navarra, Departamento de Economía y Hacienda, 2003) Sánchez García, Mercedes; Barrena Figueroa, Ramo; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
El mercado alimentario está siendo sometido en los países desarrollados a profundos cambios tanto desde el punto de vista de la oferta como de la demanda. El principal objetivo de este trabajo se centra en el análisis del proceso de aceptación por parte de los consumidores navarros de dos nuevas categorías de alimentos basadas en la aplicación de nuevas tecnologías en la industria agroalimentaria: los alimentos transgénicos (OGM) y los alimentos funcionales. La principal fuente de información será una encuesta personal dirigida a sendas muestras representativas de los adquirentes de alimentos para el hogar residentes en Navarra y en Madrid, lo que permitirá la comparación de los comportamientos observados entre ambas Comunidades Autónomas diferenciadas de forma importante en su estructura tanto de hábitat como de consumo alimentario. Los resultados se iniciarán con la presentación de los principales cambios observados en las actitudes de los consumidores hacia la influencia de la alimentación en su salud. En segundo lugar, se tratará de medir el desarrollo potencial de estos mercados- alimentos transgénicos y funcionales- basados en el riesgo percibido o en la confianza percibida hacia estas categorías de productos. Desde el punto de vista metodológico fundamentalmente se realizan análisis multivariantes de carácter descriptivo tanto para resumir la información (análisis factorial), como para detectar los patrones de los consumidores (análisis cluster), con el fin de analizar las variables de comportamiento más relevantes en el futuro desarrollo de estos mercados. Para finalizar, se propondrán algunas sugerencias de actuaciones comerciales a realizar por los diferentes agentes de la cadena alimentaria para garantizar la seguridad del consumidor y se describirán las principales limitaciones y algunas posibles ampliaciones del estudio.
Open Access
Agri-food 4.0: drivers and links to innovation and eco-innovation
(Elsevier, 2023) Calafat-Marzal, Consuelo; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Marti, L.; Puertas, R.; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
Digital transformation affects all stages of the agri-food value chain. Digitalisation is being combined with innovations and eco-innovations to gain a competitive advantage and ensure greater sustained competitiveness. However, not all technologies have been implemented in the same way and at the same pace by the different companies in the agri-food sector. The aim of this research is to identify the internal and external drivers of digitalisation in agri-food companies and to develop a synthetic index to rank companies based on those drivers, before examining the relationship between the position in the ranking and innovation. The results reveal that the decisive drivers are management support and competitive pressure rather than external support from government policies or suppliers. Higher ranking companies in terms of the digitalisation process are more proactive in introducing product and radical innovations and are the most eco-innovative and thus sustainability-oriented. Finally, results show that the digitalisation of the sector is marked by the depth of technology implementation, specifically IoT, big data and artificial intelligence. Blockchain technology does not currently make a difference as it is not widely used.
Open Access
Business strategies, profitability and efficiency of production
(Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), 2013) Alarcón Lorenzo, Silverio; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
The strategy choices of market-oriented companies are a topic now under wide investigation in the analysis of business performance antecedents. The purpose of this study is to examine the outcomes of the combination of three different organizational strategies (market orientation, innovativeness and entrepreneurial orientation) on business performance indicators. Models using profitability and efficiency indicators are proposed with the specific aim of obtaining a deeper analysis of the relative roles played by each. The empirical work takes place in the agro-food industry in the Ebro Valley, one of Spain’s most competitive regions. The estimates from profitability quantile and truncated regressions of the efficiency scores reveal that market orientation has a positive effect on economic and productivity performance. The impact of pro-active, innovation-seeking, and risk-averse entrepreneurship is nevertheless more debatable, despite some influence of these entrepreneurial styles on observed performance values. This enables conclusions regarding the possibility of combining a market-oriented business culture with innovation and entrepreneurial activity with a view to obtaining business performance gains.
Open Access
Frequency of consumption and changing determinants of purchase decision: from attributes to values in the organic food market
(Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), 2010) Barrena Figueroa, Ramo; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
El creciente fenómeno de saturación, maduración y globalización de los mercados agroalimentarios, obliga a la oferta al diseño de innovadoras estrategias de actuación, con el fin de conseguir aceptables niveles de rentabilidad de sus negocios. Una de sus opciones potenciales es conocer en profundidad el comportamiento del actual y potencial comprador para adaptar las actuaciones comerciales a sus prioridades. Este trabajo, en este contexto, contribuye identificando el proceso de compra para compradores habituales y ocasionales de alimentos ecológicos. El análisis de dicho comportamiento del consumidor se realiza utilizando la metodología de Means-End Chain, que considera, además del interés por los atributos del producto, el conocimiento de sí mismos que tienen los compradores, y su implicación personal en el proceso de elección en alimentos ecológicos. Los resultados indican que las elecciones de compra difieren entre ambos grupos. Para los consumidores habituales los dos factores claves en la elección de compra son la salud y la buena valoración personal. Pueden, por lo tanto, estos aspectos de la persona ser utilizados tanto en el posicionamiento de mercado como en las actuaciones de diferenciación del producto, reduciendo las barreras del conocimiento que siguen limitando el desarrollo de este mercado.
Open Access
The impact of the territorial gradient and the irrigation water price on agricultural production along the first phase of the Navarra Canal in Spain
(Elsevier, 2023) Martínez Aldaya, Maite; Gutiérrez-Martín, Carlos; Espinosa-Tasón, Jaime; Ederra, Idoia; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD
Water is an issue in Spain, where it is generally scarce, and its availability is highly variable in different areas and times, particularly in agriculture, the main water consumer. Water pricing is one of the policy instruments used to control irrigation water use. However, specific contextual studies to provide greater details, understand farmers’ behaviour, and clarify the consequences and effectiveness of water pricing are generally unavailable. Here, we developed and applied a simulation model based on two Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) methods, which makes the model more robust, to better understand and quantify the impact of the north–south territorial gradient on farmers’ decisions concerning agricultural water pricing in the first phase of the Navarra Canal irrigation area in northern Spain. This model couples water use with rainfed and irrigated areas, farmer revenue, and labour. The results show spatial north–south variability in the 50 km of the first phase of the Navarra Canal. In northern and middle regions, when water prices are increased, rainfed crops are chosen to substitute irrigated crops due to abundant rainfall and a lack of the appropriate climate and soil to grow other crops. Meanwhile, southern regions depend mainly on irrigation and are more sensitive to water price increases. These very productive southern regions also show larger gross margins and paid labour values. In every canal region, with an increase of 0.1 EUR/m3 in the water price, economic losses can reach up to 400 EUR/ha. Meanwhile, an increase in water prices over 0 EUR/m3 leads to decreased water use per hectare.
Open Access
Geographical and cognitive proximity effects on innovation performance: which types of proximity for which types of innovation?
(Wiley, 2024) García Martínez, Marian; Zouaghi, Ferdaous; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
The purpose of the paper is to explore the multi-dimensional and intersecting nature of proximity to drive innovation performance. Applying a multidimensional proximity framework, the study provides a deeper understanding of the importance of substitution and overlap mechanisms in the relation between geographical and cognitive proximity dimensions in innovation performance. The paper further analyses the moderation effect of organisational innovation in this relationship. Multivariate analysis proves the interaction effects between geographical and cognitive proximity, where cognitive proximity both substitutes and complements geographical proximity. However, external knowledge search for innovation along proximity dimensions differs depending on the type of innovation. Our findings corroborate the proximity paradox caused by lock-in effects with the optimal level of proximity influenced by the interdependencies between proximity dimensions. This inverse U-shaped relationship is flatter for firms that have adopted organisational innovation. External knowledge linkages should be tailored to the favourable characteristic of proximity to enhance firm innovation performance.
Open Access
Effects of food-related health concerns and risk perception on the consumption frequency of fresh vegetables
(Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina), 2019) Adasme Berríos, Cristian; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Mora, Marcos; Díaz Osorio, José; Schnettler, Berta; Lobos, Germán; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
Consumir vegetales frescos sin duda trae beneficios a la salud, sin embargo, este tipo de productos también pueden contener elementos biológicos, químicos y tecnológicos que afecten la salud de las personas por falta de inocuidad de los alimentos. Con base en estudios previos, desarrollamos un modelo conceptual para explicar las principales relaciones entre la preocupación en salud ligada a los alimentos (FHC) y la percepción de riesgo (RP) sobre la frecuencia de consumo de hortalizas frescas (CFFV) desde el punto de vista de la inocuidad alimentaria. Se aplicó un cuestionario estructurado a 1028 consumidores en las zonas Centro y Centro Sur de Chile, donde se concentran los principales sistemas de producción agrícola del país. A través de un modelo de ecua-ciones estructurales se determinó el efecto moderador de RP sobre la relación entre FHC y CFFV, lo que significa que CFFV es menor si RP está presente en las mentes de las personas. Impactando el efecto directo de FHC en CFFV. Por último, los resultados sugieren que la reducción de los riesgos asociados con la producción y comerciali-zación de hortalizas frescas, mejorará la preocupacióndebe mejorar los sistemas de vigilancia de las hortalizas frescas comercializadas en el mercado local.