Food SMEs’ open innovation: Opportunities and challenges

I. Sam Saguy*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

SMEs are the backbone of most global economies providing around two-thirds of the total employment. To continue to thrive and gain a competitive advantage and benefit from the accelerated changes and disruptive innovation caused by the vast proliferation of digital technology, SMEs should enhance their efforts to embrace, implement, and practice open innovation (OI). The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed numerous changes that will have unprecedented impacts, and uncharted water steering to “new normal” will also affect SMEs. Emerging food start-ups and SMEs are facing enormous challenges and opportunities, mandating a paradigm shift, a new mindset, and practices for benefiting from open channels for knowledge and science, employing external technology, solutions, innovation cocreation collaboration with all the OI ecosystem stakeholders. This chapter reviews and highlights OI's present utilization, implementation, and opportunities for SMEs and start-ups in the food sector. The new normal and disruption in the marketplace highlight SMEs’ needs for a new paradigm shift and mindset and to embrace OI, novel strategies, business models, management roles, enhanced collaboration to cocreating a very prosperous future.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInnovation Strategies in the Food Industry
Subtitle of host publicationTools for Implementation, Second Edition
PublisherElsevier
Pages39-52
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9780323852036
ISBN (Print)9780323915526
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Agile
  • AgriFood
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Ecosystem
  • FoodTech
  • Open innovation
  • Quadruple helix model
  • Small and medium enterprises
  • Start-up
  • Strategy

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