Responsible Innovation

An early paper from the research by the Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit funded by the Endeavour Fund and by the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge was presented at three conferences in 2016. It was then submitted to a special issue of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Review devoted to responsible innovation in the agri-food sector. This was edited by Professor Vincent Blok, Associate Professor Victor Scholten and Associate Professor Thomas B. Long.

The article was written by Paul Dalziel, Caroline Saunders, Associate Professor Peter Tait, Dr John Saunders, Dr Sini Miller (now at Stats NZ), Meike Guenther, Paul Rutherford and Tim Driver. Its title is Rewarding responsible innovation when consumers are distant from producers: Evidence from New Zealand. The Abstract is as follows:

The concept of ‘responsible innovation’ is the subject of an expanding literature. As Vincent Blok and colleagues have recently analysed, practical issues undermine the adoption of responsible innovation in industry. These issues are intensified for agri-food producers who export a large proportion of their production to distant consumers, as is the situation in New Zealand. 

Even in this case, however, this study reports evidence that final consumers of agri-food products in five of New Zealand’s key export markets value credence attributes produced by responsible innovation and that this has the potential to increase returns to the country’s domestic producers. A national movement of New Zealand agribusiness leaders is pursuing this vision, but further research is needed to understand how responsible innovation can operate in global agribusiness value chains.

The full article can be read here [external link].