Innovation in the Dutch food processing industry

This paper presents the results of a study that assesses innovation in the Dutch food processing industry, conducted in nine leading prospector companies with headquarters or major operations in the Netherlands. A 52-item research questionnaire, based industrial organization theory and the Resource-Based-View, was designed for this study, including quantitative questions on business performance, and innovative input and output, and qualitative questions about competitive pressure and quality of the innovation process,. The results show that the majority of the participants indicate that innovation is extremely important for the long-term survival of their firms and that there is much room for improvement. The R&D-marketing gap is still one of the most important barriers to overcome, while the potential of open innovation, Key Performance Indicators, the possibility to learn at the end of each innovation project, and incentives to stimulate creativity are underutilized in almost all of the participating companies.