Keeping your secrets public? Open versus closed innovation processes in the Hungarian wine sector

An effective innovation system is crucial for food companies to cope with competitive pressure. An important issue is whether to innovate by cooperating and sharing ideas or to innovate in-house. Thus the question is how to arrange external ties without compromising unique knowledge and assets. This is particularly controversial in the wine sector, where innovative marketing strategies have to be combined with “exclusive” and “secret” recipes. We use primary data on the Hungarian wine industry to study factors affecting the adoption of an open innovation approach. We find that both regional and company-specific factors affect the openness of innovation processes.