Networking and organisational innovation in agricultural co-ops : cases in sparkling wine and cereals

Organisational innovations have been less studied than other forms of innovations. They are nonetheless a crucial component of firms' innovations especially for the low-to-mid tech firms, e.g. in agriculture or in the food industry. In this research we focus on co-operatives active in such sectors. We have conducted three exploratory case studies on co-ops developing products with quality labels involving their network, partnerships and the strong link they have built with their members. This suggests that they have developed absorptive capacities and organisational innovations either in complement or as a substitute for technological innovations.