Knowledge management and open innovation in agri-food crowdfunding

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and successful open innovation within agri-food businesses. This particular piece of research focuses on agri-food businesses which utilize crowdfunding platforms.

Design/methodology/approach

The research adopts a survey-based methodology, which is useful in enhancing the generalization of results. The final sample includes 80 cases for the analysis. The model and the hypotheses were tested through a hierarchical regression model.

Findings

This research assesses the importance of knowledge management capabilities for successful open innovation in crowdfunding for agri-food businesses. In particular, it emerged that IT-based knowledge exploitation capabilities are enablers of open innovation strategies. Additionally, it emerged that knowledge exploration capabilities can positively mediate the relationship between IT-based knowledge exploitation capabilities and open innovation in the context of agri-food businesses.

Originality/value

To the authors’ best knowledge, few researchers have explored this topic and, as such, there is a need to better conceptualize this intriguing phenomenon and to provide empirical evidence to support it.

Citation

Cillo, V., Rialti, R., Bertoldi, B. and Ciampi, F. (2019), "Knowledge management and open innovation in agri-food crowdfunding", British Food Journal, Vol. 121 No. 2, pp. 242-258. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2018-0472