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This paper aims to identify the combination of innovation determinants driving the creation of innovative products amongst market leaders and market followers in food and beverage (F&B) firms.

This research is based on the case study methodology by using two types of data sources: (1) semi-structured interviews with industry experts and (2) in-depth interviews with managers. In addition, a questionnaire adapted from prior research was used to consider market and firm types.

Suggesting an integrated theoretical framework based on firm-based factors and market-based factors, this study identified a combination of determinants significantly impacting innovative products in the market. Specifically, these determinants are competition intensity and innovation capability (a combination of research and development (R&D) investment and marketing capabilities). The study also examined how these determinants vary depending on whether the firms are market leaders or market followers.

This research provides practical insights for managers working in the F&B industry by using case studies and exploring the determinants of developing innovative products. In doing so, suitable strategies can be selected according to the market and firm situations.

The originality of the study is shown by focussing on how different combinations of market and firm factors could be applied in creating successful innovative products in the food sector.

Introduction: Entrepreneurship and frugal innovation have emerged as critical drivers for addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a global context. The United Nations developed the SDGs to address social, economic, and environmental challenges, ranging from poverty and inequality to climate change and sustainable economic growth. Entrepreneurship and frugal innovation offer a unique approach to achieving these goals by promoting innovation, creativity, and sustainability in business practices.

Purpose: This chapter aims to examine the role of entrepreneurship and frugal innovation in achieving SDGs in a global context. This chapter seeks to identify how entrepreneurship and frugal innovation can contribute towards realising the SDGs and how these concepts can be leveraged to create sustainable and scalable businesses that promote sustainable development.

Methodology: In order to examine how entrepreneurship and frugal innovation contribute to the worldwide achievement of the SDGs, the chapter will use a qualitative research technique. The literature review will involve the qualitative analysis of both developed and developing countries on some specific sectors like transportation, education, health sector, and financial services.

Findings: Through analysing relevant literature, qualitative research, and related examples this chapter provides insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with promoting entrepreneurship and frugal innovation for achieving the SDGs in different contexts.

Practical Implications: The chapter aims to contribute towards a better understanding of the role of entrepreneurship and frugal innovation in achieving SDGs and to provide recommendations for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders on supporting and promoting these concepts globally.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore whether the nature of innovation is accumulative or radical and to what extent past year accumulation of technology stock can predict future innovation. More importantly, the authors are concerned with whether a change of policy regime or a variance in the quality of technology will moderate the nature of innovation.

The authors examined a dataset of 3.6 million Chinese patents during 1985–2015 and constructed more than 5 million citation pairs across 8 sections and 128 classes to track knowledge spillover across technology fields. The authors used this citation dataset to calculate the technology innovation network. The authors constructed a measure of upstream invention, interacting the pre-existing technology innovation network with historical patent growth in each technology field, and estimated measure's impact on future innovation since 2005. The authors also constructed three sets of metrics – technology dependence, centrality and scientific value – to identify innovation quality and a policy dummy to consider the impact of policy on innovation.

Innovation growth is built upon past year accumulation and technology spillover. Innovation grows faster for technologies that are more central and grows more slowly for more valuable technologies. A pro-innovation and pro-intellectual property right (IPR) policy plays a positive and significant role in driving technical progress. The authors also found that for technologies that have faster access to new information or larger power to control knowledge flow, the upstream and downstream innovation linkage is stronger. However, this linkage is weaker for technologies that are more novel or general. On most occasions, the nature of innovation was less responsive to policy shock.

This paper contributes to the debate on the nature of innovation by determining whether upstream innovation has strong predictive power on future innovation. The authors develop the assumption used in the technology spillover literature by considering a time-variant, directional and asymmetric matrix to model technology diffusion. For the first time, the authors answer how the nature of innovation will vary depending on the technology network configurations and policy environment. In addition to contributing to the academic debate, the authors' study has important implications for economic growth and industrial or innovation management policies.

Industry 4.0 has an inimitable potential to create competitive advantages for the apparel industry by enhancing productivity, production, profitability, efficiency and effectiveness. This study, thus, aims to assess the digitalisation level of the Tanzanian apparel industry through the Industry 4.0 perspectives.

A mixed-methods-based approach was deployed. This study deployed semi-structured interviews, document review and observation methods for the qualitative approach. For the quantitative approach, closed-ended questionnaires were used to ascertain the digitalisation levels and maturity level of the textiles and apparel (T&A) factories and small and medium-sized textile enterprises in Tanzania. The sample size was 110, with participants engaged through the purposive sampling technique.

Industry 4.0 frameworks evolved into practices mainly since 2011 in several service and manufacturing industries globally. For Tanzania, the findings indicate that the overall maturity level of the T&A industries is 2.5 out of 5.0, demonstrating a medium level of adoption. Thus, the apparel industries are not operating under the industry 4.0 framework; they are operating within the third industrial revolution – Industry 3.0 – framework. For such industries to operate within the fourth industrial revolution – Industry 4.0 – that is only possible if there is significantly well-developed industrial infrastructure, availability of engineering talent, stable commercial partnerships, demand from the marketplace and transactional relationship with customers.

This study’s limitations include: firstly, Industry 4.0 is an emerging area; this resulted in limited theoretical underpinnings in the Tanzanian perspectives. Secondly, the studied industries may not suffice the need to generalise the findings for the entire country, thus needing another study.

Although Industry 4.0 conceptual frameworks have been on trial in several industries since 2011, this is amongst the first empirical research on Industry 4.0 in the Tanzanian apparel industry that assesses the digitalisation levels.

The aim of this study is to discern the role of digital finance in driving rural industrial integration and revitalization. Specifically, it intends to shed light on how the deep development of digital finance can contribute to the optimization and transformation of the rural industrial structure. The research further explores the particular effects of this financial transformation in the central and western regions of China.

This research studies the influence of digital finance on rural industrial integration across 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2020. Utilizing the entropy weight method, a comprehensive evaluation index system is established to gauge the level of rural industrial integration. A two-way fixed effects model, intermediary effect model, and threshold effect model are employed to decipher the relationship between digital finance and rural industrial integration.

Findings reveal a positive relationship between digital finance and rural industrial integration. A single threshold feature was identified: beyond a traditional finance development level, the marginal effect of digital finance on rural industrial integration increases. These effects are more noticeable in central and western regions.

Empirical outcomes contribute to policy discourse on rural digital finance, assisting policymakers in crafting effective strategies. Understanding the threshold of traditional finance development provides a new perspective on the potential of digital finance to drive rural industrial integration.

It becomes a strategic option for enterprises to upgrade and improve supply chain efficiency (SCE) by promoting the digital transformation (DT). This study formulated a parallel mediation model to analyze the relationships among DT, supply chain transparency (SCT), supply chain agility (SCA) and SCE to reveal how DT affects SCE through the mediation of SCT and SCA.

Three paradigms, i.e. resource-based view (RBV), dynamic capability view (DCV) and structure-conduct-performance (SCP) were employed to address the parallel mediation effects. A total of 392 questionnaires (samples) from the port-hinterland supply chain in the DT pilot project of New Land-Sea Corridor in western China were collected, which was then applied to formulate a structural equation model (SEM) to verify the proposed hypotheses.

The results confirmed the existences of parallel mediating effects of SCT and SCA between DT and SCE. On one hand, the direct effect of DT on SCE is not significant when SCT and SCE plays jointly impacts on DT and SCE. On the other hand, SCT and SCA play a positive parallel full mediating effect of DT on SCE.

This study contributed to the literature on changing activities of SCE in DT processes. Specifically, it highlighted how DT leads to SCE via SCT and SCA activities. In addition, this study specified the conditions that the insignificant direct effect of DT has reflects on SCE, it is the time when SCT and SCE are jointly acting on DT and SCE.

By integrating insights from the RBV, DCV and SCP paradigms, this study clarified the mechanisms of DT on SCE, and provided insight on the role of SCT and SCA in the relationship between DT and SCE. The novelty of this study and the results extend the existing literature and provide implications for future research.

This study aims to identify research trends and technological evolution in the polymer three-dimensional (3D) printing process that can effectively identify the direction of technological advancement and progress of acceptance in both society and key manufacturing industries.

The Scopus database was used to collect data on polymer 3D printing papers. This study uses bibliometric approach along with network analytic techniques to identify and discuss the most important countries and their scientific collaboration, compares income groups and analyses keyword trends.

It was found that top research production results from heavy investments in research and development. The USA has the highest number of papers among the high-income countries. However, scientific production in the other two income groups is strongly dominated by China and India. Keyword analysis shows that countries with lower incomes in certain areas, such as composite and bioprinting, have fallen behind other groups over time. International collaborations were suggested as mechanisms for those countries to catch up with the current research trends. The evolution of the research field, which started with a focus on 3D printing processes and shifted to printed part designs and their applications, was discussed. The advancement of the research topic suggests that translational research on polymer 3D printing has been led mainly by research production from higher-income countries and countries with large research and development investments.

Previous studies have conducted performance analysis, science mapping and network analysis in the field of 3D printing, but none have focused on global research trends classified by country income. This study has conducted a bibliometric analysis and compared the outputs according to various income levels according to the World Bank classification.

Engaging suppliers in joint innovation can be an effective means for buyer firms to overcome internal resource/capability limitations. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impacts of cultural and trust congruences between the supplier and buyer firms on joint innovation. In addition, we examine the relationship commitment as an antecedent of cultural and trust congruences.

The study constructs a theoretical model based on social exchange theory (SET) and examines it using data from Chinese manufacturing firms.

The results suggest that cultural and trust congruences between suppliers and buyers positively influence joint processes and product innovations. Furthermore, we find that while normative relationship commitments of supplier firms promote cultural and trust congruences with buyers, instrumental relationship commitments only positively affect trust congruence.

This study enhances our understanding of social exchanges by adopting a dyadic view to examine the interconnectedness between relationship commitment, cultural and trust congruences, and joint innovation. These findings also offer practical managerial implications for managing collaborative innovation projects.