Innovation Effort in the Biotechnology Segment Applied to Plant Agribusiness

Introduction

Biotechnology applied to Plant Agribusiness (BPA) has become increasingly familiar in science, technology and the market. However, the intensity and determinants of the innovation effort in developed and developing countries account for a gap that has yet to be fully investigated. Since the 1980s, biotechnology has been applied to harvests and hailed as a biological evolution with the aim of staving hunger and poverty worldwide, as well as contributing to global food safety goals (Ho & Cheo, 2014). Consequently, biotechnology cultures have grown around the world, attracting the attention of researchers and practitioners regarding the innovation efforts of countries and their determining factors. For example, the United States and Brazil are world leaders in terms of cultivated areas using genetically modified plants (Chen & Guan, 2011; Ji, Barnett, & Chu, 2019).

Innovation effort refers to the intensity of generating technologies protected by patents within a country that may (or may not) result in innovations for the market. Thus, in segments that can impact the future, such as BPA, innovation effort can enhance the achievement and application of more efficient technologies (Petroni et al., 2012; Paulo, Ribeiro, & Porto, 2018) and, consequently, stimulate competitiveness in a country (Freel, 2005). Such an effort is sensitive to the country’s level of development and institutional issues (Solleiro & Castañon, 2005). Historically, developing countries tend to have a lower innovation effort compared with developed countries. Nevertheless, they need to innovate to remain competitive (Szogs, 2008). Consequently, some developing countries resort to pro-innovation policies to make some segments more innovative, integrated and competitive (Dau, 2013), such as BPA.

The literature contains factors that can determine the innovation effort of countries, such as the level of economic development, institutional quality, and the supply and demand structure (Kaufmann et al., 2011; Barasa et al., 2017; Wang, 2018), as well as international inclusion, technological cooperation and knowledge flow (Kannebley, Porto, & Pazello, 2005; Papazoglou & Spanos, 2018; Ji, Barnett, & Chu, 2019). It should be highlighted that the level of economic development and institutional quality of a country can stimulate innovative practices, reducing uncertainties and enabling technological cooperation and knowledge flow between different economic agents (Alonso & Garcimartín, 2013). On the other hand, countries with deteriorating economic and institutional conditions tend to face higher levels of uncertainty and opportunism, which can reduce their innovation effort and discourage technological cooperation and knowledge flow (Greif, 2006).

In addition to the economic and institutional challenges, in developing countries, resource constraints tend to be greater compared with developed countries (Trevino et al., 2008), making innovation costly. Thus, to share costs and join efforts in favor of technological development, many of these countries seek to stimulate technological cooperation and the flow of knowledge (Oslo Manual, 2005; Goedhuys et al., 2014). Based on technological cooperation, it is possible to identify the main participants and influencers of a given technology (Zhang & Tang, 2018; Ji, Barnett, & Chu, 2019). The flow between new and old knowledge from patent citations (Petroni et al., 2012; Abulrub & Lee, 2012), in turn, can accelerate the development of new patent-protected technologies. Therefore, technological cooperation and knowledge flow are essential elements for pro-innovation plans for countries with resource constraints and facing crisis situations.