Abstract
Adaptability has emerged in management/entrepreneurship literature as a business strategy to innovate, perform, and respond in a flexible manner to ever-changing contexts. Contemporary culture blurs boundaries between physical, biological, and digital domains, accelerating what entrepreneurship in sectors such as agri-food contributes to societal-scale solutions to problems at the convergence of social and commercial activities. In this study, we build upon the adaptability of biological systems to propose an approach to innovation, anchored in a tight, dynamic alignment between the strategic DNA of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the contexts in which they evolve. Our model employs interviews and supporting archival research on the health-promoting innovation practices of 37 SMEs in the agri-food sector. A two-year, single firm analysis illustrates its relevance and operational feasibility. Evidence suggests that the strategic DNA of SMEs, seen through the entrepreneurs’ identity, informs behavior at various stages of the innovation process and the enterprise’s evolution. Shifting identity prioritization is a reality, and interaction between entrepreneurial organizations and the environment is best understood as an interaction between the DNA of the entrepreneur/enterprise and the environment. This is valuable and will help agri-food and other SMEs to improve their ability to make the internal and external strategic adjustments required in a rapidly changing landscapes to create viable health-promoting food products.
Highlights
The most significant opportunities for business market development are linked to the most pressing challenges to overall well-being in the rapidly changing 21st century society
A slight majority of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were designed to pursue local or national niche markets (21 with 16/19 small and 5/18 medium), while others (16 with 3/13 small and 13/18 medium) targeted mass markets connected to national and international consumers. This is salient as the results suggest that most small firms are shaped by inventor identity, while most medium-sized firms have a combination of founder and developer identities [35]
The results of the first level analysis of the 37 health-promoting SMEs reveal some of the gaps that exist and prevent the agri-food sector from fully tapping into the possibilities of adaptive innovation
Summary
The most significant opportunities for business market development are linked to the most pressing challenges to overall well-being in the rapidly changing 21st century society (such as those related to green technologies or health-promoting innovation). Each comprises a set of interconnected, smaller components that cross boundaries between industrial (e.g., agriculture, food, transportation, healthcare) and societal (e.g., for-profit, non-profit, government) sectors. This presents an opportunity for strategic entrepreneurship to create value for individuals, organizations, and society [1]. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in sectors such as agri-food are seen by consumers and society as key drivers for societal-scale solutions to challenges and possibilities at the convergence of social and commercial activities [6,7,8]. Challenges are manifold as only approximately half of them are still operating after the first three years from initial setup [12]
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