Innovation Effort in the Biotechnology Segment Applied to Plant Agribusiness

Abstract

Biotechnology applied to Plant Agribusiness (BPA) has become increasingly familiar. However, innovation effort determinants account for a gap that has yet to be fully investigated. Therefore, was examined the influence of technological cooperation and knowledge flow in the innovation efforts of countries. In methodological terms, 20,149 patents from the BPA sector were collected from the Derwent Clarivate database from 1998 to 2019. Regarding the main findings, it is worth highlighting the occurrence of greater innovation efforts in developed countries. However, from 2015 onwards, an increase in priority technologies was identified in developing countries, which then overtook developed countries in 2019. Finally, has been proven that technological cooperation has a positive effect on innovation efforts and that there is a tendency to generate new technologies with less reference to existing technological knowledge, perhaps as an avant-garde attempt to seek a competitive advantage, prioritizing new knowledge and, at the same time, technological distinction.