Innovation management practices: analysis of small family farmers on the border of Brazil and Paraguay

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to focus on the innovation practices of small family businesses (rural farmers) living in border areas. Previous studies on small rural businesses have a low level of knowledge of innovation practices. The author acknowledges that technological innovation affects small farmers and it has a positive impact on the company’s performance. The proposal is to analyze the contribution of innovation practices in a group of small rural farmers that have similar characteristics in border countries. The potential for innovation management in the border business is also discussed.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothesis was approved with a sample of 71 small family farms and using a multiple linear regression model. This study examines those pointed 40 innovation management practices, on the border of Brazil and Paraguay in 2018. The practices were divided into five constructs, namely, strategy, processes, organisation, linkages and learning and was measured via the Likert Scale (1932) in which 1 is “not true at all” and 7 is “very true”.FindingsThe results show that small family farms are far from displaying constant management practices in innovation, as such, the author gives general recommendations for the small companies of this study.Research limitations/implicationsThe study relies on self-reported data and it does not have a longitudinal design.Practical implicationsAn important implication of this research study is that small rural organisations can become aware of the importance of generating innovation practices to achieve better long-term performance.Social implicationsKnowing whether border family farms are or have components of innovation management is a relevant issue for the generation of public policies aimed at improving the agricultural sector in the area. Borders often do not allow us to see the neighbors and the author ends up generating pre-concepts about all kinds of actions. However, the author sees in this study that there are common variables to develop a public policy of frontiers oriented to family farms.Originality/valueThe study innovates by including the same variables in the model (survey for both countries) and which can contribute to generating innovation practices in small border agricultural companies, where, clearly, the international norms and laws of each country influence each productive unit differently.