Sources of technological development in the spanish food and drink industry. A ?supplier-dominated? industry?

Abstract

This article analyses the sources of technological change in the Spanish food and drink industry (F&DI). The increasing importance of technical change has called for a better understanding of the innovation process and sources of technical advances in particular. The article examines the generally accepted view of the F&DI as a “supplier-dominated” industry. Empirical results show the important contribution of national and foreign suppliers of machinery and equipment to the Spanish F&DI's technological level. However, Spain F&DI's reliance on externally generated technology has brought about low levels of technological autonomy in general, and process technology in particular. Logistic regression analysis underlines the importance of in-house technological capabilities in innovation, and thereby the problems an industry faces if it largely relies on external sources of technical change as opposed to internal developments. [Econ-Lit citations: L660, O300, O300] © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.