Innovation behavior of Salvadoran food & beverage industry firms

Abstract

This paper presents a quantitative analysis about the external and internal determinants that affects the innovation dynamics of a low-tech sector in a less developed economy, the food & beverage (F&B) industry in El Salvador. The empirical framework relies on a multivariate probit analysis applied to data from the 1st National Innovation Survey 2013 of El Salvador. The results are useful to understand the specificities of low-tech sectoral systems of innovation in a less developed economy, the role that science, technology and innovation public policies can play in the Salvadoran agro-food innovation system and the managerial implications of external and internal innovation determinants in the case of Salvadoran F&B industry firms.

Keywords

• Sectorial innovation system
• food & beverage industry
• El Salvador
• multivariate probit model
• Innovation determinants