Firm-level innovation and efficiency in the food sector: Insights from a literature-based innovation output indicator

Innovation activity is commonly regarded as one prerequisite for the competitiveness of food manufacturers. However, new product introductions typically face a high failure rate, which frequently deprives food manufacturers of returns on new product developments. Accordingly, existing empirical evidence on the effect of innovation activity on firm performance is not unanimous in the food sector. In this study, we explore contemporaneous and lagged effects of product and process innovation on production efficiency of dairy processors in the German market. Endogeneity of innovation variables and production inputs is accounted for by instrumentation using a System GMM approach. While we find no positive effect of patents or the number of new product launches on efficiency, we find a consistent positive effect of successful new products on the dairy processors’ technical efficiency. On the methodological side, our results confirm the relevance of the literature-based innovation output indicator as a differentiated measure of product innovation suitable for measuring the innovation effect on firm performance. Regarding innovation management in the food sector, the results highlight the challenge related to high failure rates of new products in the food sector and emphasize the importance of new product quality for business performance.