Knowledge Sources for Sustainability-Oriented Innovation in Food and Beverage Manufacturing Companies: A Study from Colombia

Carvache-Franco O.; Carvache-Franco M.; Carvache-Franco W. · Lecture Notes on Multidisciplinary Industrial Engineering (2026) · DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-21853-7_30

Resumen

Food and beverage industrial companies are important for sustainability because they provide the food of the present and future, so these companies need to innovate products and processes to achieve sustainability and knowledge and collaboration is important to achieve sustainability-oriented innovation. This research examines the innovation of sustainability-oriented products in these companies, examines the relationship of knowledge sources (internal, customers, suppliers, competitors, consultants and universities) and how the knowledge of each source is related to product innovation oriented to sustainability. It is a quantitative research, using data from the Colombian innovation survey, of food and beverage industrial companies that have sustainability-oriented innovation objectives. The results indicate that the internal sources of the company and competitors are the sources whose knowledge is related to product innovation oriented to sustainability. This research has theoretical implications because it shows the strategies in using knowledge sources that these companies carry out to innovate oriented towards sustainability and has practical implications for administrators and managers of companies in the food and beverage industries that need to design strategies for their companies to innovate oriented towards sustainability. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.

Instituciones: Universidad ESAN