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This paper aims to identify the winning combination of innovation capabilities for selected Brazilian agribusiness firms along different value chain links.

Adopting a quantitative approach, the authors analyzed the relationship between innovation capabilities and innovative performance of 300 agribusiness firms through a multi-regression technique.

The results showed that transaction, management and development capabilities can improve agribusiness firms’ performance in underdeveloped value chains.

For future research, the authors recommend analyzing further links such as traders and retailers to find the innovation capability for the entire agribusiness value chain.

Upstream firms should adopt new management techniques and tools, efficiently using their resources, while downstream firms should absorb and transform new technologies into products and processes.

The authors suggest formulating public policies that propose the recombination of innovation capabilities to organize agribusiness firms and avoid commodity-oriented market dependence.

The literature on agribusiness explains innovation at the chain level, based primarily on scientific advancements rather than on innovation at the firm level. In this sense, this study provides empirical evidence that can help boost innovation in agribusiness firms.

This paper aims to discuss the dynamic interactions among knowledge management, strategic foresight and emerging technologies, resulting in a framework that can help companies to shape these interactions for achieving positive outcomes.

This conceptual paper is based on prior literature streams, which were interrelated through an abductive research process. This iterative conceptualization approach led to the formation of testable propositions that advance the understanding on the interactions among knowledge management, strategic foresight and emerging technologies.

The framework demonstrates the existence of an actions cycle between strategic foresight and knowledge management through a constructivist perspective, where one can improve the other. These interactions can be useful both for the development of emerging technologies and for identifying these innovations in market that can be applied in companies. Hence, all these dynamic interactions do not point to a hegemonic relationship of one construct over the others, but for the value equality among them.

Although current literature points to the existence of relationships among knowledge management, strategic foresight and emerging technologies, the dynamism inherent in these interactions as well as their positive effects for companies’ results are not properly discussed. This paper fills such a gap and proposes directions for future research.

The paper presents a framework – the Dynamic Chain of Innovation – to analyze the dynamics of innovation in agribusiness.

The authors adopt a theoretical review in developing the theoretical framework.

The boundedness of economic agents will not simply be complemented by acquiring any missing asset or resource on the market. In a more complex way, complementarity occurs through collaborative relationships, aimed at developing specific solutions, joint development, special orders, interaction with research institutions, among others.

Given the theoretical nature of the study, it requires further development with empirical data that support the propositions made as future studies.

The dynamic chain of innovation framework starts from the very existence of incomplete economic agents. However, the authors sustain that the incompleteness is the result of bounded innovation capabilities in individual agents. Innovation, rather than emerging from simple market relations, ought to happen from relations established among bounded capabilities of incomplete agents along the chain or within the micro-links as a puzzle. The dynamics of innovation is thus based both on the boundedness and the complementarity of firms.

In a context where the process of creation of technology and innovation for agriculture is being disrupted at a fast pace, the authors proposed to study one of the most prominent agtech innovation ecosystems. Therefore, this paper aims to identify key characteristics that make California’s agtech innovation ecosystem remarkable.

The paper is an exploratory and descriptive research carried out in a twofold. First, data were collected through documental research focusing on actors such as universities, R&D centers and programs, business accelerators and venture capital platforms, agtechs, as well as multinational companies. Second, structured interviews were carried out to complement the secondary data collected and to obtain experts’ perception on the relationships between actors of the ecosystem and on the characteristics that make this ecosystem remarkable.

The paper provides empirical insights about the relevance of California's agtech innovation ecosystem to creation of radical innovations in agriculture. It has a differentiated environment, where educational and research institutions play a key role in developing new knowledge. It also shows how important funding is to allow new business to succeed. Additionally, it shows that actors interact in a complex network, with multiple roles. All these key characteristics allow this agtech innovation ecosystem to be so remarkable.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to survey a larger number of actors of this and other agtech innovation ecosystems to test the identified key characteristics further.

The paper includes indication of characteristics necessary to develop a prominent agtech innovation ecosystem, which may contribute to decision makers to develop policies aiming to promote this type of ecosystem.

This paper fulfils an identified need to open the “black-box” of agtech innovation ecosystems, which may then allow radical innovations within the sector to be developed and taken to the market.

This is a story of collective resilience. In a two-week task force, our group of Associate Professors created the SOS-MSME project, an advisory network to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises suffering the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost 1,000 people, including staff, students from different university, faculties, alumni, and professionals from the community engaged in this project supporting more than 200 entrepreneurs. It has helped our community, but also ourselves generating a new challenging academic path integrating service, research and teaching.