26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

Radical innovations are relevant in economic development and for the agribusiness, mainly in social development, among other factors, due to increased food consumption in the world. The number of enterprises that have adopted the concept of open innovation is on the rise, seeking research sources and development (R&D) in other organizations such as universities. Assuming that innovations generated from the University-Industry (U-I) relationship promote mutual benefits and benefits arising from a radical innovation in agribusiness cause major changes and benefits, this study investigated the potential of the effects of a radical innovation process via technology transfer (TT) U-I in the food industry. The study was based on the model of contingency effectiveness TT Bozeman (2000), expressive model in the TT study, which includes the description of the TT process by means of effectiveness of its effects. This is a case study in which the data collected from interviews with respondents of the process of the university and the receiving enterprise as well as documentary and bibliographical research were triangulated and analyzed qualitatively. The innovation studied originated from the discovery of a molecule that is able to retard the ripening process of certain pre-processed foods, extending their shelf life, preserving them and reducing their waste. Some peculiarities were observed, such as the distancing of the university from industry at the time of discovery. Various adjustments for the product to achieve the level of marketing were necessary, requiring the presence of researchers for an initial period at the company, something important for the marketing success. Some of the main findings of the case study that reflect on aspects to be observed in other TT studies involving radical innovations, mainly under the Bozeman model, are the direct link of the high degree of novelty of innovation with its success and the possible impacts on revenue and profitability to other elements of the productive chains. This is because a radical innovation has potential to create new business opportunities, downstream and upstream, with the emergence of new technological cooperation and even in TT, which may incur in the social-economic development with the improvement of quality of life and other beneficial indicators to society. Moreover, the prestige of the university to contribute effectively to the development of a radical innovation can be significant and the connection between the innovation to the agent (university) is inevitable. In addition to the increase of technical and scientific capacity, the communication capacity between members of the university and enterprises should also be further investigated.