Abstract

Although innovation is considered as the critical factor to improve economic performance for food firms, the empirical evidence from developing countries is still scarce. To fill the gap, this study takes advantage of linear regression method to conduct empirical analysis of 62 food manufactures from Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange of China over the period 2013-2014. The results show that R&D spending has a positive effect on the performance of food enterprises. However, the scale-effect is more important than R&D spending for food industry in the context of China. These results enrich current understanding of innovation in the food industry and give practical implications to policy makers and firms to guide their R&D activities.

Keywords:

Empirical study, food manufactures, innovation, listed company, R&D,

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Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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