Abstract

This paper aims to identify the critical factors influencing product innovation in the food industry and explore
their roles in Chinese food company. It firstly identifies three key factors that impact on product innovation in
the food industry focusing on the literature review of innovative factors in the food industry and its
characteristics. Then enlightened by a case study of China Mengniu dairy company, the importance of each
factor is assessed which shows that in the Chinese food industry market research is most critical for product
innovation. Strategy is also the crucial factor and technology plays a comparatively weak role. The findings
indicates that the factors influening product innovation can be diverse due to target industry and its
characteristics. Therefore futher studies are encouraged to expolre the roles of factors crucial to product
innovation in other industries in China.

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