The Role of Large-Scale Retailers in Food Innovation : The Italian Experience in a 'Grounded Theory' Perspective

The interactions among Italian farmers and large-scale retailers affect food innovation proliferation and effectiveness. The retail dominant role in the chain results in a barrier to innovation activity arising from the farmers’ side. The effects that innovation may generate do not disclose whether the innovation content is not rightly conveyed to the consumer. The Grounded Theory approach allows to achieve the systematic conceptualization of the gathered evidences; the research problem is "modeled" through a code map by taking into account the relationships among the crucial categories