Supporting innovation through a multi-level platforms approach: A case study of the South African fresh fruit industry

Abstract

Agricultural innovation platforms have become recognized as a key mechanism through which to stimulate innovation for inclusive development (I4ID) by serving as a space for agricultural stakeholders to engage, and to develop and diffuse agricultural innovations. This study investigates how an agricultural innovation environment is created through a multi-level platform. Through grounded theory methodology this article presents a conceptual management framework on the activities to establish and manage the functioning of agricultural multi-level innovation platforms based on the results of a systematic literature review. We then evaluate the credibility and conformability of the framework though analyzing the Fruit SA multi-level platform as a case study. The utility of this analysis for future work is to develop a more complete understanding of the functioning of multi-level platforms and their role in linking up value chain actors with the idea to support the development of such interventions in the future.