Towards an appropriate comprehension of innovation sources in agrifood cooperatives

The existing typologies of innovation sources rely on classification criterions which are excessively generalist and developed under the consideration of private owned organisations. The present paper seeks to shed light on the special structural and operative features of agrifood cooperatives demanding a more comprehensive classification of innovation sources. A sample from the agrifood cooperative industry was selected as the scenario of the empirical research. Findings reveal a classification proposal of innovation sources into four differentiated groups (managers, technology, market and normative context) with regard to the management orientation of change (strategic vs. technical/legal) and the strength motivating the innovation (internal vs. external).