An overall indicator for assessing the innovation level in the dairy industry sector. The case of Greek dairy cooperatives

This paper attempts to empirically investigate the degree of innovation in dairy industries using an overall innovation indicator. Innovations were identified through the literature review. A questionnaire was distributed to industry experts who held senior positions in or were academically relevant to dairy industries, for evaluation. The innovations identified were grouped into six sections: production, marketing, dairy organisation, quality control, storage/distribution and milk zone. The integrated questionnaire was used to collect information on the adopted innovations from two cooperative dairy industries in Greece. An overall innovation indicator was applied to the six departments of each dairy industry and a degree of innovation was derived for each of them. The innovation indicator revealed that the marketing and quality control departments were more innovative. Besides, none of the cooperative dairies approached the maximum degree of innovation adoption in all six departments.