The role of innovation intermediary organisations in forming value creating meetings: the agri-food firm perspective

The aim of this study is to explore the concept of value creating meetings that connect agri-food firms with other crucial actors with whom they can collaborate or co-innovate, and related to this, examine the role of innovation intermediary organisations in the forming of such value creating meetings. The research design involves three case studies of intermediary organisations, within the agri-food sector in Sweden, each with an adherent case of a value creating meeting. The method comprises data collected through documents, interviews and insider accounts. The findings include the notion that three factors – problem, professionals and platform – are important to combine in order to facilitate value creation. We also show that intermediaries play an important role in the value creation process and that this process could be summarised into four steps: problem recognition, contact creation, dialogue facilitation and value creation. We elaborate on the role of innovation intermediaries, give examples of how value creating meetings could be arranged and what such meetings can lead to in case of outcome. Practical implications for policy makers and agri-food business firms include that intermediary organisations can play an important bridging role in a complex and fragmented context, offering contacts, networks and value creating meetings for targeted actors. Intermediary organisations need to focus on forming value creating meetings, work actively across sectoral boundaries, and allocate adequate resources for mediating efforts.