Certification and innovation in rose growers in Ecuador

Abstract

Consumers demand products which have low impact on the environment. Thus, companies aim to accredit their products or processes through socio-environmental management certifications, with the objective of demonstrating their concern in following technical and environmental standards. As a consequence, during the certification process, companies develop innovations, motivated by achieving this certification. This paper proposes to identify if companies which possess socio-environmental certification are more prone to innovate than those which have not adopted these accreditations. The research was conducted from an analysis of the quantity of cultivated varieties of roses – considered as an indicator of innovativeness –by means of 80 rose growing companies in Ecuador, divided in two groups: 52 companies with certification and 28 companies without certification. For this, we employed a t-test, comparing the number of varieties of cultivated roses by both groups. Results show that there is a significant statistical difference in favor of the group of companies which have adopted certification in relation to those which have not adopted, that is, companies with certification cultivate more varieties of roses than companies without certification. Thus, companies which opt for socio-environmental certification are more prone to innovate than companies which have not adopted these accreditations. The research presents a limitation related to considering, as indicator of innovativeness, the number of cultivated varieties of roses; however, this indicator does not reflect internal innovation efforts, such as management or processes.