Abstract | Location-based resources are important factors in the entrepreneurial creation of wealth. This is as true in agriculture as it is in other industrial contexts. In this study, we are interested in how formal and informal institutions such as knowledge networks and localized ‘webs’ of influence act to facilitate or block innovation in the dairy farming industry. Our study of dairy farmers in Munster, Republic of Ireland (an intensive location for dairy farming), is located in a context in which there are policy-based interventions intended to improve the local economic environment. We are interested to know if these are effective, or if other factors within the institutional field are too strong and act to impede the take up of new ideas promoted within such initiatives. Our study uses neo institutional theory as the methodological lens through which we assess the interplay of structural factors within the field. Using interview accounts, we are looking for evidence of embedded institutional logics, interpretive schemas, knowledge blockages, and the role of formal institutions on the development of innovation within the field. Through undertaking a deep study of innovativeness in one locale, Munster, with the proviso that we use this as an illuminatory context and not one that is necessarily representative of a wider field, we contribute to an understanding of the influences on resistance to innovation in farming contexts, and to the wider theoretical field of agricultural economics. |
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