Há um novo contexto de crescimento demográfico, de acréscimo na renda em países emergentes, de urbanização, e consequentemente uma alteração no perfil do consumo de alimentos em relação à quantidade e qualidade. Acompanhando a tendência mundial, no Brasil ocorre uma mudança de hábitos da população do consumo dos alimentos in natura para os processados. O crescimento da demanda interna e externa pode representar grandes oportunidades para as empresas, mas também exigir um maior nível tecnológico, ou seja, inovação. Considerada como uma das principais fontes direcionadoras da competitividade empresarial, a inovação passa a ter um maior destaque em indústrias produtoras de alimentos, como a de derivados de trigo. O presente estudo buscou identificar os fatores que potencialmente influenciam ou determinam a inovação nas empresas da indústria de derivados de trigo no Brasil. Verificou-se que a maioria das empresas não está inovando. As que produzem ou adotam algum tipo de inovação são, em sua maioria, inovações de produto e novas somente para a empresa. O esforço das empresas em P&D está relacionado com a probabilidade da empresa inovar. O tamanho da empresa, a existência formal de um departamento de P&D, uma maior integração na cadeia produtiva e a atenção voltada aos sinais de mercado foram determinantes para a intensidade inovativa das empresas. Pode-se afirmar que as inovações vem colaborando de uma forma positiva com o desempenho das empresas. Contudo, o seu desenvolvimento enfrenta barreiras, sendo o fator econômico a principal restrição. Estes resultados demonstram que inovar não é um processo aleatório ou imprevisível, mas sim algo complexo e diversificado, que pode ser específico para cada indústria. / A change in food consumption profile is occurring because of the new context of demographic growth, the increase in income in developing economies, and urbanization. Following the global trend, in Brazil, a change in habits of consumption of fresh to processed food is occurring. The greater economic openness and the growth of domestic and external demand can represent great opportunities for businesses, however require a higher technological level (innovation). Being considered as one of the main driving forces of business competitiveness, a greater emphasis is now given to the innovation process on food industry, such as the wheat industry. The aim of this study was to identify factors that have a potential influence or determine innovation in wheat industry in Brazil. Results showed that most companies have not innovated in the past year. The kind of innovation more frequently reported by the ones which innovate were in products and new only to the firm. The size of the company, the formal existence of a department of R & D, the greater integration in the supply chain and the attention paid to market signals were decisive for the intensity of innovation in companies. Innovations have a positive collaboration on the business performance. However, some barriers can exist, limiting the development of innovations, being the economic factor of major contribution. These results demonstrate that innovation is not a random or unpredictable process, but a complex and diverse process that may be specific to each industry.

Research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in Development Theory and Policy. / Over one billion people in the world are under-nourished, and over two billion suffer from malnutrition of micro-nutrients – known as ‘hidden hunger’1. This is largely due to the fact that two thirds of the world’s population depend on cereal or tuber based diets (e.g., wheat, maize, potatoes) which tend to satisfy energy demands but not essential micro-nutrients2. The industrialisation of food production systems that occurs as part of the process of economic development has been linked to great improvements in access to food on the one hand, but this has also resulted in major transitions in population-level food consumption and lifestyle patterns. The changes affecting both dietary and physical activity have been termed the ‘nutrition transition’3, which signals the change from consuming large amounts of fibre and low amounts of fat, to a diet comprised of highly processed, high-energy foods. Developing countries now face a ‘triple burden’ in terms of overcoming under-nutrition of micro and macro nutrients, as well as addressing over-consumption related to the ‘nutrition transition’ that accompanies economic development4. Given this setting, this paper sets out to understand how the industrialisation of the wheat to bread chain in South Africa has influenced population consumption patterns and to what extent consumer interests have been marginalised in the pursuit of industrial efficiencies during the development of this chain. This will be done using a ‘Systems of Provision’ approach which enables a vertical analysis of the processes leading up to consumption, whilst allowing for the incorporation of historically defined, context-specific influences on chain development and consumption patterns, including political, socio-economic and cultural factors, which other vertical approaches, such as the Global Value Chain framework do not enable. / MT2017