Drawing Institution-Sustainability Matrix of the Iranian Dairy Industry Innovation System

Attention tothe firmssustainability dimensions including social, environmental, and economic responsibilities haveincreased due to their unsustainable business models. Accordingly, studies have shown that innovation is a key to achieve sustainability dimensions and applying Innovation System (IS) approach has recommended as an assessment tool for sustainable innovation. The purpose of this system is to decrease the pressure on the environment and public resources. It also helps policymakers determine the processes and components of the system which intervention makes positive changes to them. Hence, in the face of challenges such as resources limitation, climate change effects, and increasing population in the dairy industry, the importance of innovation has been raised for competitiveness and economic, environmental, and social promotion. So that, it leads to the sustainable, ethical, accessible, safe, and nutritious productions. In this case, innovation with the aim of profitability and in a sustainable and environmental manner is one of the most important challenges facing the dairy industry. Sincethe innovation system is an effective and continuous motivator for sustainable technological innovation and the institutional environment has a great influence on technological innovation; current study has outlined the institution-sustainability matrix of the Iranian dairy industry innovation system because some studies show that this industry has been unstable in recent years (for instance: lack of attention into the regional differences in the policy-making of dairy industry and heterogeneity and insufficient development in line with indices of dairy industry development).
In terms of research goals, we applied a qualitative-exploratory study. In-depth and semi-structured interviews (with dairy key informants (n=26) and subject-matter specialists (n=20)) also helped in the data collectionstage. In this regard, the snowball sampling technique supported this research in identification of the individual samples that were in the bestposition in the dairy industry in terms of organizational status, management experiences, technical knowledge and executive aspect of this industry. Content analysis technique and Atlas. This software (for coding and classification of the concepts) wasused in order to attain research goals. In this way, we attempted to answer two research questions which include:1. What are the most important recent innovations of the Iranian dairy industry IS to achieve economic, social, and environmental sustainability?
2. How are the sustainability type and situation of IS institutions which have contributed tothese innovations presentation?
Therefore, the frequencies mentioned for each sustainable innovation (including economic, social, and environmental dimensions) were calculated. Then, institutional actors of dairy innovation system and their involved subsystems which played a role in these innovations network were determined and their sustainability matrix was drawn to show the status of each institution in terms of its relation to the sustainability dimensions. Respondents explained also toward their attitude related to the sustainability or instability of these institutions.
Our findings explain that innovations ineconomic dimension are at maximum (25 sub-categories) while social (14 sub-categories), and environmental (7 sub-categories) innovations are in the lower situation. This issue represents the fact that despite the emphasis on triple dimensions of sustainable innovations in recent years, and especially in the international community; they havent found their original position in the Iranian dairy industry. According to the plentiful and negative impacts of dairy industry waste tothe environment, pay attention to the environmental innovation codes, in comparison with the other codes, has not had much importance in this industry. Although environmental innovations havethe lowest frequency, they have a great importance in promoting the sustainability of the Iranian dairy industry so that, the two first ranks of this industry recent innovations are allocated to the environmental type.Our analysis also shows that institutional sustainability of the Iranian dairy industry IS is much less than the expected situation and responses indicated that there are a variety of instabilities in the macro and micro institutions/organizations of this industry.
According to the role of systemic and sustainable innovation toward achieving sustainability goals, innovation system policy making of an Iranian dairy industry requires a comprehensive view to all dimensions of sustainability, including economic, social, and environmental. Additionally, instabilities have been considered in terms of social and economic dimensions, and environmental instability of the system less mentioned. So, environmental sustainability is a newer debate that should be seriously participated in the innovation policy and sustainability of the dairy industry. Finally, this study has suggested that institutional sustainability dimensions and capacities call for more investigation in the future researchers.