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Enterprises of the agri-food and other sectors develop innovations that can serve the EU's Green Deal objective to become climate-neutral by 2050. Innovation processes face specific innovation environment conditions, which are beyond the enterprise's control. Our research aims to investigate how the innovation environment affects product innovation processes of agri-food enterprises located in a cross-border region. We developed our conceptual framework of the "cross-border innovation environment" based on innovation system and innovation management literature. We conducted semi-structured interviews in selected agri-food enterprises in the Dutch-German region Rhine-Waal. Results indicate that agri-food enterprises' innovation environments concentrated on national-level factors, and that cross-border factors and relationships were rare. Moreover, different factors influenced different stages of innovation processes that were primarily driven by markets compared to research. We conclude that integrating customers and business partners during research and technological development is important to address current challenges of the Green Deal. Understanding how the innovation environment influences innovation processes in agri-food enterprises can help to develop appropriate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjoint analysis was conducted to elicit Dutch broiler and fattening pig farmers’ preferences about different characteristics of production systems, with primary interest in farmers’ intrinsic motivation towards animal welfare (AW). A cluster analysis was carried out to identify distinct groups of farmers with homogeneous preferences. The results showed that farmers preferred conventional practices and had negative preferences towards free-range systems. Two clusters of broiler farmers were distinguished. The ‘Free-range opposed’ cluster evaluated a production system by focusing on a single aspect, the provision of free-range access, while the ‘Multi-attribute focused’ cluster included multiple attributes in their evaluation. In the case of fattening pig farmers, no clusters could be identified. Results showed that farmers do not have a strong intrinsic motivation to switch to a system with higher animal welfare standards. It is therefore likely that the level of on-farm AW will be determined by external and farm-specific factors, and that higher levels of AW will only be achieved if these factors are favorable for the adoption of these production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]