The Innovation of Labeled Products in an Emerging Economy: Direct Effect on the Financial and Non-Financial Performance of Companies

ABSTRACTIn today’s competitive markets, innovation is widely recognized as a critical driver of growth and sustainable development. It encompasses various forms such as product implementation, process improvement, marketing strategies, and organizational structures. Innovation creates value and ensures adaptability to an increasingly changing environment. Despite a multitude of investigations having been carried out to evaluate the correlation between innovation and performance, the majority of the scholarly attention has been directed toward technological innovation in developed nations. Regrettably, scant attention has been devoted to research endeavors investigating this relationship in emerging economies. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of product, process, marketing, and organizational innovation on the financial and non-financial performances of firms operating in the labeled products subsector in Morocco, an area that remains unexplored. Using data from 70 firms, Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling was employed to test the hypotheses model. The findings revealed that while there was no significant effect of innovation type on the performance of labeled local products, it did lead to tendencies in this subsector. This study has meaningful implications for managers and policymakers on how to reinforce innovative strategies to generate future performance.KEYWORDS: Innovation typeperformancelabeled productPLS-SEMMorocco Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Regions (=states) are currently the highest administrative divisions in Morocco.Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the VLIR-UOS [MA2017TEA1444A103].