The Green Meat: A Highly Innovative Product in a Low Innovation Industry

Abstract

A new type of product which both looks and tastes like meat, but without being associated with any animal at all, has appeared in the global food industry. Vegetarian alternatives to meat are, in itself, not something new, but the green meat represents the new generation of plant-based food that with its radical innovation has created a whole new product category.
Hence, this thesis seeks to elucidate this topic from an innovative perspective, as the potential of this new product is assessed in relation to the industrial actors and consumers. The focus is limited to the Danish market with the specific goal of identifying the best suited business model with a resourcebased approach. The examination focuses on Naturli’ – the first company to introduce green meat to the Danish market. Based on the business model it is assessed, whether the green meat also will be available on the Danish market in the future.
The results imply that the industrial innovation network related to green meat has been one of the reasons for Naturli’s big success with their commercialisation of green meat. This has been realized due to their collaboration with retailers, NGO’s related to animal rights and business networking platforms. The primary consumers of green meat have been identified as flexitarians, which is a growing segment in Denmark. Further resources can be obtained by mobilising NGO’s related to health sustainability and vegetarians as a consumer segment.
The theoretical framework consists of four parts, where industrial innovation network and open innovations theory enrich the analysis with relevant information regarding the industrial actors, while the insight from experience economy and consumer culture theory enrich the analysis with knowledge on the potential consumer. In addition, an examination of which parameters that create value for the consumers of green meat will be made together with a survey, based on the theory of Competitive Benchmarking that addresses how Naturli’ is situated compared to their competitors. This is then followed by four in-depth semi-structured interviews. The results from the analysis are then summarized in a business model.