Advancing bioplastic packaging products through co-innovation: a conceptual framework for supplier-customer collaboration

Bioplastics are considered to be an ideal replacement for conventional plastic packaging, but there seem to be considerable barriers to further development of the industry due the mismatch between the characteristics of bioplastics packaging and the products they are intended for. The collaboration between the bioplastic packaging producers and the product manufacturers should, therefore, result in the improvement of product functionality and innovation in packaging technologies. This paper explores the extent to which co-innovation has been adopted in the development of bioplastic packaging products within the context of supplier-customer collaboration. The paper reveals the key research gaps in co-innovation for bioplastic packaging, which also lead to the development of comprehensive indicators of bioplastic packaging product innovation and a conceptual framework that elaborates the co-innovation mechanism. The framework extends the existing concepts of co-innovation by adding several key mechanisms of joint activities, joint resources and relationship management, that ultimately act as the critical success factors of the co-innovation process in bioplastic packaging.