A Priori Study of Marketing Innovation Strategies of Agricultural Enterprises in Bulgaria

A retrospective analysis of the three waves of biological, conventional and GMO innovations in agriculture has been elaborated. The results lead to the conclusion that there is a huge potential for development of innovations in the field of GMO and bio-products worldwide. The objective of this study is to make an a priori study of marketing innovation strategies of agricultural enterprises in Bulgaria. The major difficulties impeding the diffusion of innovations in our agricultural sector have been explored – inefficient agricultural markets; poor: national and fiscal policy, infrastructure, research and development activities, etc. The role and importance of innovations for the survival and development of agricultural enterprises has been clarified – improving user satisfaction, countering competition and achieving higher profitability, overcoming climate change, seasonality and cyclicality of agricultural processes. The most common reasons hampering innovation processes have been indicated – lack of market knowledge, inappropriate management and high degree of uncertainty and risk of innovations in agriculture. The factors that determine the success of innovations in agricultural enterprises have been analysed: discovery of new markets, appropriate national policy and environment, development of innovation strategies through various forms of joint marketing and clusters to take over the major part of marketing activities in the field of innovations (product-, process-, organizational innovations and their complex effect on marketing innovations) for entering new national and international markets. The problems related to marketing innovations on meso and micro levels have been discussed – underdeveloped branch organisations and communities, low use of contemporary information systems and technologies, poor integration with the research, development and other similar units. The opportunities for marketing innovations on meso and micro level have been defined in terms of products and product structure of agricultural enterprises, distribution and logistics, communication and pricing. Conclusions and major results have been established.