New Product Introductions in the Danish Food Industry: A Quantile Regression Model for Count Data

Abstract

This paper evaluates how new product introductions by Danish agri-food industry firms are affected by food and safety regulations and sales contract features specified by firms. The econometric model is based on a quantile regression for count data of new product introductions. Food and safety regulations have significant negative impacts constraining the innovation of firms with the most extensive portfolios of new products or the firms located at the 90% ZA-quantile of new product introductions. Control over the specification and design of sales contract induces higher levels of new product introductions for the highly innovative firms. The negative binomial count model overlooks the impacts of both these factors on new products, highlighting the value of the quantile approach.