Innovation is not the same as "improvement", nor "invention". Innovation is to introduce, set up, and finally establish a new value in the Society, replacing old values. That is why for big established business companies see the innovation as troublesome, but cannot help facing it. This essay introduces and discusses the five points required to business companies when they to try to make an innovation plan which could be with the company's initiative. The points include evaluation the next industrial-ecosystem, business models, and intellectual property management.

This should be the first special issue on the innovation activities of the food manufacturing industry in the Journal of Science Policy and Research Management. Recent years have seen a rapid change on the innovation activities of the industry, especially in EU. A large number of countries have promoted their competitiveness of food industries, which once focused on the domestic demands. However, as the domestic markets of industrially advanced nations seemed to be saturated, many large companies enhanced their international strategies to the world including developing country markets. As a natural consequence, innovation activities have been intensified worldwide. On the other hand, profitability from the innovation activities is still not stabilized and there are many issues left on the innovation models. Then, this special issue focuses on the value creation and the business models of the food manufacturing industry.

Much of the previous literature argues that innovation activities are not as brisk in the food manufacturing industry as in other industries. In particular, the food manufacturing industry's low level of R&D intensity compared with other industries has been highlighted. In this context, the EU analyzed the competitiveness of the food manufacturing industry in the EU area and stressed the need to strengthen the industry's innovation capability. Consequently, capturing returns from innovation has become a challenge. Given the ongoing shift in food demand, customization must be focused upon as a platform for innovation in food companies. Today's consumers have come to prefer products tailored to their tastes. This preference is partly due to the aging of society across developed countries. Based on these background, this article reviews the previous studies on the innovation activities of the food manufacturing industry.

In this research, we organized the business models and the management of intellectual properties (IP) of the business of functional foodstuffs of the origin of agriculture, forestry and marine product. The business of functional foodstuffs and medicinal chemicals are common in term that functionality materials are utilized. In many cases, the object substances of the functional foodstuffs are known substances. In the business intended for known substances, the "classical model" intended for new substances such as medicinal chemicals of low molecular was difficult to form. But we developed that even known substances can be formed 4 business models, which are brought close to "classical model". By considering the business models and the IP management of the functional foodstuffs referring to "classical model" and its related 4-models, the industry-academia cooperation business of the area as well as the corporate business would become able to consider strong competitive power.

This paper argues that business models of plant factory have diversity. It is said that running cost reduction is the most important task for plant factory business. However, our research have founded some cases that handling plant factory business focus not only cost reduction but also some other approaches. We found plant factory business is not only selling plant. There are many businesses that have some relation with plant factory running. Those businesses have both "Production form" (object and service). Moreover, they have many "Business category". That means plant factory business has a variety of business model. We also argue that "Open & close strategy" is very important for constructing "N×1×N form" in plant factory industry for a development of Japan agriculture.

Food modifying technologies with enzymes were rarely put to commercial use in the late 1970's, because they could not obtain significant enough effects to justify the cost of enzymes. It was only with the practical use of a new enzyme, transglutaminase - discovered from a microorganism - that the above-mentioned situation began to change. The improvements achieved by use of transglutaminase were so remarkable that food modifying technology using transglutaminase has since been applied in a wide variety of food products, such as meat products, sea food products, dairy products and so on. There is no doubt that food modifying technology using transglutaminase represents an innovation in the food industry.

This article reviews the process of the innovation brought by transglutaminase from the viewpoints of business model, overseas development and intellectual property strategies.

In April, 2016, "Patent / Utility model Examination Guidelines" (the Japan Patent Office) was revised, and new practice on the patent examination of the food started. Patents have not been granted for use inventions of the food until then. However, by the revision of the Examination Guidelines, patents can be granted for use inventions of the food. Then, the patent protection of the food became similar to medicinal inventions. The purpose of the Patent Law is to encourage inventions and contribute to the industrial development, which is related to the promotion of the innovation. In the pharmaceutical field, patents play an important role for the innovation, according to many analysis. The introduction (April, 2016) of use inventions of the food may promote the innovation like the influence of the introduction of medicinal patents in 1976. It is expected that the patent applications of the food will increase after the introduction (April, 2016) of use inventions of the food.

This paper analyzed the amount of food export and import of the world and increasing rate of export by food item. We found that many countries recognized their own strengthes in the world food market and applied them to their economic growth. The world's leading exporters of agriculture products such as the United States, Brazil and France mainly trade cereal crops in the world markets. The main exporters of processed foods have been positioned by European countries such as Germany, Netherlands and Italy. These countries import a large amount of agriculture products as well. Many developed Asian countries including Japan import both agriculture products and processed foods, and the governments of these countries now strengthen their policies to promote competiviveness of food business. Japan increases the exports of beverages, alchohol and tea more than the other countries.

Along with the rapid growth of population aging, most of the developed countries as well as Japan are faced with the serious social issue about care needs for elderly. This article describes the needs of diet in super aged society by introducing some results from the field research with a special focus on food diversity and health of the elderly people. Taking a variety of foods is reported to have positive affects on health status and even longevity. However, food diversity is reported to decline with age. Authors revealed that the elderly who ate less varied foods were more disabled, depressed and had lower Quality of Life (QOL) and lower chewing ability. Eating alone is also a important factor to be addressed for the mental well-being of the elderly. The possibility of the social innovation for healthy aging is discussed through "food diversity" and "shared meal".

As a result of the government's promotion policy for industry-university cooperation, the number of the agreements of the joint research is increasing. However, the rate of the industry-university cooperation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), that have poor management resources to carry out the development of new products, is still low compared to the large enterprises.

This study shows two findings on SMEs' business benefits throughout the industry-university cooperation; first, apart from transfering technologies from other institutions like universities, SMEs could get network capability skills between them and the other insitutions throughout the industry-university cooperation. Second, once SMEs could obtain the network capability skills, SMEs' business can be improved even though they do not achieve the creation of products. Therefore, we conclude that the industry-university cooperation is beneficial action for SMEs.

This paper analyzes the impact of "regulatory framework approach" of environmental policy on firms' environmental R&D activity. Focusing on the PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) as a framework regulation approach, I examine the relationship between environmental policy and environmental R&D using the patent data. I estimate difference-in-differences (DID) of the amount and quality of environmental patent comparing the treatment firm group with PRTR obligation and the control firm group without PRTR obligation. The results indicate that the introduction of PRTR increased the number of environmental patent and claim by the firms with PRTR obligation. I find some evidence that the PRTR stimulates the firms' incentive of R&D for environmental R&D. My results show that the regulatory framework approach has the effects as not only environmental policy making firms manage the chemical emission but also technological policy encouraging firms to promote the amount and quality of environmental R&D.