Does FILEG operate as a Mission-oriented Innovation System? / Does FILEG operate as a Mission-oriented Innovation System?: An analysis of a regional non-profit organization for grain legume development

The development of legumes is fundamental for healthy and sustainable agricultural and food systems. Regarding the multiple obstacles hindering their development in Europe, collective action is a major lever. We used the Mission-oriented Innovation Systems (MIS) and Resources Based View approaches to study the contribution of a formal network of actors, built in the Occitanie region, to the innovation dynamics of the legume sector. Our case study is FILEG, an association aiming to structure and sustainably develop the sector by bringing together regional actors from up and down stream. We conducted a document desk research, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with these actors to map the dynamic of network innovation. The results show that the actions of the association contributed to the MIS functions by following a certain order. Currently, the association can contribute, directly or indirectly, to all functions. Its actions, however, remain conditional on its ability to coordinate the deployment of available resources at the different levels (organization, network and system). The combination of the theoretical approaches used proved to be relevant for the study and enlightening for the association. A more in-depth analysis of the links between actors could strengthen the understanding on the dynamics of collective innovation structuring the FILEG network.