'The prawn sandwich will live forever': learning to innovate in commercial sandwich production

Abstract

This paper examines processes of innovation in one of Britain’s fastest growing industries, commercial sandwich manufacturing. It is argued that the industry is characterized by two different productive systems, which we designate Retailer Label and Manufacturer Label. New product development (NPD) in the former is skewed towards high-volume, low price products that match existing market trends. However, strategies of profit maximization in the latter facilitate the emergence of ‘new to the market’, premium priced products. The paper argues that these strategies reflect the contrasting balance of power between retailers and manufacturers in the two productive systems. This, in turn, shapes the learning environments and learning affordances available to NPD workers.

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