Driven by the aim to promote sustainable development, the institute’s guiding principles are the right to a better living standard, the sustainable use of natural resources, peace, democracy, the respect for ethnic and cultural diversity, and the rights of future generations. [...] The study has three objectives: • to examine the relationship between innovation strategies at the firm level and some specific characteristics of innovation processes using data from a survey in two agro-industry export sectors; • to analyze internal and external factors working as barriers or motivators for the introduction of cleaner technologies in firms; and • to analyze components of the sys [...] This paper applies a survey to the agro-industry sector and compiles information of the components of the system of innovation. [...] Innovation in the Agro-Industry Sector in Costa Rica: Main determinants 3 trade knowledge network The main groups of actors in the sectoral systems of innovation in the model are:3 1) suppliers and related industries; 2) educational, training and R&D systems; 3) customers and competitors of relevant markets; 4) regulatory authorities, including all kind of policy-makers; 5) other stakeholders; and [...] This is the case for sector performance; the existence of asymmetries among firms; and the existence of technological bottlenecks in the sector.