Knowledge Production on Fourth Industrial Revolution in the ECOWAS Region in Africa : A Scientometric Analysis

Abstract: Please refer to full text for abstrac

Node between firm’s knowledge-intensive activities and their propensity to innovate : insights from Nigeria’s Mining Industry

Abstract: While studies have examined the nexus between knowledge and innovative performance, literatures from developing country context are very scant. The study thus examines which knowledge-intensive activities influence the propensity of the mining firms in Nigeria to implement either product innovation, process innovation or both kinds of innovations. The study explored 106 purposively selected mining firms in Nigeria to check the effect of knowledge on the prevalence of innovation in the industry. Using a of questionnaire administered to the chief executive officers/most senior managers of the firms, the study identified six main knowledge indicators for the mining industry which were regressed against indicators of technological innovations. The study found out that while R&D activities were important for product innovation, acquisition of machinery, equipment, hardware or software were the principal drivers of process innovation. The knowledge-based activities common to both innovation types were acquisition of external knowledge/technologies, learning, knowledge exchange & training as well as other activities like feasibility study, market research, continuous improvement, business process re-engineering, tooling-up, routine software upgrade, amongst others. The study concludes that certain knowledge-intensive activities were important for different kinds of innovations in the firms

Are African micro- and small enterprises misunderstood? Unpacking the relationship between work organisation, capability development and innovation

Mainstream studies on innovation consider innovation processes as necessarily driven by expenditures on formal R&D and the input of engineers and scientists with third-level degrees. This bias in the literature has led to the view that micro- and small enterprises (MSEs), which constitute the majority of Africa’s enterprise base, are non-innovative. Building on an existing critique largely emerging from developing countries, this study provides evidence that, despite their lack of formal R&D expenditures, MSEs in Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda are in fact active innovators. The paper argues that the mainstream literature fails to capture important dynamics and practices that are central to innovation in MSEs. Arguing that the way work activity is organised is closely linked to learning, capability development and, ultimately, innovation, the paper unpacks the relationships between these three processes with evidence from MSEs in the four African countries. The empirical findings demonstrate that an important basis for the innovativeness of African MSEs is the adaptability of employees and their ability to learn on the job and to make use of their own ideas in solving the problems they face in work