Download or read book Firm Level Innovation In Africa written by Abiodun Egbetokun and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-29 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literature on innovation in Africa is rapidly expanding, and a recurring thread in the emergent literature is the pervasiveness of systemic weaknesses that inhibit the innovation process. Despite these, firms are able to innovate in Africa. It is then logical to ask: how do African firms manage to overcome the prevalent constraints and learn to innovate? This book directly tackles this question, with a view to improving our understanding of the innovation landscape in Africa. The book brings together some of the latest innovation research from across the African continent, ranging from Tanzania and Ethiopia in the east to Nigeria in the west. The chapters included in the collection adopt different but complementary theoretical and methodological approaches to address a rich mix of interrelated issues. These issues include the factors that enhance or inhibit innovation in African firms, the sources of (knowledge/information for) innovation, policy options for overcoming constraints and facilitating firm-level innovation, the nature and roles of brokers and intermediaries in dealing with innovation constraints and in facilitating the innovation process and the role of interactive learning and acquisition of embodied technology in the innovation process. This book was originally published as a special issue of Innovation and Development.
Download or read book Entrepreneurship Technology Commercialisation and Innovation Policy in Africa written by Chux Daniels and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-01-04 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive overview of role of entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and innovation policy for the achievement of economic development and prosperity in African societies. It adopts a broad innovation systems approach. The book examines entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology commercialisation alongside context-specific factors associated with them. It also provides an interdisciplinary perspective, by discussing the above disciplines in a connected way. This book is presented in three distinct parts. It starts by discussing entrepreneurship and the state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa. It then moves on to present technology commercialisation in Africa, before finally discussing the future directions for entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and innovation policy. This broad picture provided in the book enables the reader to grasp the relevant messages, whilst the detailed analysis applies world-class theories and frameworks to deepen the readers understanding of key concepts and issues examined.
Download or read book Creating Systems of Innovation in Africa written by Mammo Muchie and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2013-01-29 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most popularised concept in the economics of innovation literature has been the national system of innovation (NSI). It was in the late 1980s that the concept that Frederik List coined as the National Political Economy of Production took off again with different thinkers writing about the peculiarities and distinctions of the Japanese, American, British, German, East Asian Tigers and other varieties of system construction. Freeman defines National System of Innovation as the network of institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiate, import, modify and diff use new technologies. Richard Nelson defines it as a set of institutions whose interactions determine the innovative performance of national firms. Lundvall defines the system of innovation as the elements and relationships which interact in the production, diffusion and use of new and economically useful knowledge and are either located within or rooted inside the borders of a nation state. The normative assumption is that those nations that succeeded in building economic strength relied on the science, engineering, technology and innovation capability that made them to achieve an innovation advantage to put them ahead in the world, acquiring national or regional economic leadership as the case may be depending on what level of analyses is selected to look at particular failure, success or progress they made. In this volume we have a glimpse of how in different African economies from Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria specific cases have been taken to explore how systems of innovation is evolving.
Download or read book Made in Africa written by Carol Newman and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is there so little industry in Africa? Over the past forty years, industry has moved from the developed to the developing world, yet Africa’s share of global manufacturing has fallen from about 3 percent in 1970 to less than 2 percent in 2014. Industry is important to low-income countries. It is good for economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction. Made in Africa: Learning to Compete in Industry outlines a new strategy to help African industry compete in global markets. This book draws on case studies and econometric and qualitative research from Africa and emerging Asia to understand what drives firm-level competitiveness in low-income countries. The results show that while traditional concerns such as infrastructure, skills, and the regulatory environment are important, they alone will not be sufficient for Africa to industrialize. The book also addresses how industrialization strategies will need to adapt to the region’s growing resource abundance.
Download or read book Innovation under the Radar written by Xiaolan Fu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigating the nature, drivers and sources of innovation in Africa, this book examines the channels for effective diffusion of innovation in and to Africa under institutional, resource and affordability constraints. Fu draws on almost a decade of research on innovation in Africa to explore these issues and unpack the process, combining a rigorous statistical analysis of a purposely designed multi-wave, multi-country survey with in-depth studies of representative cases. Building on this research, Fu argues that African firms are innovative but unsupported. Those 'under-the-radar' innovations that widely exist in Africa as a result of the constraints are not sufficient to enable Africa to leapfrog the innovation gap in the era of the fourth Industrial Revolution. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the creation and diffusion of innovation in low income countries. It also provides the first survey-based analysis of innovation in the informal economy.
Download or read book Uneven Paths of Development written by Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why have East Asian countries grown so fast and the African countries so slowly for the last quarter century, even though many in the two groups at the beginning of the period had similar income levels? The authors provide an original, thoughtful and extremely insightful approach to this question by considering the experience of the two groups of countries in relation to the development of the information hardware industry. The results of this investigation are fascinating and thoroughly convincing. This volume makes a brilliant path breaking contribution to development economics and thoroughly deserves to be and will be widely read. Ajit Singh, University of Cambridge and University of Birmingham Business School, UK This book represents an important step forward towards understanding why some countries and regions are successful in catching-up with the rich part of the world while others tend to have great difficulties in doing so. It represents a very happy marriage between the literature on economic development and the literature on innovation and learning. At the end of the book a series of thoughtful recommendations for innovation policy are presented. This volume should be recommended to students and practitioners involved in understanding and promoting economic development. Bengt-Åke Lundvall, Aalborg University, Denmark and Tsinghua University, Beijing, China In recent years there has been a revolution in studies of economic development. The heart of successful development is seen as the growing mastery by firms of the technological, organizational, and managerial capabilities needed to be effective in a field of economic activity. In turn learning by firms is seen as strongly dependent upon the institutional structures that mold how they operate. And effective institutions are seen as often sectoral specific. The achievement of successful development thus requires that a nation put in place the appropriate institutions. This fine book is an important addition to this literature. Richard R. Nelson, Columbia University, US The authors demonstrate a good understanding of the theoretical scholarship which they have used competently in building up the intellectual foundations for analyzing the sources of uneven paths of development cross countries in Africa and Asia. Drawing on country data and experiences, the book offers evidence-based policy lessons relevant for learning to innovate and to catch-up in a complex process of industrial, technological and organizational changes at the firm- and sectoral-levels. This book deserves to be read by all those concerned with technology and development. Kande Yumkella, UNIDO This book focuses on what can be learned from the complex processes of industrial, technological and organizational change in the sectoral system of information hardware (IH). The IH innovation system is deliberately chosen to illustrate how sectors act as seeds of economic progress. Detailed firm-level studies were carried out in seven countries, three in Africa (Nigeria, Mauritius and South Africa) and four in Asia (China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia). Bringing together two important areas of research (the scholarship on technology, innovation and learning, and the development literature) this book creates a useful and novel framework for understanding development, and draws very strong policy lessons for latecomer countries. It will be of great interest to graduate students working on evolutionary economics, science and technology policy studies, as well as policymakers and research institutes.
Download or read book Technological Leapfrogging and Innovation in Africa written by Ethné Swartz and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2023-10-06 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering invaluable insights into technologically-driven change in Africa, this incisive book envisions myriad positive economic changes brought about by new technologies and innovations. Rooted in original research from contributors who have worked and taught in Africa, it encapsulates developments and breakthroughs throughout the continent.
Download or read book Innovation under the Radar written by Xiaolan Fu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first systematic and comprehensive analysis of innovation in Africa based on mixed methods and dedicated firm-level, multi-country, multi-year survey data. For researchers, graduate students and policy makers in the fields of innovation studies, African business, international business, and development studies.
Download or read book Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Africa written by Hinh T. Dinh and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents empirical analyses of manufacturing firm performance in Africa based on the World Bank Enterprise Survey and on a one-time quantitative survey conducted for the World Bank by the Center for the Study of African Economies of Oxford University.
Download or read book What Do Science Technology and Innovation Mean from Africa written by Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-06-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explorations of science, technology, and innovation in Africa not as the product of “technology transfer” from elsewhere but as the working of African knowledge. In the STI literature, Africa has often been regarded as a recipient of science, technology, and innovation rather than a maker of them. In this book, scholars from a range of disciplines show that STI in Africa is not merely the product of “technology transfer” from elsewhere but the working of African knowledge. Their contributions focus on African ways of looking, meaning-making, and creating. The chapter authors see Africans as intellectual agents whose perspectives constitute authoritative knowledge and whose strategic deployment of both endogenous and inbound things represents an African-centered notion of STI. “Things do not (always) mean the same from everywhere,” observes Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, the volume's editor. Western, colonialist definitions of STI are not universalizable. The contributors discuss topics that include the trivialization of indigenous knowledge under colonialism; the creative labor of chimurenga, the transformation of everyday surroundings into military infrastructure; the role of enslaved Africans in America as innovators and synthesizers; the African ethos of “fixing”; the constitutive appropriation that makes mobile technologies African; and an African innovation strategy that builds on domestic capacities. The contributions describe an Africa that is creative, technological, and scientific, showing that African STI is the latest iteration of a long process of accumulative, multicultural knowledge production. Contributors Geri Augusto, Shadreck Chirikure, Chux Daniels, Ron Eglash, Ellen Foster, Garrick E. Louis, D. A. Masolo, Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, Neda Nazemi, Toluwalogo Odumosu, Katrien Pype, Scott Remer
Download or read book Challenges of African Transformation written by Mammo Muchie and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2012 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brief overview of the African economic picture reveals a paradox where the continent that has rich mineral resources, nearly a billion people and a land mass which includes the sizes of China, USA, India, Western Europe, Argentina together larger than the sum of these regions is in an unacceptable state of being an object of aid, debt and loans despite the vast resources both known and yet to be explored. Africa should have been a productive and innovation centre and not a charity and aid centre of the world where 'donorship' has replaced African national ownership' of not just Africa's resources, but even worse, Africa's own agency, autonomy and independence to shape policy and direction; to undertake African integrated national development by establishing a science, engineering and technology based knowledge, innovative, learning and competent economy. The chapters in this volume address the application of the innovation approach to a variety of problems in Africa. Together they highlight the critical importance of the innovation systems approach in each of the issues the authors preferred to select and analyse. In the African context, the application of innovation goes beyond firms to the informal activities at grassroots level. The boundaries and the range of actors and activities for innovation application are varied and not limited. This variation is represented in this volume by the diverse issues that the authors dealt with in their research by applying as common the use and application of innovation.
Download or read book Innovation in Africa written by Deseye Umurhohwo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book emphasizes the need for promoting innovation on the African continent. It identifies the roadblocks for entrepreneurs and discusses ways for developing an ecosystem for innovators to pave a way through the barriers and create ground-breaking products and new technologies which meet consumers’ needs in Africa. In order to stimulate innovation in African countries, there is the need for a more appropriate approach for innovation to occur in a context of international openness to knowledge. This book adopts a practical approach, demonstrating how innovation is an important driver of economic growth and competitiveness. It shows that innovation in Africa should be driven by local people, in response to local problems, and that open technology and knowledge sharing are vital to this project. It further explores key enablers such as the discovery of innovative talent, overcoming barriers, building strategic partnerships and promoting innovation across the continent. The book places emphasis on the creation of an innovation ecosystem as a value-creating tool by stakeholders for nation building and growth in Africa. This book will be of interest to researchers, students, international agencies, governments, businesses and individuals interested in the field of innovation and its potentials. It will also be relevant to investors, manufacturers and other stakeholders involved in the economic development of Africa.
Download or read book Learning to Compete in African Industry written by Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-28 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the institutional roots of the persistent differences in economic performance of firms, industries and countries in Africa. It draws attention to the role of institutions in supporting technical change and shows how technological progress is central to competitiveness in a global context. The role of initial conditions such as levels of literacy and natural endowment, the structure of industry and resource endowment are also emphasized. With its focus on how institutions shape systems of innovation this book makes a unique contribution to the debate about African development.
Download or read book Social Innovation In Africa written by Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encouraged by the emergence and early impact of social innovators on the African Continent, but frustrated by the slow pace of large scale change, this book is focused on filling the knowledge gap for those tackling Africa’s serious social problems. It lays out the required building blocks for achieving scale at impact. By creating clear mission, vision, and values statements and piloting and rolling out business models that are demand-driven, simple, and low-cost, with compelling measurement and evaluation tools that leverage technology. It also explores the steps for attracting and retaining talent and financing and forming strategic partnerships with the private, public and non-profit sectors to foster scaling. Practical case studies provide inspiration for those who seek to become innovators or to be employed by them. Finally, it outlines the crucial steps for key stakeholders to take in order to support the emergence of more social innovators on the African continent, create an enabling environment for the scaling of high-impact initiatives and advance collective efforts to build stronger communities for current and future generations. This is a practical and inspirational guide for all entrepreneurs and individuals that seek to combine business and social goals and for those in the public, private and non-profit sectors that aim to foster and support these projects.
Download or read book The New Harvest written by Calestous Juma and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and can help contribute to global food security. To achieve this Africa has to define agriculture as a force in economic growth by advancing scientific and technological research, investing in infrastructure, fostering higher technical training, and creating regional markets.
Download or read book Industrial Clusters and Innovation Systems in Africa written by Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka and published by UNU. This book was released on 2007 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the incidence and role of clusters as a viable and increasingly important form of industrial organization in Africa. It presents a series of theoretically grounded case studies that analyze clusters in different industrial sectors and at different levels of economic development. The overall aim is to improve understanding of how local clusters can be transformed into local systems of innovation and how local clusters can be better connected to global actors. The authors draw out implications for policy and practice and provide guidance to governments, private sector associations, and non-governmental organizations.--Publisher's description.
Download or read book Sectoral Innovation Systems in Africa written by Mammo Muchie and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All innovation systems have elements, components, parts with linkages, interconnections and interactions with boundaries at spatial, sectoral, or disciplinary levels. The elements are related to innovation creation, absorption, transfer and adaptation being either strong or weak with boundaries that range spatially from local to city, community, region, national and global levels. Innovation systems at national or sectoral level are influenced by conceptual frame and ideas, policy setting, context and environment, institutions, networks, actors, knowledge and incentives. The way the politics of system building plays out heavily influences the outputs, outcomes and impacts at various levels selected to locate the innovation system dynamics. Franco Malerba considers sectoral systems to be based on knowledge and technologies, actors, networks, and institutions. The complexity and dynamics of innovation at the sectoral level in the African context are not researched fully yet. This book i
