{"title":"What factors hamper innovation amongst SMEs in Kenya?","authors":"E. Abbey, E. Adu-Danso","doi":"10.1080/2157930X.2022.2030890","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT While much of the evidence about innovation amongst SMEs in many developing countries have sought to examine the factors that enhance the propensity of a firm to innovate, far less effort has gone into assessing the factors that hamper it. This paper follows the latter literature to provide an explanation of firm innovation failure amongst SMEs in Kenya by focusing exclusively on external obstacles. By relying on the World Bank Enterprise Surveys and defining innovation as involving product and process innovation, we showed that factors such as political instability and infrastructure, measured as access to electricity, can be critical to firm innovation. We also found that the effects could be context-specific, as the results differ based on various firm characteristics, including firm type, sector, age and size. Our findings provide important policy implications about firm innovation in Kenya as well as the understanding that providing a more conducive business environment is not only critical to enhancing various firm activities but also enhancing innovation performance.","PeriodicalId":37815,"journal":{"name":"Innovation and Development","volume":"24 1","pages":"411 - 440"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Innovation and Development","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2157930X.2022.2030890","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT While much of the evidence about innovation amongst SMEs in many developing countries have sought to examine the factors that enhance the propensity of a firm to innovate, far less effort has gone into assessing the factors that hamper it. This paper follows the latter literature to provide an explanation of firm innovation failure amongst SMEs in Kenya by focusing exclusively on external obstacles. By relying on the World Bank Enterprise Surveys and defining innovation as involving product and process innovation, we showed that factors such as political instability and infrastructure, measured as access to electricity, can be critical to firm innovation. We also found that the effects could be context-specific, as the results differ based on various firm characteristics, including firm type, sector, age and size. Our findings provide important policy implications about firm innovation in Kenya as well as the understanding that providing a more conducive business environment is not only critical to enhancing various firm activities but also enhancing innovation performance.
期刊介绍:
conomic development and growth depend as much on social innovations as on technological advances. However, the discourse has often been confined to technological innovations in the industrial sector, with insufficient attention being paid to institutional and organisational change and to the informal sector which in some countries in the South plays a significant role. Innovation and Development is an interdisciplinary journal that adopts a broad approach to the study of innovation, in all sectors of the economy and sections of society, furthering understanding of the multidimensional process of innovation and development. It provides a forum for the discussion of issues pertaining to innovation, development and their interaction, both in the developed and developing world, with the aim of encouraging sustainable and inclusive growth. The journal encourages articles that approach the problem broadly in line with innovation system perspective focusing on the evolutionary and institutional structure of innovation and development. This focus cuts across the disciplines of Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Science and Technology Policy, Geography and Development Practice. In a section entitled Innovation in Practice, the journal includes short reports on innovative experiments with proven development impact with a view to encouraging scholars to undertake systematic inquiries on such experiments. Brief abstracts of degree awarded PhD theses in the broad area of concern for the journal and brief notes which highlight innovative ways of using internet resources and new databases or software are also published.