Learning and Product Innovation Performance in Informal Enterprises: Evidence from Urban Ghana

Elvis Avenyo

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Recognising that enterprises learn how to produce goods and services in the informal economy, this paper examines the effect of two learning processes (apprenticeship and ‘formal interactions’) on the product innovativeness of informal enterprises in Ghana. Employing unique survey data on 513 enterprises and the Type II Tobit model, our analyses reveal that apprenticeship, on the one hand, enhances the technological capability of enterprises leading to product innovativeness, while competitive formal interactions, on the other hand, provide important market feedback that enhances the innovativeness of enterprises. The paper concludes by discussing the policy implications of these findings.

Keywords: Innovation; Informal Sector; Learning; SMEs; Ghana; sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 L25 L53 O12 O17 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021, Revised 2021-05-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-isf, nep-iue, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/108839/7/MPRA_paper_108839.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:108839

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().