Innovation in Nigerian Small and Medium Enterprises: Types and Impact

Abiodun Egbetokun and O.O. Olamade
Additional contact information
O.O. Olamade: National Centre for Technology Management (Federal Ministry of Science & Technology), Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO), 2009, vol. 7, issue 4, 40-51

Abstract: This article seeks to explore the types of innovation that are predominant in SMEs in developing countries and to investigate the impact of these innovations on different dimensions of firm performance based on an industry-wide innovation survey carried out in Nigeria in 2007. Although innovation is important for superior firm performance, our result found that the type of innovation that SMEs pursue is not a critical consideration in their performance. While there was no difference found in the focus of SMEs on either of product or process innovations, evidence showed that SMEs would focus more on incremental product and process innovations. Incremental innovation was found to be very important for Nigerian SMEs and a significant predictor of product quality and not of revenue. The authors conclude that SMEs chooses to pursue such innovations that most fit their strategies and available resources. Such level of innovation affords Nigerian SMEs to more extensively exploit the domestic market but cannot support extensive new product development required to enter export markets.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 4018/jeco.2009100104 (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:igg:jeco00:v:7:y:2009:i:4:p:40-51

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) is currently edited by Pedro Isaías

More articles in Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().