Effect Of Determinants Of Entrepreneurial Innovation On Innovation Capacity And Economic Growth Ofafrica:evidence From Selected Sub-saharan African Countries

What is our current understanding of innovation and how many types of innovation do we readily observe in the entrepreneurial land-scape in Sub Saharan Africa?Broadly speaking,innovation realm of the current world is characterized by well-established typologies,such as product,service,process,demand,strategy organizational,supply-chain,competition,and marketing innovation,explained and theorized in terms of their links with technological innovation.However global and local challenges and changes in the structure of knowledge production and usage,have led to very many different types of innovations.Thus,recognizing and classifying such innovations is more complex,fragmented,and geographically dispersed academic and social venture.The currently observed continued incorporation of hidden and non-technological innovations,together with the emergence of the modern day fourth industrial revolution is contributing to change in our understanding of innovation and its measured contributions to success in entrepreneurship.This study provides a quantitative longitudinal study of the determinants of innovation,their role in entrepreneurship innovation capacity and how they collectively add value to economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa.The study used fixed effects with country dummies in the analysis where Stata software was used.The results generated were expected to use in enabling both other researchers and practitioners to navigate the complex web of innovation definitions and typologies and they collectively impact on economic growth in the poor world.The empirical results indicated that capital for domestic investment,labor,innovation and foreign direct investment were positively and significantly correlated with economic growth in SSA.On the effect of the determinants of innovation on economic growth,absence of excessive bureaucracy and red tape,venture capital availability,intensity of local competition among firms and tertiary education gross enrolment were positively and significantly correlated with economic growth in SSA.On the other hand,extent of staff training,startup procedures to start a business and time required to start a business were negatively and significantly correlated with economic growth in SSA.On the effect of the determinants of innovation on entrepreneurial innovation capacity,extent of staff training,talent inflow,absence of excessive bureaucracy and red tape,intellectual property protection,venture capital availability and intensity of local competition among firms were positively and significantly correlated with entrepreneurial innovation capacity in SSA.On the other hand,government procurement of advanced technologies was negatively and significantly correlated with entrepreneurial innovation capacity in SSA.It is recommended that governments in SSA should strive to increase the innovation capacity of their firms so as to boost economic growth in the region.This could be through adopting facilitative policies in place like monetary incentives in research and development and other waivers so as to motivate firms to invest in research and development.The governments should also adopt mechanisms that could lead to increased domestic capital for investment and foreign direct investment in the region.This could be through increased savings policies and through bilateral arrangements with other countries that could see increased foreign investment into the region.It is also recommended that respective countries should put in mechanisms to capitalize from the positive benefits of talent inflow,absence of excessive bureaucracy and red tape,venture capital availability,intensity of local competition among firms and tertiary education gross enrolment on the economy.This could be through increased investments in tertiary institutions and reduction of bureaucracy and corruption that will not only increase high quality production through increased labour productivity but will also foster fair competition in the markets.The governments should also increase adopt mechanisms that facilitate increased savings for investment and where possible adopt strategies that will encourage increased inflow of foreign direct investment.On the other hand,the governments and firms in respective countries should put in measures that will assist to minimize the negative effects of extent of staff training,startup procedures to start a business and time required to start a business on economic growth.This could be through encouraging increased budgeting for staff training and adoption of strategies that will see reduced procedures and time taken to register and start new businesses in the region so as to increase the number of new businesses started.Finally,it is recommended that respective countries and business enterprises should adopt strategies that will help to capitalize from the positive benefits of extent of staff training,talent inflow,absence of excessive bureaucracy and red tape,intellectual property protection,venture capital availability and intensity of local competition among firms on entrepreneurial innovation capacity.This could be through increased funding for research and development,increased staff training,adoption of deterrents to bureaucracy and corruption and increased adoption of stringent measures in intellectual property protection to induce increased innovation.The governments should adopt mechanisms that will ensure that firms benefit from their procurement of advanced technologies to boost innovation in the region.