To kick off with a good start in 2022, a research article titled “Keep it simple: external resource utilisation and incremental product innovation in resource-challenged South African manufacturing firms” was published in Industry and Innovation (5-y IF=4.444) by Profs Leon Oerlemans, Kai-Ying Chan, Joris Knoben and Patrick Vermeulen. This paper is based on the survey data from 497 South African manufacturing firms which were part of an international research project funded by the Department of International Development, UK, with the title “Enabling Innovation and Productivity Growth in Low Income Countries (EIP-LIC)”. The project focuses on understanding the factors, institutions, and policies that can increase business innovation and productivity growth, particularly in manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The research activities are conducted in ten countries in Africa and Asia: Kenya, Tanzania, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Various academic institutions and World Bank offices in those countries are actively engaged as partners in the research project.

The Industry and Innovation paper is the result of the joint effort from researchers in innovation studies affiliated to three universities: University of Pretoria, Tilburg University (The Netherlands) and Radboud University (The Netherlands). The main author, Prof Leon Oerlemans, is the extraordinary professor at GSTM.

Abstract:

This paper examines how firms in an emerging economy cope with resource challenges by implementing compensation strategies for incremental product innovations. The model is empirically tested using firm-level survey data from 497 South African manufacturing firms. Results show that higher diversity among a specific set of external knowledge sources is associated with a higher likelihood of incremental product innovation. Stronger embeddedness in non-domestic inter-organisational networks increases this likelihood as well. The positive effect of external knowledge diversity is more positive for higher levels of localised ties. Recommendations to enhance incremental product innovation concern the development of external relationships with domestic and international partners while limiting knowledge source diversity to a specific actor set. This paper shows that in an emerging economy firms have agency with which they can use contact learning leading to product innovations tailored to local market needs and opportunities.

More information about the article can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13662716.2021.1997724