Innovations and firm performance in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Recent decades have seen a rise in optimism with regards to the sustainable economic prospects of sub-Saharan Africa through innovation. This thesis primarily focuses on the empirical analyses of innovation activities of firms in sub-Saharan Africa, with specific emphasis on the innovation process, the market performance of new products and the labour market impact of new products. The novelty of the thesis comes from the duality perspective where we depart from mainstream views of development economics by considering innovations in both formal and informal firms. Our results suggest that firm product innovations offer unique opportunities to resolve key socio-economic challenges, such as employment creation and competitiveness, Africa faces today. These results are found to be valid irrespective of the registration status- formal and informal- of firms.