Types and Drivers of Innovation in the Manufacturing Sector of Ghana

Abstract

The study sought to identify the type and drivers of innovation with special reference to the manufacturing sector of Ghana. This study employed Probit regression model on the 2013 Ghana Enterprise Survey and the 2014 Ghana Innovation Follow-Up Survey. The results showed that market innovation is the predominant type of innovation among the manufacturing firms in Ghana. Product innovation and process innovation were found to be driven by internal R&D. It was also discovered that organisational innovation is positively driven by the age of the firm, training of production staff and internally installed internet. We further found that female top managers, internal R&D, training of production staff and internally installed internet drive market innovation. In order to aid the innovation activities, government should subsidize internal R&D activities and companies should engage in constant training of production staff in the manufacturing firms.