Entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana: enterprising Africa

By P. Robson, H. Haugh, B. Obeng. 2009

255 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study adopts a multi-level theoretical framework to examine data from 496 entrepreneurs in Ghana. Seven types of innovation activity are analysed against three categories of variables: the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the internal competencies of the firm, and firm location. Across all respondents, the incidence of incremental innovation was far greater than novel innovation. The extent of innovation was related to the education level of the entrepreneur. Firm size and involvement in exporting were positively related to innovation, but firm growth is less systematically so. Innovation was greater in firms located in conurbations compared to firms located in large and small towns. We conclude with suggestions for policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana.

Subfields: Business and International Management, Economics and Econometrics, Management of Technology and Innovation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d0804db692bf8e27b985d769b555a7cc5c153788

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Business and International Management

1. H. Haugh
2. P. Robson

In Economics and Econometrics

1. H. Haugh
2. B. Obeng
3. P. Robson
4. David Botchie

In Management of Technology and Innovation

1. H. Haugh
2. B. Obeng
3. P. Robson
4. Vinciane Servantie
5. M. Hlady‐Rispal

Citations in the corpus

• Strategic entrepreneurship and small firm growth in Ghana (2014, background): “In Ghana, small firms are considered to be low innovators, and this has been explained by low educational qualifications, poor skills and competences and low levels of training (Robson et al., 2009; Wolf, 1999).”
• International entrepreneurship: A critical analysis of studies in the past two decades and future directions for research (2012, unknown): “…Fischer (1997, 2002) Rialp and Rialp (2007) Rialp et al. (2005a, b) Rialp-Criado et al. (2010) Ripollés and Blesa (2012) Ripollés-Meliá et al. (2007) Robson et al. (2009) Ruokonen et al. (2008) Ruzzier et al. (2006, 2007a, b) Sainio et al. (2011) Santos and García (2011) Sapienza et al. (2006)…”
• Developing entrepreneurship in Africa: investigating critical resource challenges (2017, background): “Examining the development crisis that faces Africa, Robson et al. (2009) noted that the development of these MSMEs would help alleviate poverty, generate employment and develop the economy.”
• Innovation and productivity in formal and informal firms in Ghana (2017, unknown): “…in recent years an increasing number of empirical studies have analysed the role of innovation in LIC firms, both exploring its determinants (Goedhuys, 2007; Robson et al., 2009) and the impact it has on various firm performance indicators (Gebreeyesus, 2009; Goedhuys et al., 2008, 2014).”
• The Schumpeterian entrepreneur: a review of the empirical evidence on the antecedents, behaviour and consequences of innovative entrepreneurship (2017, unknown): “The importance of firm characteristics for innovation is one of the key results from these studies: firm size, location, organizational form and an entrepreneurial attitude are associated with a firm’s innovativeness (Sundbo, Orfila-Sintes, and Sørensen 2007; Robson, Haugh, and Obeng 2009).”