Adoption of Innovations and Productivity of Enterprises in French-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa: Case of Cameroon, Senegal and Ivory Coast
Date
2021-10-04
Authors
Dumas, Tsambou André
Ludwick, Ndokang Esone
Olive, Nganguem Armelle
Aline, Zobo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research Consortium
Abstract
The productivity of firms is the result of many factors, including their ability to
innovate. For most authors, innovation can be diversified into product, process,
organization and marketing innovation. The objective of this work is to highlight the
impact of the adoption of innovations on firms’ productivity in Cameroon, Senegal
and Ivory Coast. This work is based on the survey “Determinants of firms’ performance
in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Senegal”
conducted among 1,897 companies (639 in Cameroon, 723 in Senegal and 535 in
Ivory Coast ) in 2014 by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). This
work uses a methodology consisting of two blocks of equations with a repeating
structure. By estimating these equations using the bivariate probit and Double Least
Squares (DLS) methods, the study finds that technological and non-technological
innovations are complementary and have important effects on productivity of firms.
This complementarity is proof that technological innovation contributes better to
productivity when it is accompanied by non-technological innovation and vice versa.
However, the introduction of new products (or services) accompanied by new methods
of organization and marketing have a greater effect on the productivity of enterprises.
Description
Keywords
Adoption of innovations , Enterprises , Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa , Productivity