Title: Knowledge spillover, human capital and agglomeration dynamics in Nigeria's ICT clusters

Authors: Olusesan Michael Awoleye

Addresses: African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Abstract: There is a dearth of robust and recent empirical researches on the dynamics of geographical proximity of firms as it relates to business performance in the context of ICT firms in Nigeria. This paper thus leveraged Marshall-Arrow-Romer on externalities to investigate the effect of co-location on the firm's performance. The research surveyed 228 chief executives in three major ICT clusters in Nigeria, including the Otigba Computer Village, Lagos. Twenty cluster-related questionnaire items were completed by the firms involved in sales, maintenance and manufacturing of ICT products. Factor analysis extracted seven latent variables capable of impacting business performance in the selected clusters. This explains 71.45% of the accumulated variance. However, a confirmatory test thereafter confirmed only four of these factors. These are human capital, coopetition, resource sharing and outsourcing. The study thus highlighted theoretical relevance and advanced some policy suggestions to further strengthen the activities of the businesses in the clusters.

Keywords: business performance; knowledge spillover; human capital; coopetition; resource sharing; outsourcing; ICT cluster; agglomeration; cluster; Nigeria.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2022.121695

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2022 Vol.27 No.3, pp.352 - 382

Received: 14 Nov 2019
Accepted: 20 Feb 2020

Published online: 24 Mar 2022 *

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