Title: Are African micro- and small enterprises misunderstood? Unpacking the relationship between work organisation, capability development and innovation

Authors: Erika Kraemer-Mbula; Edward Lorenz; Lotta Takala-Greenish; Oluseye Oladayo Jegede; Tukur Garba; Musambya Mutambala; Timothy Esemu

Addresses: SARChI in Industrial Development, School of Economics, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, 31 Henley Road, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa ' GREDEG, University of Côte d'Azur, 250 rue Albert Einstein, 06560 Valbonne, France ' Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Law, University of the West of England; SARChI in Industrial Development, School of Economics, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, 31 Henley Road, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa ' SARChI in Industrial Development, School of Economics, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, 31 Henley Road, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa ' Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, PMB 2346, Sokoto, Nigeria ' Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research Organisation (STIPRO), P.O. Box 75027 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ' Department of Marketing and International Business, Makerere University Business School, P.O. Box 1337, Kampala, Uganda

Abstract: Mainstream studies on innovation consider innovation processes as necessarily driven by expenditures on formal R&D and the input of engineers and scientists with third-level degrees. This bias in the literature has led to the view that micro- and small enterprises (MSEs), which constitute the majority of Africa's enterprise base, are non-innovative. Building on an existing critique largely emerging from developing countries, this study provides evidence that, despite their lack of formal R&D expenditures, MSEs in Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda are in fact active innovators. The paper argues that the mainstream literature fails to capture important dynamics and practices that are central to innovation in MSEs. Arguing that the way work activity is organised is closely linked to learning, capability development and, ultimately, innovation, the paper unpacks the relationships between these three processes with evidence from MSEs in the four African countries. The empirical findings demonstrate that an important basis for the innovativeness of African MSEs is the adaptability of employees and their ability to learn on the job and to make use of their own ideas in solving the problems they face in work.

Keywords: innovation; micro- and small enterprises; MSEs; Africa; work organisation; learning; capability building; informal economy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTLID.2019.097411

International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 2019 Vol.11 No.1, pp.1 - 30

Received: 15 Aug 2017
Accepted: 01 Jun 2018
Published online: 21 Jan 2019 *

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