Using a unique firm level data set on learning and product innovation in Tanzanian manufacturing and commercial farming, this paper sheds light on the various sources of firm learning, investment and collaboration and their relative importance for product innovation. The results indicate that...

The study identifies and analyses the factors that influenced the adoption of new technologies in SMEs. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been used as proxy of new technologies. The findings of the study suggest that industry-specific characteristics such as skill- and...

What really makes an economy competitive? This paper reviews and discusses how the capacity to generate, exploit and diffuse new knowledge is key in enabling countries to capitalise on challenges brought about by rapid technology-driven transformations rather than succumb to their adverse...

Innovation is a multilevel phenomenon. Not only characteristics of firms but also environment within which firms operate matter. Although this has been for long recognized in the literature, a quantitative test that explicitly concerns the hypothesis that framework conditions affect...

This paper theoretically analyses the dynamics of knowledge accumulation with the aim of understanding how developing economies can effectively engage in the process of knowledge accumulation. The main focus is on the complementarity between competence building and innovation. Our analysis is...

Using firm level data from five countries - Brazil, Ecuador, South Africa, Tanzania and Bangladesh - this paper examines the knowledge-based determinants of productivity of firms active in food processing, textiles, and garments and leather products. In particular, it seeks to investigate the...

This paper examines the discovery process of a recent and extraordinarily successful, nontraditional, export activity in developing country - namely the flower industry in Ethiopia. To be able to break into non-traditional exports, developing countries do not need to invent new products, but...

This paper employs both the descriptive and comparative approaches and uses the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's definition of Science and Technology (S&T) indicators (OECD, 1997) to discuss S&T development in Sudan. We find that the low level and the insufficient...

This article first reviews the economic rationales for innovation policy. It then describes the Finnish innovation policy and policy making environment. The Finnish policy is evaluated from the point of view of fostering entrepreneurship. R&D subsidies, the main tool of Finnish innovation...

Migration of skilled workers from developing countries has increased substantially in recent years. Traditionally, such patterns raised fears on the ground of the associated 'brain drain' as human capital formation is considered to be of central importance to the development and reduction of...