Browsing by Author "Okumu, Ibrahim Mike"

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    Internal innovations, foreign technology and productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa’s manufacturing
    (Research square, 2022) Bbaale, Edward; Kilimani, Nicholas; Okumu, Ibrahim Mike; Tumwebaze, Henry
    Internal firm innovations and external knowledge/technology transfer are key for spurring the growth of firms and economies. We investigate whether firms that engage in such innovations are more likely to be productive than others as well determine if external knowledge transfers may have an effect on labor productivity mediated by the existence of internal absorptive capacity (generated by human capital and R&D). Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey of 26 African countries and employing both OLS and 2SLS, we find that firms that engage in innovations experience more growth. Most fundamentally, importation of inputs alone in the absence of other innovations does not maximize firm productivity. Finally, firms with a higher absorptive capacity in addition to the other innovations enjoy higher efficiency gains from their imported inputs irrespective firm ownership and size. Government should pursue policies that enhance internal absorptive capacity so as to enable firms tap the global opportunities.
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    Labour Productivity among Small- and Medium-scale Enterprises in Uganda: the Role of Innovation
    (Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2018) Okumu, Ibrahim Mike; Buyinza, Faisal
    Using the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey data for Uganda, this paper employs the quintile estimation technique to explain the relationship between labour productivity and innovation among SMEs. Innovation involves the introduction of a new or significantly improved production process, product, marketing technique or organisational structure. Our results indicate that the relationship between labour productivity and a firm engaging in any form of innovation is neutral. However, there is evidence of complementarity among product, process, marketing and organisational innovation. Specifically, there is a positive association between labour productivity and innovation when a firm engages in all the four innovation types. Even then, the complementarity effect turns out weakly positive with incidences of negative relationship when using any combination of innovations that are less than the four types of innovations. Our results suggest that efforts to incentivise innovation should be inclusive enough to induce all the four forms of innovation.
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    Performance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Uganda: the Role of Innovation
    (AERC., 2020) Okumu, Ibrahim Mike; Buyinza, Faisal
    Using the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey data for Uganda, this paper employs the quintile estimation technique to explain the relationship between innovation and firm performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovation involves the introduction of a new or significantly improved production process, product, marketing technique or organizational structure. Our results indicate that individual processing, product, marketing and organizational innovations have no impact on labour productivity as proxied by sales per worker. However, the results indicate the presence of complementarity between the four types of innovation. Specifically, the effect of innovation on sales per worker is positive when an SME engages in all four types of innovation. Even then the complementarity is weakly positive with incidences of a negative relationship when using any combination of innovations that are less than the four types of innovation. Policy-wise the results suggest that efforts to incentivize innovation should be inclusive enough to encourage all four forms of innovation.