DEVELOPING COUNTRY INDUSTRIALISATION PROGRAMME: INFERENCES FROM STATE-OWNED INDUSTRIAL ESTATE

摘要

The paper evaluated the innovation performance of firms and examined the challenges faced in Nigeria's industrial estates. A set of questionnaires was administered to 46 firms located in four small scale industrial estates out of which 41 (89.1%) responded. Data was gathered on innovation activities, networks and obstacles to firms' technological innovation. The empirical evidence suggests that firms engaged more in process innovation which is aimed at producing more with less. In addition, business interactions with suppliers and buyers are the major channels of information for firms' innovation while collaboration between the firms and research institutes was found to be weak. The study also revealed that despite the objectives these estates are set to achieve, firms in the estates are seriously constrained in terms of infrastructure and fund. The paper concluded that in order to increase innovation performance of firms located within the Nigerian industrial estates, there is need for policy intervention by government at restructuring and revitalising these estates for better industrial growth and economic development.