Analysis & Opinions - New African

Enterprises Must Promote Innovation

| August 21, 2015

Entrepreneurship is generally viewed as the process of starting a business or organisation. It is a creative act that adds a new institutional element to the economy.

Much of the discussion about entrepreneurship focuses broadly on economic transformation and job creation.

But as stressed in the 10-year Science, Technology and Innovation for Africa Strategy (STISA-2024), enterprises play a vital role as loci for the search, adaptation and diffusion of technological know-how. In this regard, enterprises should be viewed as centres of technological learning and not simply sources of jobs and products.

Pursuing this view rests on the premise that technological capabilities usually accumulate in enterprises. This is because it is enterprises that develop internal competence to compete in the market. Technology-based firms are therefore the central actors in entrepreneurial ecosystems....

Continue reading: http://newafricanmagazine.com/calestous-juma-enterprises-must-promote-innovation

For more information on this publication: Belfer Communications Office
For Academic Citation: Juma, Calestous.“Enterprises Must Promote Innovation.” New African, August 21, 2015.

The Author

Calestous Juma

Calestous Juma

  • Former Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
  • Former Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
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