Narrow Results

It has been established in both developed and emerging economies that geographic concentration of firms contributed in no small ways to the growth of country’s economy. However, in developing countries like Nigeria, what constitutes innovation capability needed to transform local innovation system towards indigenisation of ICT products among the ICT clustered firms is not known; and where data are available, they are somewhat outdated. This paper therefore presented empirical evidences on Innovation capability among agglomerated MSMEs in Nigeria. The research adapted the 6th Community Innovation Survey (CIS) on 228 owners of ICT clustered enterprises. It was found that nontechnical innovations were more prevalent in the clusters. It was also discovered that firms with appropriate mix of both internal and external sources of Innovation Capability performed better. The research thus added to the body of knowledge in development literature on the role of capability mix in innovation management.

In a conventional view, customers just purchase the goods or services created by companies. But the role of customers has changed. Now customers are seeking to practice their influence in every part of the business system as a co-creator. What is co-creation? Is it like customization? The answer is yes and no. The difference between co-creation and customization depends on the degree of involvement of the customer in the business. Generally, the customer plays a much more active role in co-creation than customization. Co-creation refers to almost every part of a business, but customization is restricted to the end stage of production. Co-creation can happen in the process of sales support, which can ultimately improve sales performance. This paper illustrates the relationships among co-creation, sales support and sales performance, and designs an experiment to test.