Innovation in Africa

Africa is a continent with a population of 1.1 billion people among which 902 million people live in sub-Saharan Africa (population reference bureau, 2012).This represent a great pool of potential consumers and customers. However, developing nations especially Africa has not experienced so many breakthroughs in the area of innovation. Thus, Africa has been depending on technologies from other developed nations or using its own local and un-developed technologies especially in agriculture, ornaments and medicine. In the same vein, most scholars from Africa have not been featuring much in the international journals or they do not have much stories to write on technology because of little breakthrough on technological innovation. However, there are good examples of other industries such as music and film such as Nolywood of Nigeria. Moreover, many countries in Africa seeing the challenges of technological innovations have taken some measures in enhancing innovations such as policy reformations such as encouraging the Diaspora to come back to Africa and dual citizenship, building of technology and Innovation institutions and inviting the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and building networking with world known universities and Institutes of Technologies.

Nyaundi (2011) argued that Africa’s unique environment needs innovations that are tailored to its unique needs. This is because it has many poor people at the bottom of the world economic pyramid, mushrooming middle class and few established elites. Thus relevant innovation for Africa has to be somewhat unique and should carter around the unique environment needs by targeting the African consumers. This implies that relevant innovations of other parts of the world must not necessary be relevant to majority of Africans because what is novel innovation in the developing world is the innovation that has been able to transform the environment profoundly (Ogburn (1941), as cited by Godin,, 2008) other than new products a firm introduces yearly (Katila, 2002).

Nyaundi (2011) stated that the yardsticks for measuring innovations in Africa can be number of researchers present in a country, Gross domestic expenditures on R&D, the number of publications in scientific and technical journals and number of patent applications.

In order Africa to attract attention of widest readership it must come with innovations that can solve its own challenges so that it may be able to alleviate its position as the continent behind technological frontier. This can be done by Africans and its scientists to networks with scientists from other parts of the world and study at other technologies and innovations done elsewhere and copy it to fit its own environment. This is supported by Eapen (2012) who argued that domestic firms and scientists with network ties to foreign ones, compared to those without network ties are better positioned to search and transfer innovations easily.

The research question of this essay hinges around what are the viable strategies that scholars in developing world and Africa in particular can use to make their theoretic work interesting enough to fetch the widest possible readership.

 The following strategies could be adopted in order to make African scholars’ work interesting, relevant and fetch widest possible readership:

Publication of scholars’ knowledge creation on discoveries that have proved to change people’s lives significantly into the international journals

People are used to new type of knowledge and innovations from developed world. However in the developing world there are many good things concerning   knowledge creation that go unnoticed because they are not reported. Such new knowledge creation can be obtained from R&D, production experience, informal trial and error and serendipitous insights. The new knowledge must be the one that have been able to impact people’s lives .Thus, developing world scholars can get widest possible readership of their theoretical work of  innovations by publishing them in the international journals. Publications can be from different sectors such as agriculture, medicine or engineering where new knowledge has caused innovations to occur. This could include experiences that have changed the way life and work is done significantly. For example how the Mobile banking has changed money transfer to the areas where there are no financial institutions in the remote areas of Africa or how the distance education has been enhanced by the use of technology especially internet in training services such publications can explore the opportunities and challenges experienced in African context (Dahlman, 2008).Or they can be traditional issues that indigenous have been used but better people’s lives such as medicine or foods.

Publication on researches that have contributed to economic development

Publications in the academic journal is a channel of transferring knowledge from academic to industry (Hong, 2008).Thus, scholars should publish how their researches have contributed to economic development, providing solutions  to  key developing world challenges and how it has contributed in reduction of poverty in such sectors as  agriculture, engineering and in medicine. This can be achieved by integrating university system, or research institutions with potential users of their research. This strategy was used by American Universities and research institutions and this is the reason why USA has experienced such a robust innovation development (Nelson, 2004). Almeida et al (2011) argued that collaboration between firm owners and university professors is the way to access knowledge on emerging technologies and scientific discoveries because universities focus more on risky early stage research that have no commercial value. In the same vein, Hong (2008) argues that localised ties with star scientists tend to raise firms performance.

Formulation of networks and collaboration with the world leading researchers

This type of research collaboration allows knowledge diffusion which make easy to create local knowledge that can be published in the international journals. This can be achieved when local scientists there is team up with world leading researchers. Due to this collaboration between world’s leading researchers and local scientists, the great audience of readers would like to know the new knowledge that explain about new exploration that happens in the developing world (Barnard et al, 2010)

Networking with local, extra local and World known Universities and Research Institutions

Hong (2008) argued that presence of universities and other research institutions is a major sign in creating learning and new knowledge. The presence of universities is a good indicator of innovation potential as universities are significant contributor of industry innovations through conducting applied research and making its results available for commercial use. Therefore through collaboration and networking, knowledge transfer can be obtained in codified and non codified forms. Through codified form, knowledge transfer can be obtained through publications, patents and contract R&D projects while in non –codified forms (tacit component) knowledge transfer can be obtained through collaborative research and informal consultations. This implies that when universities and research institutions from various regions of the world collaborate and network they open up new avenues for knowledge creation that can solve local problems facing local context. This is supported by Eapen (2012) who argued that domestic firms (universities) with network ties to foreign ones, compared to those without network ties are better positioned to search and transfer innovations easily. Besides, world known universities have enough funds that can be used for research purposes than domestic universities. Such researches can results into inventions that can results into new products and processes which can be very interesting when published worldwide as they solve people’s challenges.

Conclusion

In Africa there are plenty of innovations, only that they are not documented and it is not codified in a scientific manner. Moreover these innovations are found and utilized among the older generations of Africa. The requirement should be the scientists from Africa to team up with indigenous Africans users of technology and other world researchers to codify it and put it in the world exposure through publication and tell the world new innovations of Africa. Those discoveries can come from sectors such as medicine and agriculture. Moreover if Africa want much innovation she should improve institutions especially in the areas of patenting and licensing as this will encourage sharing of old tacit knowledge to be exposed into codification. Lastly strategies that scientist in Africa can use to attract widest readership is to create  new knowledge that can be obtained through  networking with local, extra local and world known universities and research institutions, formulation of networks and collaboration with the world leading researchers, publication on researches that have contributed to economic development and publish any new knowledge that has changed life profoundly in the African environment in the international journals and media.

Reference

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Hong W., (2008).Decline of the centre: The decentralizing process of knowledge transfer of Chinese universities from 1985 to 2004.Research Policy, 37(4) 580-595

Katila R., (2002).New product search over time: Past ideas in their prime? Academy of Management Journal, 45 (5), 99-110

Nelson, R.R., (2004).The challenge of Building an Effective, Innovation System for Catch-up. Oxford Development Studies, 32(3).365-374

Nyaundi, B., (2011).Success factors for innovation and new product development in Africa. The Marketing and social Research Association Conference, 2011: Africa a   new Frontier? Retrieved from http://www.msra.or.ke/documents/conference/2011/MSRA%20Conference%202011

Population reference bureau (2012).World Population data sheet