Transformations  in
Business & Economics

KEY FACTORS INFLUENCING MANUFACTURING FIRM'S INNOVATION IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY: SENEGAL AS SAMPLE
Kangjuan Lv, Cisse Ndiaya, Xiaosong Zheng

ABSTRACT. This paper is about to contribute to a better understanding of factors affecting innovation by analyzing the Senegalese manufacturing firms. Innovation is defined as the implementation of a product or a process new or substantially improved, a new organizational or marketing method. The study utilized enterprise survey data developed by the World Bank (Word Bank Enterprise Survey WBES) in 2014. The econometric analysis has shown significant results that confirm our three hypotheses which are: Innovation is affected by the knowledge intensity; Innovation is affected by the characteristics of the firm and finally Innovation is affected by the environment of the firm. The results indicate that large firms are better places for innovation. Also, the education level of the workers and their skills are inducing factors for successful innovations. The policy implications of the findings are that firms should make the significant factors their top priorities in their quest to boost innovation.

KEYWORDS: manufacturing firms, innovation, R&D, logistic model, Senegal.

JEL classification: P20, Q12, Q19.