Creativity, innovation and employment growth in sub-Saharan Africa
Medase, Stephen Kehinde (University of Bremen. Faculty of Business Studies and Economics)
Savin, Ivan (ESCP Business School)

Date:	2024
Description:	24 pàg.
Abstract:	Purpose: Although employees' creativity is vital for firm innovation and overall performance, little is done to examine the potential association between creativity and employment. This paper investigates the contribution of employees' creativity, process and product innovations to firm-level employment growth. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use data from World Bank Enterprise Survey and Innovation Follow-up Survey on 9503 firms covering the period 2012-2015 in 11 countries from sub-Saharan Africa and Heckman's two-stage estimation model. Findings: This study's results indicate a positive role of creativity on firm-level employment growth. In addition, the authors find evidence for a complementary effect arising from the combination of creativity with managerial experience, staff level of education and their associated skills, in contrast, combining creativity with internal or external R&D results in a substitution effect. Interestingly, these synergy effects are pronounced for SMEs but absent for large firms. Practical implications: Policy makers in developing economies of sub-Saharan Africa should stimulate company management to use free time offered to employees to be creative in the workplace as one of their key strategies to stimulate employment growth. This strategy is expected to be particularly fruitful among SMEs having some managerial experience and skilled stuff. Originality/value: In contribution to innovative work practices and workforce creativity, the authors demonstrate that providing employees with free time could be an alternative way to enhance the focal firms' performance.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Firm size ; Free time ; Open innovation ; R&D ; Synergy effect
Published in:	African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, Vol. 15, issue 2 (2024) , p. 224-247, ISSN 2040-0713

DOI: 10.1108/AJEMS-02-2022-0074

24 p, 547.9 KB

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