Elijah Bitange Ndemo

By Bitange Ndemo and Dennis Aiko

Innovation and creativity are the backbone of entrepreneurship. Domestic and international competition, changing government regulations and rapidly shifting market conditions demand constant creative innovation for corporations to survive. Despite an increase in the number of innovations from African enterprises and research institutions in the current digital age, there is a lack of investment in innovation and creativity to ensure the sustainability of the continent's enterprises. This chapter seeks to address the problem of how to support innovation and creativity in African enterprises by combining two theories of diffusion of innovation and product life cycle through examples from Kenya. Existing research on innovation and creativity tends to focus on the diffusion of technologies on the continent but fails to question the role of the mindset of entrepreneurs, the role of the individual, and the current trajectory of innovation in Africa as it pertains to the industrial revolutions elsewhere in the world. This chapter focuses on local expressions of innovation or the relationships that exist between their different components. Consequently, it aims to provide an overview of how innovation and creativity can be locally supported as a strategy for building durable and profitable enterprises in Africa.

Part of the book: Entrepreneurship