An institutional perspective to challenges undermining innovation activities in Africa

Abstract

Innovation is of paramount importance if Africa is to achieve sustained economic growth, development, and improved welfare of its people. In this context, the paper argues that institutional factors, despite their importance in shaping innovation on the continent, have received less attention. The paper is based on literature review and uses an institutional analysis framework to explore how institutional factors influence innovation activities. Institutions are the rules of the game – they determine if the game is played, how the game is played, who plays the game, and with what constraints. Currently, the institutions are not fair both at the national and international levels. The institutional set-up is not favourable for any meaningful innovation. Therefore, African governments should aim to create and promote strong and effective (enforceable) institutions at the national and continental levels. In addition, they should aim to have the international institutional set-up favourable to ensure its competitiveness.

Keywords:

• institutions
• innovation
• economy
• development
• Africa

Acknowledgements

The paper was first presented at the SARChI PhD Workshop ‘The Challenges of Making Innovation Systems in Africa’ held in 2011 at Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) in Pretoria, South Africa. We acknowledge the support from organizers and the participants' comments that greatly improved the earlier version of the paper. We thank the journal's editors and two anonymous reviewers for their insights and comments that helped improve this manuscript.

Notes

1. The IAD framework identifies key variables that are important in evaluating the role of institutions in shaping social interactions and decision-making processes (Ostrom 2007, 2011; Regents of the University of Colorado 2014). The IAD framework was pioneered by Elinor and Vincent Ostrom (Regents of the University of Colorado 2014).

2. Opportunistic behaviour encompasses deceitful behaviour intended to improve one's own welfare at the expense of others (Ostrom 2011).

3. A winner of the 1995 WIPO/OAU best African inventor award.