The Form and Role of Innovativeness in Enhancing Firms’ Productivity: The Case of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Tanzania

Abstract

Development experience has shown that the countries that have undergone fast economic growth and structural change in the second half of the twentieth century are those that have based their productivity growth on rapid absorption of foreign technology and on increasing efficiency in the use of technology over time, and that have successfully developed and applied innovation through learning. Generally, the scale of operation, firm size, organisational structure, characteristics of the market, industrial policies, infrastructure, resource availability and the supporting institutions are crucial factors determining the nature and level of innovative activities. At the broader level, human resource development and access to finance and the legal and regulatory framework contribute to innovative achievement.