How and when adversity breeds ingenuity in an emerging market

Studies have shown how collaboration is crucial to innovation. The missing link is the degree to which collaborative capabilities shape innovation, especially frugal innovation, in the presence of environmental uncertainty and weak institutions. We propose a moderated mediation model based on the strategy tripod perspective by examining environmental threats through the mediating mechanism of co-innovation capability. The mediated relationship is further enhanced by legal incompleteness.

The view is that perceived environmental threats can allow firms to heighten their innovative strategies, which we believe can have ripple effects on their performance through increasing collaborative capabilities.

A time-lagged research design allowed us to test our model empirically on manufacturing firms in Ghana. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by demonstrating how firms respond to environmental threats through their capabilities to shape frugal innovation.

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Contact: Dr. Stephen Kehinde Medase