Network Proximity and Business Practices in African Manufacturing
Patterns of correlation in innovation and contractual practices among manufacturing firms in Ethiopia and Sudan are documented. Network data that indicate whether any two firms in the utilized sample do business with each other, buy inputs from a c...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/06/17797582/ http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15606 |
| Summary: | Patterns of correlation in innovation
and contractual practices among manufacturing firms in
Ethiopia and Sudan are documented. Network data that
indicate whether any two firms in the utilized sample do
business with each other, buy inputs from a common supplier,
or sell output to a common client are used for the analysis.
Only limited support is found for the commonly held idea
that firms that are more proximate in a network sense are
more likely to adopt similar practices. Indeed, for certain
practices, adoption decisions appear to be local strategic
substitutes: if one firm in a given location uses a certain
practice, nearby firms are less likely to do so. These
results suggest that the diffusion of technology and new
business practices may play a more limited role in spurring
growth in Africa's manufacturing sector than is often
assumed in the present policy discussion. |
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