Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Startups and innovative enterprise get information and support services about innovation, innovation ecosystem and tech startups/ entrepreneurs that make innovation happen.
In this context, the actors would include the material resources (funds, equipment, facilities, etc.), the government (enabling and regulator roles through policy and resources) and the human capital (students, faculty, staff, industry researchers, industry representatives, etc.) that make up the institutional entities participating in the ecosystem. The purpose of building an innovation ecosystem to address the development challenges through innovation as
it is necessary to wholistic development and to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that relies on the ability to innovate.
Generally, Innovation Systems (Innovation Ecosystem) in Africa are broadly characterized for having low levels of science and technology activities, a high reliance on government or foreign donors as a source of R&D, limited science-industry linkages, low absorptive capacity of firms, limited use of IP, and a challenging business environment. (WIPO)
Innovation: a trajectory from ‘inception’ all the way through to ‘impact’, which goes beyond a single moment of invention.
The term “innovation” may refer to a variety of approaches and activities:
- High tech but also low tech
- R&D based but also grass roots, business based, and tech based.
- Products but also services
- New Products but also improved production processes
- Big firms but also SMEs
- Manufacturing but also agriculture
- Radical but also Incremental
- Technological but also non technological (Marketing, organizational)
- Technological push but also market pull
- Startups but also SMEs
Innovation as a Social Process
- Technologies or practices that are new within a given society.
- They are not necessarily new in absolute terms.
- These technologies or practices are being diffused in that economy or society.
- What is not disseminated and used is not an innovation.
- Innovation is distinct from research and in fact need not result from it.
- Innovations come from the entrepreneurs who make them happen and ultimately depend on a society’s receptiveness.