3D Printing: Enabler of Social Entrepreneurship in Africa? The Roles of...
Authored by: Tobias Schonwetter and Bram Van Weile
Abstract: Recognising the potential of 3D printing technology for facilitating locally relevant innovation and social entrepreneurship in...
Strengthening innovation support systems at Ghana’s Suame Magazine
In my previous blog on skills development and innovation at Ghana’s Suame Magazine, I showed how the high level of collaboration and sharing of knowledge and skills within the cluster is contributing to innovation. Further, I provided some preliminary findings on the inability of these artisans’ to keep pace with the changing technology landscape. I also found that few artisans expressed interest in joining or maintaining a membership with local trade associations due to these associations’ inability to implement their key mandate of skills development and facilitation of business for members and firms.
Open AIR initie un débat intra-africain sur l’informel à l’ère de...
Par Abdelhamid Benhmade
En collaboration avec le Centre de recherche en droit, technologie et société (CDTS), DST/NRF/ Newton Fund Trilateral Research Chair in Transformative Innovation, et,...
Fablabs et le développement durable de l’Afrique
Par Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou
Je suis Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou, doctorant en Communication Publique à l’Université Laval (Québec, Canada). Je m’intéresse à la contribution des tiers-lieux de...
Skills Development and Innovation at Suame Magazine, Ghana
Funded by the Open AIR network, my case study is about skills development and innovation at Ghana’s Suame Magazine Industrial Cluster. The research I am conducting seeks to understand the processes and systems that contribute to how knowledge is or is not shared and how skills are acquired in one of West Africa’s largest informal sector industrial clusters, Suame Magazine. How skills are learned and what is communicated between those in the industrial cluster will help us to learn how innovations are shared and taught among these informal businesses.
Highlighting Inclusion of Marginalized Voices at International Conferences: A NERG’s experience
By Nicole Tumaine
Over the past four months, I have had the privilege of attending three international conferences as a panelist thanks to the generous...
Determinants of Innovation in Ethiopian Informal-Sector Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs)
Authored by: Wondwossen Belete
Abstract: This Working Paper examines the main factors affecting the process of learning and innovation in informal-sector micro and small enterprises...
Africa’s Maker Movement: An Overview of Ongoing Research
Makerspaces are places where people gather to build projects, learn new technologies, and develop entrepreneurial opportunities. Open AIR is conducting research on makerspaces across the African continent.
Understanding the Dynamics of Knowledge Transfer in Nigeria’s Otigba Hardware Cluster
So what is the Otigba Computer Village? Oyelaran-Oyeyinka in 2006 described it as the biggest ICT hub of West Africa – perhaps the biggest ICT market in all of Africa – because of the size and the volume of business activities carried out on a daily basis within the cluster. The research I have been conducting looks at the knowledge dynamics at play in the informal ICT businesses in the cluster, with a view to understanding how these dynamics drive informal enterprises’ innovation and scaling-up. While other studies of the cluster have evaluated the size and capacity of the cluster, the evolution of the cluster, mode of operation, performance, sustainability and constraints, there are no studies looking at how the local businesses identify new and useful knowledge. With over 5000 businesses in the cluster, there is bound to be knowledge exchange either through spillover or conscious transfer. How is this happening?
“Making” Innovation Happen: Open AIR Hosts a Successful Workshop on the...
How the world evolves in the next decade (and beyond) may be dependent upon a new-age movement re-instilling age-old skills: the maker movement. In my ongoing research into the maker movement in Canada and South Africa (see earlier posts here and here), I recently co-hosted a workshop in Ottawa with attendees from the University of Ottawa, representatives of makerspaces in the community, and those with knowledge about makerspaces elsewhere in the world.