THE INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND MANAGERIAL INNOVATIONS - A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED NIGERIAN FIRMS

This was an exploratory study in which we examined managerial innovations in Nigeria. We interviewed 60 managers in 30 private and public organizations selected on the basis of having innovated in the two years before the study. We found a total of 104 entrepreneurial (20 per cent), technological (40 per cent) and administrative (37 per cent) innovations. The entrepreneurial innovations were significantly less because the institutional environment was characterized by entry as well as exit barriers. These included dependency and isolation from Western technology, political patronage and a high level of moral hazard. These barriers made innovations a costly and expensive venture into which organizations entered reluctantly so that the bulk of innovations were of the type that consolidated existing ventures or prevented their demise. To ensure success and to minimize risks, consultants were often called to advise on targeted innovations. This increased the costs still further. To justify costs, innovations were often perceived as image maintaining.