Understanding SME Techno-Entrepreneurship in Nigeria's IT Clusters

Introduction

The adoption of technology in everyday business and social life has created thousands of jobs in the form of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) which have become significant contributors to gross domestic products (GDP) of several national economies. These MSMEs overtime aggregate to form business clusters that are typical of innovation hubs, technology clusters, and commercial nerves that support business and everyday lifestyle. These clusters have become integral to the development of local contents for solving indigenous problems. Waldman-Brown, Obeng and Adu-Gyamfi (2013) define a cluster as a large conglomeration of firms in related industries, located in a specific region. Entrepreneurs in information and technology clusters largely depend on informal knowledge in order to acquire skills that will enable them effectively tackle IT problems. Bakar and Zainol (2015) note that these entrepreneurs (especially those in technological clusters) have the potential to advance indigenous technology if well nurtured. Their reliance on informal knowledge continues to grow mainly because they are mostly artisans who have no formal education. Given the need to grow their competence and innovativeness, networking and collaboration among co-operators within and outside ICT clusters where they operate are have become imperative.

There is also the rapid-obsolescence of technology which means that new knowledge of emerging technologies is needed to meet service support needs. Entrepreneurs must be able to identify and absorb knowledge from the immediate and wider environments in order to meet their clients’ needs. This requires interaction with different types of actors for the accumulation, synthesis and codification of the relevant information and knowledge needed to actualize different types of innovations (Nwagwu & Ibeku, 2016; Tepic et al., 2012). Innovations occur in various establishments; however, innovative technology businesses are often located in clusters (Baptista & Swann, 1998; Porter, 1998; West, 2001; David-West, Umukoro, & Onuoha, 2018) in what is typical to business incubation and acceleration setting. Similarly, collaboration or teamwork also facilitates the development of new ideas that might emanate from customers, employees and competitors. For example, feedbacks from customers on a product’s use could be considered useful in the subsequent modification or design of the product. Through this iterative knowledge reconstruction, new products (frugal outcomes) that are tailored towards customer needs begin to evolve through a frugal mindset and process (David-West, Iheanachor & Umukoro, 2019a).

Nigeria has over the years been a large consumer of information and communication technologies with low innovative and development capabilities in the IT space. The cost of technology is however often too high for the mass market, thus calling for a frugal mindset in bridging the technology divide between and within nations (Soni & Krishnan, 2014) classified as developed, developing and under-developed economies. There is also the digitisation of businesses and processes alongside the emergence of new business models that disrupt the incumbent traditional pipe businesses (David-West et al., 2018). In response to this digital disruption, many businesses have now migrated from the traditional model for digital enterprises while some are still in their evolutionary stages. This paradigm shift has created another category of entrepreneurship known as techno-entrepreneurship that is manned by a new archetype of entrepreneurs now framed as techno-entrepreneurs or digital-entrepreneurs.