THE STATUS AND IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND INNOVATION ON THE PRODUCTIVITY AND COMPETITIVENESS OF SMALL-SCALE AGRO- PROCESSING BUSINESSES IN MASHONALAND CENTRAL (ZIMBABWE) AND FREE STATE (SOUTH AFRICA)

Abstract

The variations in agricultural production and declining food security situations in Zimbabwe and South Africa have been attributed to the low uptake of agricultural technology, the innovation chasm, low mechanisation and persistent climatic changes, which threaten human existence and the sustainable survival of agro-processing firms in both countries. As such, this study explores the status and impact of technology transfer and innovation on the productivity and competitiveness of selected small agro- processing firms in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Founded on a positivist epistemology, a quantitative approach, survey design and probabilistically sampled respondents, the study explored the extent to which technology transfer and innovation influence the levels of productivity and competitiveness in the small agro-processing firms in selected provinces in both countries. Percentage analyses and a non-parametric technique, the Spearman Correlation, were employed to assess the relationships among technology transfer, innovation, productivity and competitiveness of selected small agro-processing firms in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to test a number of predictive effects. Firstly, it was used to test the predictive effect of technology transfer and innovation on the financial productivity of these enterprises. Secondly, it was used to assess the predictive effects of technology transfer and innovation on the non-financial productivity of these agro-processing firms. The results revealed some positive and significant correlations of varying strengths among technology transfer, innovation, productivity and competitiveness in both Zimbabwe and South African samples. Mixed results were also reported on the impact of innovation and technology transfer on financial and non-financial productivity in both samples. For instance, the influence of innovation and technology transfer on financial productivity was non-significant for the Zimbabwean sample. In the South Africa sample, only technology transfer had a significant predictive influence on financial productivity. Furthermore, only technology transfer had a significant predictive effect on non-financial productivity with the Zimbabwean sample, whereas both innovation and technology transfer had a strong predictive effect on non-financial productivity. To some extent, the results validated the proposed conceptual model as a guiding tool for estimating agricultural productivity. Thus, the proposed model provides important theoretical and analytical lenses for academics, educators and policy-makers’ concerned with finding effective ways of enhancing agricultural productivity among small agro-based businesses in Zimbabwe and South Africa.