Determinants of process innovation in developing countries: Does a firm's formal versus informal status matter?
Résumé
Process innovation has been documented and shown to exert positive effects on firms' economic performance, especially on productivity. In view of these effects, a stream of literature has been developed concerning its determinants. However, in the context of developing countries, the potential effect of a firm's formal versus informal status on the introduction of process innovation specifically has been overlooked. In this paper, by using firm-level data from Côte d'Ivoire, a firm's formality status is found to influence positively and significantly the introduction of process innovation. This result remains unchanged when one considers the industrial, services and trade sectors separately. Policy implications are discussed.