Title:
ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN FIRMS: CASE STUDY OF PACKAGED WATER PRODUCTION FIRMSIN OSUN NIGERIA

Authors:
Festa Ndutimi OKRIGWE*, Abdi Yuya Ahmad (Ph.D) ,Ololade Grace ADEWOLE and Omimakinde, E.A,Nigeria

Abstract:
This paper assessed the current technological innovation activities of packaged water producing firms in Osun, Nigeria. A qualitative study was conducted comprising of interviews in a semistructured format of telephone and face-to-face interviews with observations. Four main themes were identified from the data collected, specifying the technologies use for the treatment of water and the production of the bottles and packaging processes. Participants described the relative issues of the chosen types of technologies, their technological learning capability as a firm and the environmental and safety measures put in place that has contributed to their competitive strategy and technological innovation, invariably leading to their perceived performance improvement. Despite this, respondents however identified some challenges the firm is facing with the adoption of their choices of technology, environment, safety and the market. Based on these, a technology assessment framework was developed to assess packaged water producing firms with three thematic themes such as Technological Learning, Technological Choice and technological type. This implies that the potentials of these three factors are the key drivers to assessing technological innovations and overall environmental impact on society