An Assessment of Technological Capability Building in the Informal Nigerian Automobile Sector

B.A. Oluwale^1, , M.O. Ilori¹ and T.O. Oyebisi¹

¹African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Cite this paper

B.A. Oluwale, M.O. Ilori and T.O. Oyebisi. An Assessment of Technological Capability Building in the Informal Nigerian Automobile Sector. Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2013; 1(4):55-62. doi: 10.12691/JBMS-1-4-3

Abstract

The automobile industry has been one of the most prominent in Nigeria. This may be as a result of the fact that her economy moves on wheels. The auto-mechanic repairer has acquired a measure of capabilities as a result of learning by doing over the years. The study therefore examined technological capabilities in the auto-mechanic industry in Southwestern Nigeria with a view to determining the types of capabilities possessed by the auto-mechanics. A total of 385 copies of questionnaire were administered on master mechanics across three states by hand delivery. Two states comprising of cluster mechanics were purposively selected, while samples from the third state comprising of stand-alone mechanics were randomly selected. The following capabilities were observed in the industry: investment, marketing, linkage and minor change capabilities. The result showed that there was a significant (F=59.03, p<0.05) difference in the mean ratings of factors that show the abilities of master mechanics; and there was also a significant (F=547.17, p<0.05) difference in the mean ratings of linkages with different institutions.

Keywords

linkage capability, marketing capability, minor change capability, auto-mechanic industry, Nigeria

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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