MODELING THE INDICES OF ORGANIZATIONAL AND MARKETING INNOVATIONS ADOPTED BY SMALL SCALE FLOUR AGRO- MARKETING FIRMS ABIA STATE, NIGERIA (Published)
A detailed analysis of the indices of organizational and marketing innovations has been examined in this study. The specific objectives duly analyzed were identification of the features of small scale flour marketing firms; analysis of the profitability and efficiency of the firms using income statement; ascertaining the determinants and indices of organizational, marketing and technological innovations. The technique of data collection was firstly a purposive sampling method to choose Aba and Umuahia Metropolis and small scale flour marketing firms and; secondly a random sampling selection technique was employed in selecting fifty specific firms for the study. The data elicited from sampling of fifty small scale flour marketing firms were analysed via descriptive statistics, income statement, probit and Ordinary Least Square Multiple regression analyses. The report from the results analyses showed that the significant indices of marketing innovation were price strategy, promotion strategy, distribution method, sales method, packaging and production strategies. On the other hand, significant indices of organizational innovation included work arrangement, quality management, motivation, use of promotion, product modification and employee schedule. The organizational innovation was highly significant than marketing innovation of small scale flour marketing firms in contributing towards enhancing the performance of small scale flour marketing firms. Thus, the organizational and marketing innovation indices analyzed in this work remained very significant and highly important tools for profitable marketing activity and in unlocking the marketing potentials of the firms and in encouraging competitive advantage over other firms that were indifferent about the strength of these organizational and marketing innovations. The study indicated that any small scale flour marketing firm that adopted for proper marketing and organizational innovations adapted successfully to emerging marketing challenges. Thus, it is recommended that small scale flour marketing firms should properly engage in organizational innovation involving work arrangement and effective employee work schedule which will contributing efficiently to better firm performance. Further, it is recommended that small scale flour marketing firms should include in their innovation portfolios price strategy, promotion strategy, distribution method, sales method, packaging, motivation, work arrangement, and product modification respectively which have the potentials to sustain the performance of the firms extensively.
Keywords: Determinants, Firm, Flour, Innovations, Marketing, Modeling, Organizational