ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL AND MARKETING INNOVATIONS ON MEDIUM SCALE FOOD WHOLESALE MARKETING FIRM ABIA STATE, NIGERIA (Published)
The study assessed the effect of organizational and marketing innovations on selected medium scale food wholesale marketing firms in Abia State, Nigeria. The study focused on medium scale flour food wholesale marketing firms. The study employed a Yaro Yamen sample size estimation method to cull out 50 firms from the entire sample frame. These firms were randomly selected for the studies of various variables of interest. Data were gotten from respondents via questionnaire. The data analyses were carried out with descriptive statistics, income statement analysis, probit and multiple regression analyses. The study showed that the majority of flour food wholesale marketing firms in the study area were established between the periods of 6-10 years ago. The highest number of employee of the food wholesale marketing firms fall within the period of 11-20. The result also indicates that sole proprietorship were the highest ownership structure evidenced from the study. The greater number of the firms’ employee skills were semi-skilled. The firm’s major source of capital was gotten through equity source of finance. The dominant organization’s innovation strategies most adopted by the food wholesale firms were price strategy, product approaches, continuous and improvement aspect of innovation. The study however ensured a high quality management which confirmed a positive relationship between profitability and firms’ growth. This attests to a signal of efficiency in the firms’ management. The factors affecting organizational and marketing innovation strategies had significant relationships among the models respectively. Further, the effect of organizational and marketing innovation on medium scale flour food wholesale marketing firms performance and efficiency plausible as firm gross margin indicated sound profitability. Thus, there is the need for medium scale flour food wholesale marketing firms to employ the employ organizational and marketing innovation strategies complementarily in responding to the ever changing market needs of the food industry.
Keywords: Firm, Food, Innovation, Marketing, Medium, Organizational, Wholesale