Globally, the industrial sector substantially contributes to the high level of the world’s consumption of energy, natural resources and generation of waste. It is one of the most energy and resource intensive sectors in the world. Nigeria, one of the largest economies in Africa, does not have a clear cut policy on eco-innovation. More importantly, in light of the challenges such as resource scarcity, inadequate power supply, hazardous substances and waste generation, resource inefficiency and high intensity energy consumption facing the industrial sector, there is an urgent need to assess the policy measures that will guarantee transition to a sustainable manufacturing (UNEP 2011) which is fair and creates social and economic benefits in the country. However, before these can be achieved, it is crucial to understand how firms access, assimilate and develop the knowledge needed to reduce their environmental footprints. The overall objective of ECO-innovation and the Dynamics of External Knowledge Sourcing (ECO-DEKS) is to examine the dynamics of alliance portfolio for eco-innovation in the manufacturing and service sectors of Nigeria using both qualitative and quantitative data. ECO-DEKS focuses on the two sectors because of their significance to environmental sustainability. Together, these two sectors account for 70.84% of the GDP of the Nigerian economy in 2017. The sectors are similar in that they are characterized by considerable innovation potentials and by the highest potential environmental gains, but differ in terms of technology and the context within which the economic agents act. Therefore, the way in which firms within each sector access external knowledge useful for innovation is arguably and markedly different. To date, virtually no evidence exists regarding how eco-innovative firms in the manufacturing and service sectors access and implement analytic and synthetic external knowledge for competitive green advantage particularly within the context of developing countries. Shedding light on these crucial issues will bring fresh and policy-relevant insights to the debate on the greening of the economy in developing countries hence the need for this project.

The ECO-DEKS Marie Curie fellow is Muhammed Morufu Sanni