Strategic Innovation and Sustainable Economic Performance of the Manufacturing Sector in Rivers State

Abstract: The study investigated strategic innovation and sustainable economic performance
of manufacturing sector in Rivers State. It adopted the correlational research design and
operationalized the innovation into the variables of product innovation, technological
innovation, and social innovation with sustainable economic performance as the dependent
variable. The population of the study was 150 which consisted of staff of manufacturing
companies operating in Rivers State. The sample size of 150 was used adopting the census
sampling technique in which the entire population was used. A questionnaire instrument tagged,
Strategic Innovation and Sustainable Economic Performance (SISEP) was used and calibrated
into modified Likert scale of Very High Extent (4), High Extent (3), Low Extent (2), Very Low
Extent (1). The three research questions were answered using Mean and Standard Deviation at
mean criterion of 2.5, while the null hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Correlation
Coefficient (PPMC) at .05 significance level. The findings of the study showed that the
variables of strategic innovation significantly relate to sustainable economic performance in
manufacturing companies in Rivers State. The study concluded that if marketing innovative
measures of product design or innovation, appropriate technology and social innovation are
applied sustainably, will lead to improved economic performance of manufacturing companies
in Rivers State. It recommended among others that, manufacturing companies in Rivers State
should from time-to-time train and retrain their staff on modern technological innovations to
improve on their economic performance.