Product Innovation as a Panacea to Manufacturing Organization Performance: Evidence from Nigerian Breweries Plc

Abstract

Innovation is widely regarded as one of the most important sources of sustainable competitive advantage in an increasingly changing environment. However, many Nigerian manufacturing industries do not invest so many resources on the utilization of modern technologies, as this makes for the decline in the designing and development of new products.  This study examined the effect of product innovation on the performance of manufacturing sector with particular reference to Nigerian Breweries Plc. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 70 respondents from various departments. Structured questionnaire was employed to collect the data, while weighted mean score, chi-square and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. Result revealed that product innovation has significant effect on sales volume. Findings also indicated that positive relationship exist between product innovations, customer satisfaction, changes in consumer taste and preference. The study therefore concluded that product innovation is an alternative paradigm to organizational performance in a global competitive environment. Subsequently, the study recommended that management of manufacturing organizations should leverage on product innovation, as this type of innovation is found to be important instrument for achieving sustainable competitive power.