Research
Export Behavior and Propensity to Innovate in Developing Country: The Case of Afghanistan
The paper is aimed at e xamining relation bet ween factors determining export behavior and propensity to innovate to fill Afghanistan specific literature gap. For this purpose, a number of 236 small and medium manufacturing firms were targeted as statistical unit of analysis. Required data were collected through questionnaire distributed to owner/manager of firms. Descriptive statistics as well as multivariate probit regression were utilized to analyze the data. Findings confirmed no significant relationship between export behavior and propensity to innovate. It further suggests that marketing innovation and technological advancement positively and significantly influence export behavior and propensity to innovate. Furthermore, and unlike result of many other similar studies there was insignificant influence of firm size and firm age on propensity to innovation.
Role of Incubation Center in Growth of Small-Scaled Businesses in Afghanistan
For past three- years unemployment has been a growing in Afghanistan, which has caused many socio-economic problems. One of the solution to this problem is private sector development. A lot of attention has been paid toward attraction of investments at large scale from private sector, however, experience of many countries including industrial economies show that small scaled businesses has contributed to employment and economic development to remarkable extend. Small scaled businesses have a very high rate of failure at their initial stage. Development of these businesses requires promotion of entrepreneurship. This study attempts to highlight the role of business incubation centers for this purpose in Afghanistan context. Studies have shown that factors such as incubation centers physical infrastructure, provision of business assistance, management guidance and counselling, enabling environment and sound practices of incubation centers have led to survival and growth of many small businesses.
