This was an investigation of the ways in which firms, in the developing nations during the 1980's, have adapted production technologies in their efforts to expand the production capacities and to contribute towards the nation's capability for self-sustaining industrial operations. The study was undertaken in the bakery industry in Kenya, between 1984 and 1991, in two phases that involved a survey of 82 firms and an in-depth case study of six firms. One of the principal aims of the study was to identify a more promising strategy between the small-scale operations and the Big-Push model. The argument in this study, however, is that these two models of economic growth are subject to limitations that arise essentially from their lack of treatment of the attributes of entrepreneurs as determinant factors. / Examined under the modified versions of these models are the effects of the varied characteristics of the entrepreneurs, the nature of investment and location of the firms on the types and the levels of equipment adopted, capacity utilization, labour requirements and ways for skills development. Results indicate that the modified models, to incorporate entrepreneurs among the casual factors, improve prediction of the nature of investment as well as adaptation of the production technologies. With regard to the relative advantages, it was found that while small-scale operations encouraged adoption of locally manufactured equipment and utilization of considerably higher ratio of skilled labour, they are significantly constrained by limited capabilities for adoption of advanced equipment. In contrast, whereas large-scale operations adopted modern equipment and absorbed substantially greater number of the labour force, they exerted overwhelming negative impact on local technical capabilities and entrepreneurial activities. / In light of these findings it is suggested that medium size operations that offset extreme disadvantages of the two conventional models would be more favourable with respect to adaptation of the production technologies for purposes of achieving self-sustaining industrial operations in the context of the developing countries. In addition, attention should be given to policy measures that enable entrepreneurs to acquire capabilities for undertaking competitive industrial enterprises, particularly adoption and management of technically efficient techniques. One of the potential approaches is promotion of the cooperative industrial endeavour through which recent entrepreneurs can mobilize resources and operation skills
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.39336 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Rono, Henry Kipkogei. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Sociology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001288840, proquestno: NN74833, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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