COMPETENCE ACQUISITION AND PRODUCT INNOVATIVENESS OF DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This work examined the relationship between competence acquisition and product innovativeness of deposit money banks in Nigeria. Objective of the study was to examine how competence acquisition influence product innovativeness. The correlational research design was deemed imperative in this study as it deals with a multivariate analysis of the relationship existing amongst the study variables such as information sharing (predictor variable) with goal setting as its dimension and product innovativeness (criterion variable) with product modification as its measure. The researcher selected all the twenty (20) deposit money banks with main branch in Port Harcourt metropolis in Rivers State as population for the study. The work was therefore a census study since the population of twenty (20) deposit money banks was a manageable size. The researcher purposively selected five (5) managerial staff from each of the twenty (20) deposit money banks making a total of one hundred (100) staff as respondents for the study under review.  The researcher used both the primary and secondary data in the course of the study. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) statistic was adopted to test the hypothesis. The outcome of the study revealed that competence acquisition is positively and significantly related with product innovativeness. It was then recommended that all deposit money banks in Nigeria, should support and encourage employees to enhance their knowledge and skills, and develop positive behaviour through learning experience that is expected to help them achieve greater performance. Private organisations as well as industries should disseminate beneficial information and access to competence acquisition programmes for their employees especially in the areas of technical skill as a key determinant for competitive advantage. Organisations should engage qualified employees and encourage a learning environment in order to promote the creation and introduction of new innovations and innovative projects, programs, products, processes and service to customers and clients.