OLUBITAN, Joseph Oluremi
Department of Management Sciences
Dominion University, Ibadan, Nigeria
j.olubitan@dominionuniversity.edu.ng
ALABI, Daniel Olaitan
Department of Management Sciences
Dominion University, Ibadan, Nigeria
alabiolaitand@yahoo.com
IDOWU, Abiola
Department of Management & Accounting,
LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, Oyo State
aidowu22@lautech.edu.ng
ABSTRACT
This study assessed the effect of human resources development on innovative capability of SMEs. The
study adopted a survey research design. Training was used as a proxy for human resources development.
The study population comprised SMEs in Ibadan metropolis. The study randomly picked 50 SMEs cutting
across garment, wood and leather, information technology (IT) and other informal sectors of the economy
to serve as test units. Structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data; while data analysis was
done using frequencies and measures of central tendencies at the the descriptive level of analyses; while
regression analysis was used to test the the effect of human resources development on innovation capability
of SMEs. The Statistical Analysis Package Version 11 (STATA/SE 11.2) was used for the analyses. The
study found that human resource development in terms of training, training targets and training budgets
have strong poisitve and statistically significant effect on innovation capability of SMEs. Hence, the study
concluded that human resource development informs innovation capability of SMEs. The implication of
the finding of the study is that SMEs that want to again and sustain competitive edge that comes through
innovation capability must give attention to developing the competencies of their employees through
training and other human resources development programmes.
Keywords: Human resources development, innovation capability, new product development, training