AN AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF INNOVATION PRACTICES OF QUANTITY SURVEYING FIRMS IN GHANA

Innovation is ascertained to be a major driver of growth of the productivity of a firm. This has spurred the interest of many researchers to study and harness the adoption of innovation. Extant literature indicates that some professional services offered by the quantity surveying (QS) firms are not needed by the client, or may be outdated. Consequently, the QS firms have to develop the stamina to challenge the existing unnecessary and unwanted or outdated practices and implement innovative practices. What is more alarming is that the QS firms are rated to have a low disposition towards the adoption of innovation. This established context propelled the need for empirically assessing the innovation practices amongst the QS firms in Ghana. A quantitative research approach was employed for this study and a census sampling technique was adopted. A total of 43 questionnaires were administered to the entire population and 24 were retrieved. The current level of innovation practices amongst the Ghanaian QS firms was interpreted using Rogers’ innovation diffusion theory. The results indicated that QS firms in Ghana are early adopters of process innovation, product/technological innovation and business system innovation. The study showed that QS firms adopt innovation practices in rendering their services and even though they do not initiate new ideas, they are the first to adopt the ideas initiated by the innovators. This study has drawn attention to the assessment of innovation practices and increasing the knowledge base of innovation practices in Ghanaian QS firms.