The Moderating effect of Innovation Ecosystem on Knowledge Entrepreneurship and Innovation Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

Purpose: Examine the moderating effect of Innovation Ecosystem (IE) on the relationship between Knowledge Entrepreneurship (KE) and Innovation Performance (IP) of manufacturing firms in Kenya. Design/methodology/approach: The study was anchored on the complexity theory. Mixed method research was applied which utilized cross-sectional design. The target population was 828 manufacturing firms. Purposive and stratified random sampling was used to determine a sample size of 115 firms. Findings: The study found that IE has a great moderating effect between KE and IP in manufacturing firms in Kenya. Collaboration and networking between industry, research organizations and universities should be strengthened to promote IP and increase the competitiveness of firms. Research limitations/implications: The number of sample is relative small compared with the population. Practical implications: Result of this research shows that Innovation system is one of the most important things in resulting Innovation performance. Originality/value: This research is original because this research conducts in Kenya and there is no similar research in Kenya. Paper type: Research paper Keyword: Collaboration, Competitiveness and Knowledge leakage Received: February 17 th , 2020 Revised: August 4 th , 2020 Published: September 30 th , 2020