Innovation, Business Incubation and MSMEs Growth

Abstract The study established the Moderation effect of Food product innovation on Tangible Business Incubation services and growth of the Food sub-sector MSMEs in Uganda. The objective of the study was: to establish how Food product innovation moderates the relationship between tangible business incubation services and growth of food sub-sector MSMEs in Uganda. A cross-sectional survey design which employed quantitative and qualitative methods was adopted. The study targeted a total of 60 study respondents but only 53 responses were obtained, representing 88.3% response rate. Simple random sampling was used in selecting the incubatees as respondents for the survey, while purposive sampling was used in selecting Incubator Managers as interviewees. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS, while qualitative data was analyzed by use of content analysis. The study revealed that food product innovation significantly moderates the relationship between Tangible business incubation services and Growth of food sub-sector MSMEs. It also established that provision of business incubation services resulted into food product innovativeness which consequently resulted into growth of the MSMEs.