IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668. Volume 22, Issue 2. Ser. I (February. 2020), PP 20-27 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/487X-2202012027 www.iosrjournals.org 20 | Page Empirical Analysis and Policy Options for National Growth: Innovation, Technological Learning and Investment Adepoju, A. O. * 1 and Egbetokun, A. A. 2 1 Federal University of Technology, Akure, Department of Project Management Technology, Ondo State, Nigeria 2 National Centre for Technology Management, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Abstract: It is known that comparative advantages associated with location and natural resources no longer translate robotically to development. Rather, these factors need to be catalysed in the presence of technological learning, innovation and investments. In this paper, we explored the relevance of these catalysts to national competitiveness and further examined innovation policies with a view to finding the way forward for developing nations in particular Nigeria. Our data were sourced from the Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Outlook Database and a manufacturing innovation survey in Nigeria. The results show that technological innovation, learning and investments are still relevant to national competitiveness. But there is an emergent dynamism in the factors that influence competitiveness, especially as measured by employment. The policy implications from the results suggested the adoption of a dynamic approach to science and technology policy making, creating sustainable funding structures and strengthening fiscal controls. This paper concluded that concentrating on market liberalisation and FDI inflows are not important for manufacturing innovation as they have been made to appear. Keywords: technological learning, innovation, investments, policy, --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 21-01-2020 Date of Acceptance: 11-02-2020 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction It is no longer a robotic relationship between countries‟ location and natural resource advantages and their national competitiveness. But, nations now realise that a dynamic combination of technological innovation, learning and in some quotas investments, are required for them to transform their comparative edge into competitive advantage. In the presence of these factors, the advantages associated with the location of a country and its natural resources could be catalysed to become key sources of competitiveness. According to a tutor, a professor of technology management, he opined that for national industrialisation to be achieved, the citizens of that particular country need to engage in learning (Ogbimi, 1990; 1999). Only through this can technology capabilities be developed and sustained through innovation. Furthermore, his position of a nation emphasising on investment either on infrastructure is associated with a mere acquisition of depreciating assets which does not promote sustainable growth (Ogbimi, 2003).For rapid industrialisation, this necessitates tapping into the global pool of knowledge and diffusion of the imported technology in the course of experimentation as well as the ongoing learning process which involves continuous interaction among different actors, institutions and networks (Gebreeyesusand Iizuka, 2011). This is what nations at the frontier of science and technology (S&T) have achieved; and a host of other rapidly emerging ones have numerous success stories, largely deriving from a commitment to S&T. The story of how sugar cane has been made a major driver of global competitiveness in Brazil (Goldemberg, 1998) and the more recent discovery of the flower industry in Ethiopia (Gebreeyesusand Iizuka, 2011)are illustrative of this. Consequently, latecomer nations and regions have also devoted much attention and resources to the deployment of S&Tas a major agent of competitiveness. However, as more nations explore, new knowledge is being developed, new experiences are being acquired and new economic hubs keep emerging to the extent that today‟s world is characterised by globalisation (which has significantly eliminated trade barriers) and technology-driven growth. In spite of the abundance of knowledge that globalisation has endowed, nations are still virtually divided based on their ability to develop, acquire and exploit knowledge. It is indeed apparent that the growth of a nation now depends largely on its ability to learn, innovate and make the necessary investments as pre- conditions for itscompetitiveness. In this paper, our aim is to assess the extent to which these pre-conditions influencenational wealth and growth in terms of per capita GDP and employment. Specifically, this paper seeks to investigateon the following: