Understanding Technology Appropriation and Informal Innovation in Nigerian Artisan Communities: A Grounded Investigation

Artisan communities in Nigeria's urban informal economy have developed distinctive patterns of technology appropriation and informal innovation, adapting digital tools, mobile platforms, and repurposed technologies in ways that are rarely captured by mainstream innovation studies frameworks oriented towards formal research and development activity. This study investigates the dynamics of technology appropriation and informal innovation in Nigerian artisan communities through a grounded theory inquiry conducted across five artisan clusters in Aba (Abia State), Kano (Kano State), Onitsha (Anambra State), Ilorin (Kwara State), and Maiduguri (Borno State), representing the country's five most significant artisan production zones. The research employs a constructivist grounded theory methodology guided by the work of Charmaz, with data collected through 14 months of fieldwork incorporating participant observation, 94 individual interviews, and six group storytelling sessions with artisans, apprentices, tool suppliers, and community technology intermediaries. Theoretical sampling continued until saturation was achieved across six artisan specialisations. The resulting substantive theory, designated Adaptive Technological Appropriation in the Informal Economy, explains how artisans navigate technology encounters through processes of analogical translation, collective problem-solving, and incremental tool modification that constitute a distinct but legitimately innovative knowledge-making practice. The theory's core category, pragmatic reinvention, captures the driving mechanism through which scarce resources and local context combine to produce contextually optimal technological adaptations. The study contributes an original theoretical framework to innovation studies, informal economy scholarship, and development-oriented IT research. Keywords: technology appropriation, informal innovation, artisan communities, Nigeria, grounded theory.