Religious beliefs and entrepreneurial behaviours in Africa: a case study of the informal sector in Uganda

Religion plays a major role in Africa’s polity and its influence on the business landscape of the continent has been acknowledged in literature. This study contributes to the discourse by investigating and explaining how religious beliefs shape entrepreneurial behaviours in Uganda’s informal sector. Using a qualitative methodology, we explored how entrepreneurs in the context use or adopt religious beliefs in their entrepreneurial activities. By spanning a diverse set of entrepreneurial activities in the informal sector- food vendors, fabricators, hawkers, and recyclers among others, we conducted 49 in-depth interviews. Our findings reveal that the entrepreneurs relied on their religious beliefs in defining and coping with a penurious context. Further to this, we explain how religious beliefs galvanize business behaviours and calibrate the entrepreneurial identities of respondents in the context. To facilitate future work, the study highlights how knowledge gaps in the cultural and social setup of the informal economy will produce new insights in entrepreneurship research. It concludes by guiding policy makers and educators to engage and involve faith based institutions in the entrepreneurship promotion agenda

Entrepreneurial Orientation and the Family Firm: Mapping the Field and Tracing a Path for Future Research

ABSTRACT: Despite several calls for the further study of entrepreneurial orientation in family firms, we still have a fragmented understanding of this topic, whose full potential has yet to be reached. To shed new light on this issue, this article first maps the family business field by carrying out a systematic review and content analysis of the 78 articles identified at the confluence of entrepreneurial orientation and family firms. Our study describes and critically assesses previous research as well as the conclusions reached. Second, this article identifies the main research gaps and provides a path for future investigations

Multilevel perspectives on leadership in the African context

Despite the depth of research on leaders and leadership in the Western and Asian contexts, the study of leadership in the African context remains at a nascent stage. In this special issue, we take a multilevel perspective to review and synthesize current research on leadership in Africa in three distinct scholarly domains (Organizational Behavior & Human Resources (OB/HR), Strategy and Entrepreneurship). Based on this review, we offer specific recommendations to advance leadership research and improve the scope and rigor of theoretical and methodological approaches. Finally, we present three scholarly works that highlight the distinctive nature of leadership in Africa, including the perspectives of followership, emergence of entrepreneurial leadership in the informal sector, and a leadership style based on an African principle