New venture evolution of migrants under institutional voids: Lessons from Shonga Farms in Nigeria

This article inductively builds theory on how transaction costs may be alleviated and institutional voids bridged in developing economies, based on the case study of successful migrant entrepreneurial involvement in Nigerian agriculture: Shonga Farms. We argue that the iterative process of building conditions of trust through long-term commitment, involvement of regional government, appropriate modes of financial contracts and the gradual transitioning of controlling interests to private actors are factors of success. We draw additional lessons by contrasting our case study with other similar migrant schemes that have failed

Entrepreneurship as a Route out of Poverty: A Focus on Women and Minority Ethnic Groups

This book examines how entrepreneurship can be used as a tool to escape poverty. With relevance for both SDG 1: ‘No Poverty,’ and SDG 8: ‘Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all,’ it pays special attention to women and minority ethnic groups. Offering a fresh perspective on entrepreneurship as a means of upward social mobility and rooted in research, the book explores the issue in three ways. Firstly, it pays special attention to the nexus between the entrepreneur, resources, institutions, opportunities, necessities, and the environment for drawing a comprehensive picture of how individuals could use entrepreneurship for successful upward social mobility in a changing world. Secondly, it emphasizes the peculiar challenges that female entrepreneurs face, how those challenges can be overcome, and how female entrepreneurship may be a route to women’s socio-economic advancement. Thirdly, it highlights the challenges faced by ethnic minority business owners and how such ethnic minority businesses could thrive amid institutional voids as well as direct and indirect forms of discrimination. Based on the latest research from developed and developing countries, the book offers compelling insights for sustaining entrepreneurial ventures in an evolving world

Organising household consumption and occupational proportions: Evidence from Nigeria

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the occupational status and entrepreneurship research in developing countries by proposing that there are implications for household consumption depending on the occupational status proportion of households. When the occupational proportion of the household changes, household consumption is affected. This effect also changes depending on what quantile level the household is in terms of household consumption.Design/methodology/approachThe paper makes use of OLS and quantile regressions to examine 6,919 households comprising 40,294 individuals from the 2009 Nigerian Living standards measurement survey.FindingsThe paper finds that there are implications for household consumption based on the proportion of individuals in each occupational category. The contributions of each employment proportion changes at different quantiles with self-employed individuals increasing household consumption at the lower quantiles but reducing household consumption at the upper quantiles. Crucially, having a higher proportion of unemployed individuals in the household is oftentimes better than having a higher proportion of own account self-employed individuals.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper offers new insights into how occupation proportion influences household consumption in developing countries. As a result, the household could seek to organise its members in such a way as to maximise combined household consumption, as diverse occupational statuses contribute differently to the household consumption at different quantile levels. The nature of the data used in this study however does not allow for causality tests.Practical implicationsThe proportion of employment statuses in the household has implications for household consumption and so the mix of employment in the household is important. The self-employed could also be involved in activities to enhance household consumption that are not captured by labour income. However, self-employment does not seem to always have a positive effect on household consumption and sometimes unemployment might be better.Originality/valueThe paper provides a new way to view the household as an organising entity in terms of how it can allocate employment proportions to maximise household consumption

How ethnic minority SME owners in the UK can create value amid informal institutional voids

This article shows that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed informal institutional voids that exist for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) business owners in the United Kingdom. Based on a primary database of surveys and semi-structured interviews, the results show that many BAME small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners encountered informal institutional voids that White SME owners did not face during the pandemic. The article also shows how these BAME SME owners created value amid these institutional voids and how they can continue to do so. The article concludes by suggesting that bridging these voids is crucial for promoting a more inclusive environment where ethnic and non-ethnic entrepreneurs can succeed. It also presents policy implications and offers directions for future research

Can Equalizing Educational Endowments Between Men and Women Create More Female Self-employed Value in Nigeria?

This article empirically investigates if women would be able to create more self-employed value if they had the same educational endowments as men in the unique gender disparity context of Nigeria. The article uses probit and Blinder–Oaxaca multivariate decomposition models to empirically conduct this analysis in a developing country taking advantage of two rounds of survey data. The analysis confirms that women would be able to create more self-employed value, particularly higher education self-employed value, if they had the same educational endowments as men. The article also highlights why gender parity does not exist in Nigeria and emphasizes the benefits of gender parity in this context

The returns to occupations: the role of minimum wage and gender in Nigeria

This paper examines the economic returns to being employers, paid workers and self-employed own account individuals in a lower middle income economy using quantile regressions while accounting for selection using Heckman selection models. The results suggest that although the majority of employers experience labour wage premiums throughout the income distribution, self-employed own account individuals experience a wage penalty at the lower quantiles of the income distribution where paid workers reap benefits from minimum wage guarantees, suggesting that minimum wage legislations may push individuals with low skills into self- employment. Furthermore, female employers and paid workers tend to be relatively well educated implying that education enables females to escape the job glass ceiling although males typically earn significantly more than females

Impact of the Increasing Adoption of a Commercial Approach on Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact on the performance of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) by their increasing adoption of a commercial approach. The generalised method of moments (GMM) has been applied to analyse data from 2,102 MFIs in 114 countries. The results show that adopting the commercial approach has no significant association with the financial performance of MFIs but has a significant positive association with the breadth and depth of MFIs’ outreach. However, the positive association with the depth of outreach represents a negative impact in the context of microfinance, as it indicates that the adoption of commercial approach by MFIs leads to providing larger loans, which is an indication of mission drift

The Impact of Climate Action on the Financial Performance of Food, Grocery, and Supermarket Retailers in the UK

We examined the impact of climate action on the financial performance of eleven food, grocery, and supermarket retailers listed on the London Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2022. Our findings reveal a positive association between the climate mitigation efforts of these businesses and financial performance, particularly in terms of returns on assets (ROA). Through Ordinary Least Squares estimation, we identified that climate action practices such as renewable energy usage, waste reduction, adoption of energy-efficient technologies, eco-friendly packaging, and optimized transportation are significantly associated with the ROA of UK-based food, grocery, and supermarket retailers. This study is significant as these retailers often have extensive operations and supply chains that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. It demonstrates that engaging in climate mitigation measures can still lead to a positive ROA

Generalised trust and relation centrism for corruption as perceived by firms

We investigate the role of generalised trust and relation centrism for corruption as perceived by 16,785 firms in 20 lower- and middle- income countries. The empirical results demonstrate that typically, higher levels of relation centrism and generalised trust are linked with corruption as perceived by firms. The results however show significant regional disparities suggesting that firms will need to be aware of these differences, as they are likely to determine their optimal strategic choices when entering or expanding their operations into new territories. For instance, in regions where increased friend centrism is associated with reduced corruption, firms can use weak ties more tactically but will need to be more careful with such weak ties in regions where increased friend centrism is associated with increased corruption