12 research outputs found

    Which resource acquisition acts drive growth of informal firms? Evidence from Zambia

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    Purpose: The study seeks to differentiate informal firms with high-growth prospects by their resource acquisition acts and to improve identification of growth-oriented informal firms for effective design and targeting of support measures. Design/methodology/approach: An original set of firm-level data was collected using face-to-face survey in Lusaka, Zambia. Six clearly defined criteria were used to sample informal firms, apart from general informal business. Regression analyses were conducted to test the association of different resource acquisition acts with two growth dimensions: number of employees and business earnings of the 325 informal firms sampled. Findings: Accessing clientele beyond local market, linking up with formal businesses and acquiring information and knowledge via online sources were found influential to growth in business earnings. Surprising, acquisition of finance and skills showed no effect. Employment expansion, though widely used, may not be a stable indicator of informal firm growth. Research limitations/implications: The study highlights the relevance of the emerging entrepreneurship perspective to understanding the topic. It cautions against pre-setting a size threshold for sampling informal firms and against relying on employment expansion as the sole proxy of growth. Practical implications: The findings prompt a rethink of the effectiveness of conventional support programmes to drive growth of informal firms such as funding and training. Directing support measures to target growth-oriented informal firms will lead to creation of decent and sustainable jobs and formalisation. Originality/value: With an original firm-level dataset, the study challenges a long-held assumption that growth of informal firm is negligible and shows that segments of informal firms are sustainable and could attain significant growth and derives new insights into researching and supporting informal firm growth

    Nurturing next-generation biomedical engineers in Africa: The impact of Innovators’ Summer Schools

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    The mission of healthcare systems in Africa to deliver compassionate and effective care has been constrained by growing populations, increasing burden of disease, political conflict and limited resources. The impacts of these constraints can be substantially alleviated, and the healthcare services strengthened, through the creation and adoption of affordable, accessible and appropriate biomedical engineering systems and technologies. There is an urgent need for building capacities in biomedical engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship in African countries. The African Biomedical Engineering Consortium has been organising a series of Innovators’ Summer Schools to meet this need by empowering students and researchers with entrepreneurial and innovative skills, and facilitating the design and development of robust, appropriate, and commercially viable medical systems and devices. In this paper, we analyse and discuss the impact of six of these schools held between 2012 and 2017. We used a questionnaire-based survey to collect responses from students who had attended the summer schools. The results of this study demonstrate that the teaching-learning model adopted in the ABEC summer schools was largely effective in promoting biomedical engineering skills, career choices, professional networks and partnerships amongst young African engineers and life scientists who attended the summer schools

    Resource Acquisition and Informal Firm Growth: Evidence from Zambia

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    Differences in ICT use by entrepreneurial micro-firms: evidence from Zambia

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    Micro-firms are important for creating jobs and income in developing economies, but these firms face significant constraints, some of which could be ameliorated through ICT. However, it remains unclear which specific ICT uses are intensively employed by different entrepreneurial micro-firms. Notwithstanding external constraints, we examined differences in ICT use by comparably sized micro-firms operating in the same environment that exhibit different entrepreneurial attributes (proactiveness, innovativeness, risk-taking, and growth orientation). Using data from Zambian micro-firms, our findings demonstrate that the four entrepreneurial attributes have a positive yet different influence on three individual categories of ICT use: information and network access; online transaction and interaction; and in-house operations. Indirectly, we pinpoint which ICT applications will likely benefit entrepreneurial firms. Our findings could help researchers and policy-makers to target specific categories of ICT use that drive firm growth and nurture the desirable business behavioral orientations for deploying technology in business

    Resource Acquisition and Informal Firm Growth: Evidence from Zambia

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    Expanding business opportunities for African youth in agricultural value chains in southern Africa (CultiAF) - final technical report

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    The project tested new business models for increasing the participation of youth in the fish industry in Malawi and Zambia, and maize postharvest agribusiness sector in Zimbabwe. It assessed the agri-business environment; identified viable opportunities, prospective youth entrepreneurs, and target markets to help establish business and market development skills; and developed a portfolio of youth managed businesses and scaleable entrepreneurial start-up experiences. Agriculture, innovation and youth are underlined as key drivers of the economic and social transformation of Africa

    Expanding Business Opportunities for African Youth in Agricultural Value Chains in Southern Africa (Final Technical Report-108019)

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