Multinational firms still have a lot to learn about doing business in Africa

David B. Zoogah lists the four competencies businesses need to develop in order to achieve greater return

Poster Summary -- Alliances Between Newcomer Firms and Established Firms: A Sense Making Response Mechanism for Entrepreneurial Firms in Uncertain Environments

This study is organized around two basic research questions. First, how do entrepreneurial firms use their alliances with large firms to make sense of their world? Second, how does sensemaking in entrepreneurial firms impact their alliance success and ultimately firm success? In the tradition of a sensemaking perspective this paper seeks to understand how particular cues are singled out from other experiences (Weick 1979), how the interpretations and meanings of these cues result in certain behaviors leading to new firm success or failure

Industrial policy environments and the flourishing of African multinational enterprises

Research on African organizations has focused on the influence of environmental factors in organizational effectiveness. However, increasing concerns about challenges in Africa and how they negatively affect organizational outcomes have necessitated leveraging the “positive turn” of organizational scholarship to advance a perspective of how industrial policies can permit Africa-originated multinational enterprises (A-MNEs) to flourish. We propose a multilevel model in which the industrial policy environment comprised of agency and policy development positively impacts A-MNE flourishing, a composite index of human, environmental, and economic flourishing. This relationship is mediated by industrial policies – labor, trade, infrastructure, and resources – and moderated by policy fit, relevance, and timeliness. Overall, we shift the old paradigm of organizational outcomes represented by organizational effectiveness to a new paradigm represented by organizational flourishing. This new paradigm seems more appropriate for Africa, which is bedeviled by unusual challenges that limit effectiveness. We discuss empirical testing of the model and implications for managers.© 2023 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Autochthonous management knowledge/knowledge management in Africa

Purpose: There is a growing desire for more scientific and technical knowledge regarding Africa. This is because Africa has the potential and opportunity to generate impactful research. However, this potential is not optimized because of several constraints, including the lack of systematic reviews and models of knowledge management and paradoxical trends in Africa. The purpose of this paper is to review studies on knowledge management and associated paradoxes in Africa and a paradox-conscious African knowledge management model. The autochthonous African model that the authors propose has implications for global knowledge management. Design/methodology/approach: The authors review studies on knowledge management and paradoxes on Africa. Findings: The authors propose a model and identify 12 paradoxes broadly categorized as industrial, political and social. Practical implications: The paradoxical tensions characteristic of Africa may be considered integral to business and policy rather than local expressions to be solved through international “best practice.” Originality/value: The model this paper propose enables theoretical and empirical studies of knowledge management sensitive to the paradoxical tensions associated with autochthonous management knowledge and autochthonous knowledge management.authorsversionpublishe

Guest editorial: Mindfulness and relational systems in organizations: enabling content, context and process

©2024 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Transnational digital entrepreneurship and enterprise effectiveness : A micro-foundational perspective

Transnational digital entrepreneurship (TDE), the establishment of digital enterprises by combining home- and host-country value creation to serve domestic and foreign customers, is increasing. In order to understand the role of entrepreneurs in transnational digital enterprise effectiveness, we investigate how the competencies of transnational digital entrepreneurs influence social interactions among stakeholders that contribute to enterprise effectiveness. We apply the micro-foundations perspective of management and entrepreneurship and semi-structured interview data from transnational entrepreneurs from six countries—Finland, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, and the USA—and their partners in Pakistan. We find that entrepreneurs’ digital knowledge, skills, and abilities—versatile cognitive capabilities, digital managerial capabilities, and multicultural capabilities—affect social interactions through four socio-structural mechanisms—structural support, trust-building, knowledge sharing, and resource configuration—that enhance enterprise effectiveness. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for transnational entrepreneurship, policymakers, and migrant entrepreneurs.© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

An Investigation on the Role of Positive Psychological Constructs on Educational Outcomes in Business Schools

Business schools are increasingly interested in empowering students to be more competent and driven for social changes through service learning. However, studies examining the role of positive traits and cross-cultural differences of service-learning education are limited. As a result, we leveraged positive psychology reasoning to explore the relationship between positive behavior as indicated by compassion, ethical leadership, perceived supervisory support and service-learning benefits for students (N = 272; n = 59 teams) in the United States of America (U.S.) and Germany. We used hierarchical linear modeling (2-Level model) to find main effects of relational compassion, ethical leadership, perceived supervisory support, on judgements of service-learning benefits by students. We also observed differences between U.S. and German students on evaluations of ethical leadership, supervisory support, perceived community benefits, and service-learning benefits. The findings offer insight on the role of positively oriented education effects in two countries. We discuss implications for theory and research on service-learning benefits

Social enterprise resilience in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines resilience in development-oriented social enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa drawing upon in-depth case study research. It explores the nature of the strategic challenges faced by social enterprises in sub-Saharan African contexts and which necessitate organisational resilience. Key resources and capabilities possessed by resilient social enterprises are identified. Finally, strategies adopted by resilient social enterprises are explored. This research not only contributes to literature on resilience in social enterprises but also works on wider organisational resilience, particularly in complex and unpredictable environments. Furthermore, it contributes to hitherto limited work on social enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, this paper has implications for practicing managers in social enterprises who are looking to build organisational resilience

Cultivating greater self-confidence in African management research

Although strategic management has taken root in many African organisations, much of the existing body of African management research offers little insight into the current state of knowledge and direction in terms of Africa finding its voice within the mainstream research. We draw on a review of the literature to develop a conceptual framework for classifying the contributions in African management research. The conceptual model captures the indigenous (intra-Africa) and inter-Africa dimension of macro-strategy and organisational behaviour/human resource research. The accumulated body of research indicates a sign of growing self-confidence in African management research which must be maintained and revitalised. The paper contributes to the literature by developing a unified conceptual model which captures both the indigenous and comparative dimensions of management research. A number of fruitful avenues for future research have been advanced