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Gender disproportions have been part and parcel of most African cultures since time immemorial. Demographically, women are over a half population in most of the African countries but their participation in sectors of socio-economic and political spheres have remained inadequately represented. The enduring and biased beliefs on gender roles that view women much less important as compared to men are what forms the basis of concern to the welfare of women and most importantly the women entrepreneurs. This study reveals the long-standing cultural practices that have contributed to gender inequality and goes further to demystify areas in which women have continually experienced inequality and thus affecting their entrepreneurial spirit. Through the desk research methodology, it can be deduced that the following are key areas that pause a threat to women socio-economic and political development and hence the inequality being experienced even today in the twenty first century: harmful marriage, female genital mutilation, wife inheritance and HIV scourge, access to land including land rights and right to property, over-emphasizing patriarchal system of family, and gender violence. These factors compounded together, have resulted for unfortunate experiences that have been witnessed in the education sector, political participation, participation in policy making, gender division of labour and inaccess to credit facility. These experiences have severely thwarted entrepreneurial growth of women. The study therefore recommends that there is imperative need for a paradigm shift in these areas to ensure women are not only liberated and empowered but also their full participation in the entrepreneurship activities are highly strengthened and promoted.
In Africa slowly but steadily a transformation is taking place in the management styles of enterprises. There is a trend towards more precise time management, more precision in dealing with increasingly sophisticated technology, more feedback from the bottom to the top in order to manage the processes properly, more professionalism and independence of the individual worker.
This contribution makes two points: first, neither cultures nor the so-called mental states of individuals are ever static, but always on the move. Second, the force of passion and inspiration by which particular cultural values are endorsed in a particular context makes all the difference in their impact.
The importance of these two propositions comes to the fore, if the concept of an “economic culture” is taken into consideration. The claim of the authors is that the ongoing cultural transformation can be better understood in the dynamic approach of cultural values as proposed here.
This paper focuses on entrepreneurship and private sector development in Ghana with regard to the government’s initiative towards supporting private sector development through the Microfinance & Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) and the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) initiatives to support new and existing small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in diverse industries. The study addresses some of the main problems facing the two government-sponsored initiatives and issues with accessing venture capital for business start-ups in Ghana. The objective of the study is to identify possible strategies through which the MASLOC and NBSSI could be improved to serve the needs of their customers more effectively and efficiently. Enhancing the performance of these public organizations could offer many SMEs in Ghana take advantage of the new opportunities in the domestic and global business environments. The questions to be addressed are; to what extent do the activities of the NBSSI and MASLOC meet the needs of SMEs in Ghana? What challenges are associated with their services and how can management of the two organizations address the challenges they face more appropriately? The methodology is based on the qualitative and quantitative approaches, involving interviews and the administration of questionnaires and surveys to achieve the study’s objectives and goals. Based on the identified challenges, the study concludes with findings and recommendations for the management of NBSSI and MASLOC as well as entrepreneurs engaged in different SMEs in diverse industries and policy makers.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the start-up scene in sub-Saharan Africa. "Silicon Savannah" is today widely used to describe the thriving IT industry in and around Nairobi. Kenya's geographical advantage, its favorable economic reforms, and mature start-up ecosystem makes it stands out positively. Since a lot of hype exists around the start-up scene many investors are drawn to it, but in reality very few start-ups are investment-ready. The increasing start-up requirements and needs force incubators to diversify their offer. In contrast, to traditional incubators, an Innovation Hub (Hub) is characterized based on the concept of open innovation and collaboration. A Hub nurtures an enabling environment where a community of entrepreneurs can grow. At the same time, it serves as a nexus point for the local start-up community, investors, academia, technology companies and the wider private sector. It aims to create a structure where people serendipitously interact with others that they would not typically meet. Considering the great interest for and the large amounts of money invested in Hubs by governments, universities, private companies and other interested parties, not only researchers have been raising the question of the actual benefit of Hubs. This research study aims to investigate to what extent the support offered by the Hubs is tackling the challenges faced by start-ups in Nairobi, Kenya. The analysis can serve as a basis for identifying strength and weaknesses in the Hub models.
These times are very troubled ones. Not only do wars and political unrest seem to prevail in different regions of the world, but, corruption and fraud have reached an incredible dimension, too. It seems that societies have, to a large extent, lost values in which they had formerly believed in. These issues may be the background why at the moment Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a voluntary commitment is discussed in public that intensively. However, one gets the impression that this rather often seems to be superficial. Therefore, it is time to do some in-depth research to identify whether there is real substance behind these discussions or not. Latin America is a big continent with a greater number of countries which are running through difficult times as to corruption and fraud. Consequently, the author studied the policy of the central employers association Consejo Empresarial de America Latina (CEAL) with respect to the role of CSR. On the basis of statements, news and results of studies being regularly published, conclusions were drawn to which extent social and environmental aspects, along the line of ISO 26000, are playing a relevant role.
In order to avoid a too narrow view of the issue, a holistic approach concerning the generalsituation of Latin America has been selected using parameters such as economic growth, increase of population, poverty, inequality, and the global responsibility for environment. Furthermore, apart from the central organization CEAL, regional and national institutions with a specific mission for spreading and implementing CSR and two communal projects were analyzed as well. The conclusion of the paper is that there are some CSR "lighthouses" but an urgent need exists to spread the idea of CSR more intensively across the continent. Corresponding recommendations about how to increase the relevance of CSR in Latin America are given at the end of the paper.