Fashioning the future: entrepreneuring in Africa's emerging fashion industry
In: The European journal of development research, Band 29, Heft 4, S. 893-910
ISSN: 1743-9728
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In: The European journal of development research, Band 29, Heft 4, S. 893-910
ISSN: 1743-9728
World Affairs Online
In: The European journal of development research, Band 29, Heft 4, S. 893-910
ISSN: 1743-9728
In: Global networks: a journal of transnational affairs, Band 21, Heft 4, S. 703-722
ISSN: 1471-0374
AbstractIn this article, we examine how returnee entrepreneurs seek to capitalize on translocal affiliations by deploying different forms of capital in their business practices. Based on a case study of returnees in Ghana's creative industries, the article identifies three practices through which entrepreneurs configure capital to seize opportunities and deal with challenges of running a business as a returnee. The practice of compensating encompasses efforts at compensating for encountered obstacles in Ghana by taking advantage of unique translocal positions. Fusing involves creatively blending local and foreign aesthetics and business approaches, while switching implies adapting to social situations through changing bodily appearances and speech. The findings demonstrate that using capital back home is not merely a matter of transferring capital from abroad, but a translocal practice where capital is carefully configured. We highlight the importance of paying analytical attention to multiple sites of engagement and foreground African returnee entrepreneurs as transnational actors.
In: Routledge spaces of childhood and youth series
In: Routledge spaces of childhood and youth series
In: Journal of management education: the official publication of the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, Band 46, Heft 5, S. 853-887
ISSN: 1552-6658
Students wishing to pursue careers in international business, notably in the developing world, must be prepared for complex, unpredictable, uncomfortable, and messy realities, and to collaborate with others very different from themselves. Mainstream business school learning environments are generally highly structured, cognitively oriented, predictable and hence not particularly conducive to orchestrating the disruptive experiences that can develop such abilities. In this article, we show how a field-based course in an East African country can support such learning. Based on data gathered from students over several iterations of the field course, we draw on experiential learning theory (ELT) in showing how the top-down orchestration of the course constituted a learning space that produced three main types of disruption to students' taken-for-granted habits and assumptions, namely: intense sensory impressions and sensations, loss of predictability and control, and learning interdependency on others. Students had to "bottom-up" manage these disruptions while conducting a group assignment with local students, to a tight deadline, producing "dissonances"—feelings of discomfort—that triggered the ELT cycle. Our findings show that such disruptions can foster learning of the abovementioned abilities; and we suggest ways in which such learning spaces might be created closer to home than East Africa.
In: International development planning review: IDPR, Band 35, Heft 2, S. 91-102
ISSN: 1478-3401
In: International development planning review: IDPR, Band 34, Heft 4, S. 439-461
ISSN: 1474-6743
In: International development planning review: IDPR, Band 34, Heft 4, S. 439-460
ISSN: 1478-3401
Most research on issues of (in)security has tended to have a military/safety angle and focus on global/national scales linked to spectacular events. This paper addresses the overlooked insecurity realities of urban dwellers in the global South through a focus on more persistent and enduring forms of employment insecurities among young people. Building on both quantitative and qualitative data collected in a low-income settlement in Lusaka, Zambia, we explore how young people perceive their employment situation and examine the practices they engage in when seeking ways of making a living. Through analysing their views and experiences we show how employment insecurity is influenced by processes operating at the body, local, national and global scales, and how employment insecurity is closely interconnected with insecurity in other domains of young people's lives including the household, housing and education. Although the youth unemployment situation is often viewed as a serious threat to human security, we show how the lack of stable employment in itself is a manifestation of insecurity.
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In: International development planning review: IDPR, Band 35, Heft 2, S. 91-102
ISSN: 1474-6743
In: World development: the multi-disciplinary international journal devoted to the study and promotion of world development, Band 143, S. 1-11
World Affairs Online
In: International journal of gender and entrepreneurship, Band 10, Heft 3, S. 224-242
ISSN: 1756-6274
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how female entrepreneurs navigate complex and challenging institutional environments. It draws on institutional theory and the concept of response strategies to institutional pressures to explore the institutional barriers that female entrepreneurs encounter and highlights the strategies women employ to overcome them.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper builds on a case study of female entrepreneurs engaged in food processing in Tanzania. It draws on semi-structured interviews with nine female entrepreneurs, one focus group discussion with six female entrepreneurs and two semi-structured interviews with representatives from women's business associations (WBAs).
Findings
This paper reveals a repertoire of active strategies enacted by women entrepreneurs, including advocacy through WBAs, bootstrapping, semi-informal operations, co-location of home and business, spouse involvement in the business, downplay of gender identity, reliance on persistence and passion and networking through WBAs. While these strategies involve various degrees of agency, the findings indicate that collective efforts through WBAs offer women the most promise in terms of influencing institutional structures.
Originality/value
While there is a growing body of literature examining how institutions influence female entrepreneurs, there is a dearth of knowledge on how women experience institutional complexities and actively react to institutional barriers, complexities and contradictions. This paper shows the value of analytical attention to female entrepreneurs' agency by highlighting women's active responses and documenting a repertoire of strategies.
In: Cultural trends, Band 31, Heft 5, S. 448-469
ISSN: 1469-3690