Thesis without Tears - A Guide for African University Students is written for university and college students in Africa who are looking for guidelines for writing a good thesis. It describes some of the most influential methods in social science and speaks directly to students without any prior knowledge of project work. Written in a simple, straight-forward and a highly engaging style, the book takes the reader through the essential features of the thesis work process and guides students in making key decisions that will reduce the anxieties they are likely to experience in their research process. Highlights of the issues discussed include: Characteristics of a well-written thesis Structure of research projects Research design The role of theories in research projects Qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and techniques Mixed research methods It is intended as a supplementary textbook for courses in research methodology for bachelor and master's degree students. About the Author John Kuada is Professor of International Management at Aalborg University, Department of Business and Management, Denmark. He has extensive experience as a business consultant and training advisor in areas of management, marketing and cross-border inter-firm relations in Europe and Africa. He is author and/or editor of some 14 books on management and internationalization of firms and has written over 100 articles in refereed scholarly and professional journals on a wide range of international business issues including international marketing, intercultural management, leadership and strategy. He serves on the editorial review boards of a number of marketing/management journals focusing on business and management in Africa and Asia. He is the founder and editor of African Journal of Economic and Management Studies (published by Emerald).
Private Enterprise-Led Development in Sub-Saharan Africa provides a novel theoretical and conceptual model to guide research into Africa's economic development. It endorses the view that private enterprise-led growth will help reduce poverty since it strengthens individuals' capacity to care for themselves and their families.
Problem and project-based learning (PBL) is a key pedagogical approach to teaching since it helps students become effective real-life problem solvers in organisations. Problem-based learning emphasises co-operative learning. Students actively participate in their learning process as they choose theories, models, and methods that they consider to be necessary to solve the "real-world" problem that they have agreed to address (under the guidance of competent and experienced supervisors).At Aalborg University we have observed that students who have backgrounds in traditional forms of university education find this problem-based pedagogy highly challenging. It is in this context that we see the contribution of John Kuada's book: Research Methodology: A Project Guide to University Students. The book provides a "hand-holding" guide to students that do not have any, or only very little, previous experience with problem-based learning. A major strength of the book is the simplicity and straightforwardness of the language used. This approach is quite inviting and provides students a friendly introduction to relatively complex ideas and methods. The book speaks to students directly and therefore encourages their engagement in the process of learning about how they can justify the various choices they make in their project work process. The book draws on Professor John Kuada's many years as lecturer and supervisor for students in the department of economics and business administration, and I believe that the book will serve as a useful reading for any students who are looking for a step-by-step pathway for their project work.
This title provides a comparison of the internationalisation process of family and non-family businesses in Denmark. With practical examples of the decision-making processes and challenges of internationalisation of these companies, readers will be able to understand how both family and non-family firms from smaller countries approach their internationalisation, how they prepare themselves for it, and what really draws them into the world of international business.
This book narrates stories of Ghanaians that have successfully grown their businesses and have made a notable contribution to society as business people. It also provides guidelines that can help businesses succeed in Ghana and offers insights into some of the challenges that are likely to be faced.
A maiden publication of the Centre for Sustainability and Enterprise Development at the University of Ghana Business School, this book on Service Marketing written from a customer relationship management perspective; is an absolute must-read. The book is written for junior, mid-level and senior management personnel across all organisations and business associations in Ghana; and Africa. It is also written for students who aspire to be practising managers one day. The book focuses on important service and customer management themes like the nature of services and their marketing challenges, challenges to the attainment of customer-oriented business cultures in Ghana, the building of business-to-business relationships, development of service marketing strategies; as well as knowing, assessing and managing your customers. This book provides important tips on raising the customer orientation culture of all businesses operating in Ghana. It is highly recommended for a diverse range of professionals in the NGO, banking, ICT, education, engineering, hospitality, manufacturing, health, public administration, public sector, insurance, aviation, microfinance, shipping, postal and courier services; to name a few.Any organisation seeking to improve their bottom-line and overall productivity by using superior service as a differentiating tool must invest in purchasing these books for both their employees and customers. This book is a must read for anyone aiming to becoming a service champion.
Editorial Comment Some New Economic and Social Challenges in Africa John Kuada Editor, AJBER Contact email: kuada@business.aau.dk The general premise of the studies is that economic growth strategy is the most cost-effective way of dealing with poverty. This statement is true for two fundamental reasons: first, growth lifts many of the poor out of poverty; second, it generates the government revenues necessary for anti-poverty measures (Fafchamps et al, 2001). Where resources are scarce, every entity and individual is expected to contribute to the development process. It is this collective endeavour that would accelerate the tempo of an African nation's development. Thus, African businesses must be guided by keen awareness of their social responsibilities to all stakeholders in their societies if they are to serve their societies optimally. This is an issue taken up in Dan Ofori's paper with the title: "Business' Corporate Social Responsibility: Theory, Opinion and Evidence from Ghana." The paper explores the extent to which Ghanaian businesses have a socially responsible disposition in their business practices. To do so, he compared the views and actions of local Ghanaian companies in various areas of corporate social responsibility with those of foreign owned companies operating in Ghana. The key findings of the study were that, international firms tend to be guided a lot more by strategic and moral considerations about their social responsibilities than local Ghanaian firms. Granting that the results can be generalised for other local firms in Ghana (and, by extension, local African firms in general) Ofori's study raises important questions with regard to the contributions that these firms make to the attainment of the developmental goals of their nations and policies that could be crafted to guide them to broaden their views on their social responsibilities. It also suggests a need for increased research into this subject not only for purposes of improving academic knowledge, but also to provide useful guidelines for policy and strategy formulation for African nations. Kuada's paper dwells on the difficulties of learning and knowledge transfer from developed country firms to African firms. He identifies three key determinants of knowledge transfer outcomes: (1) cultural sensitivity (2) transfer and learning/absorptive capacity of partners, and (3) the strategic importance and uniqueness of the relationships. Based on empirical evidence drawn from Danish-Ghanaian inter-firm collaborations, the paper argues that the impact of culture on managerial behavior in knowledge receiving organizations can influence the learning capacity of the employees in the organizations. An awareness of this impact by knowledge providers is very helpful in designing the knowledge transfer process. Furthermore, sensitivity to cultural rules of communication is essential in every cross-cultural knowledge transfer process. Together, these papers highlight some of the economic and social challenges that African nations and businesses face. As would be expected, the authors have not provided any "one best" solution to these problems. But they have teased out highly valuable policy and strategy implications from their studies and provide useful guidelines for future research. ____________________________________________ AJBER is a high quality, peer-reviewed international academic journal. ISSN1750-4562(online), ISSN 1750-4554 (print) ISBN: 9781905068630 For details of how to contribute, please contact its editor: John Kuada, Editor African Journal of Economic and Business Research Department of Business Studies Fibigerstraede 2, 9220 Aalborg Oest Denmark Email: kuada@business.aau.dk For subscription enquiries, please contact: Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd P.O. Box 43418 London, UK SE11 4XZ Email: Sales@adonis-abbey.com
This book seeks to explore the managerial challenges that foreign executives may experience in Ghana from a cultural perspective. It also provides current and future executives with some guidelines for coping successfully within the Ghanaian environment. The discussions in this book are predicated on the understanding that foreign executives may experience some tensions between the Ghanaian culture/management practices and the values and policies that they are likely to bring to the country. Thus, by gaining insight into the culturally grounded reasons underlying Ghanaian managers' behaviour, foreign executives may be better able to determine appropriate changes in management practices within their host organizations and be more successful in implementing these changes. Issues discussed include: - Cultural concept and impact on managerial decisions - Cultural influences on employee behaviours - Leadership style and relati¬onships with Ghanaian employees - Recruitment and career path development - Learning and training - Motivation - Organizational change - Collaboration and trust _______________ John Kuada is Professor of International Management at Aalborg University, Department of Business and Management, Denmark. He holds two doctorate degrees - PhD from Copenhagen Business School, and Dr Merc from Aalborg University. He has extensive experience as a business consultant and training advisor in areas of management, marketing and cross-border inter-firm relations in Europe and Africa. He is author and/or editor of some 20 books on management and internationalization of firms and has written over 100 articles in refereed scholarly and professional journals on a wide range of international business issues including entrepreneurship, international marketing, intercultural management, leadership and strategy. Some of his publications are available at http: //ghanabusinessinsight.com
There has, in recent years, been an increasing emphasis on the ability of employees to think differently and take chances in business as well as in social and political organizations. Concepts such as "e;value innovation"e;, "e;creative intelligence"e;, "e;creative leadership"e;, "e;creative capability"e;, and "e;disciplined creativity"e; are now invoked in academic literature and policy circles to capture the spirit of this growing need to find novel solutions to pressing problems. Studies have shown that leadership behaviour is a key factor in facilitating the desired individual and collective creative undertaking at all levels of society and within a dynamic global context. The contributions in this volume provide a good summary of the current debate in the field. The book is therefore an essential guide to scholars, students, policy makers as well as expatriates seeking insight into the current debate and/or suggestions on how to improve creativity at individual and collective levels of organizations and societies.
hesis without Tears - A Guide for African University Students is written for university and college students in Africa who are looking for guidelines for writing a good thesis. It describes some of the most influential methods in social science and speaks directly to students without any prior knowledge of project work.Written in a simple, straight-forward and a highly engaging style, the book takes the reader through the essential features of the thesis work process and guides students in making key decisions that will reduce the anxieties they are likely to experience in their research process. Highlights of the issues discussed include: A* Characteristics of a well-written thesisA* Structure of research projectsA* Research designA* The role of theories in research projectsA* Qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and techniquesA* Mixed research methods It is intended as a supplementary textbook for courses in research methodology for bachelor and master's degree students.
Economic growth is one of the most cost-effective ways of dealing with poverty in Africa. Growth lifts many people out of poverty and at the same time generates the government revenues necessary for investments within the social sector. Thus the design and implementation of business development policies remains a major challenge in most African countries. This entails supporting businesses to be integrated within the global economic structure without being easy victims of unscrupulous and opportunistic investors. During the past two decades successive Ghanaian governments have implemented private sector development policies aimed at stimulating growth through internationalisation of local enterprises and attracting foreign investors. Contributors to the volume provide an overview of the impact of these policies on the Ghanaian business environment and the strategic orientations of managers. They also offer an insight into the productivity and performance of exporting firms, the financial and knowledge acquisition strategies they adopt, their degree of market orientation and corporate social responsibility and the challenges faced by African policy makers and managers learning to operate within an increasingly turbulent global economy. The book situates the Ghanaian experience within the broader context of African economic growth and calls for African economic integration as a platform on which African firms can build their competitiveness and operate more effectively within the global economy.
The marketing literature generally assumes that managers and customers always make rational (reasonable and logical) decisions. In real life, however, decision making process is hardly rational and straightforward. Managers and customers normally make decisions "e;in-action"e; - i.e. as they grapple with critical problems on daily basis. As such, they tend to combine experience-based knowledge with intuition and analysis to inform their decisions. Their decision making processes become even more complex when their companies operate within international contexts. It is therefore appropriate to teach students a variety of decision making skills as they prepare themselves to work in international companies. This is the task initiated in this book. It discusses how managers combine both rational and non-rational approaches and tools in their decision making processes, especially in international business contexts.Issues discussed include the following:A* The marketing strategy conceptA* Rational and non-rational approaches to decision makingA* Market-driving and market-driven strategiesA* Internal marketing strategiesA* Relational theories and strategies in marketingA* Organizational buying behaviour and strategiesA* Online advertising decisions and strategiesA* Assessment of export opportunitiesA* Marketing in the emerging economiesA* Societal and ethical considerations in marketing decisions
Policy makers and scholars consider private enterprise development as one of the most promising avenues of economic growth in Africa. To grow, enterprises must improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations, often through internationalisation. It is generally believed that internationalisation enhances the technological and managerial capacities of firms and also helps them to leverage other types of resources not immediately available within their own countries. In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in exploring the extent to which African firms are integrated into global business networks, and the benefits, if any, derived from such integrations. The above informed the need for an empirical investigations in Ghana from 2002-2003, the results of which are presented in this book. Based on the experiences in Ghana, contributors to the volume explore the issues of internationalisation in Africa by focusing on firm-level activities and inter-firm relations rather than on macro issues. They draw on dominant theories of internationalisation to explore issues such as sustained competitive advantages of firms, management and business relations in export processing zones, organisational structures, competence and leadership; culture, learning and cross-border inter-firm linkages as well as finance and stock exchange performance in Ghana. Internationalisation and Enterprise Development is a major contribution to the body of knowledge on enterprise development in Africa in general, and Ghana in particular. It is a must-read to all who are interested in Africa's enterprise development including the role played by internationalisation in that process.
Globalization has produced opportunities and challenges that countries and firms respond to with a variety of policies and strategies. Approaches that scholars may find intuitively appealing may be considered inappropriate in some contexts. This book highlights the diversity of challenges, opportunities as well as the policy and strategy options that governments and businesses have considered useful in different operational contexts. It brings together research done by scholars at the International Business Centre, Department of Business and Management at Aalborg University, Denmark, and seeks to provide inspiration for further research into some key international business issues.Issues discussed include the following: A* The role of social capital in the internationalization process of firms. A* Downstream and upstream aspects of internationalization. A* Network organizational perspective on globalized innovation processes. A* Performance assessment in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. A* The human side of national and firm-level competitiveness. A* Country-of-origin effect on brand perception. A* Role of culture international joint venture management. A* Multiculturalism and strategizing in international firms.
This book provides an overview of approaches to internationalization as experienced by smaller manufacturing enterprises over a relatively long period of time — the 35-year period from 1974 to 2009. The original research on which this study is based dates back to the mid-1970s, when academic interest in export studies, market entry modes, and internationalization approaches, among others, have their origins. With practical examples of companies from both inside and outside the USA, readers will be able to understand how smaller manufacturing enterprises approach the world of international commerce, how they prepare themselves for it, and what really draws them into the world of international commerce./a
This Special Issue is devoted to exploring entrepreneurship and economic growth challenges facing Africa. For decades, Africa has suffered serious setbacks in its journey towards progress. The region was plagued by protracted poor economic performance, mass unemployment, and high level of poverty. In recent years, however, Africa has made some progress, and the international development community is now rediscovering Africa which, previously, was written off as ""a hopeless region"". The articles selected for this special issue examine the critical role that entrepreneurship can play in reposi.
Explore new international economic and business trends and how your firm can benefit from them! Internationalization of Companies from Developing Countries provides marketing and economic researchers and students with both theoretical and empirical insights into the motives, methods, and processes of internationalization of firms in the developing countries of Africa. Full of current facts and data, this informative book explores how government policies shape a country's strategies for global competitiveness. The book also discusses motives of internationalization, approaches to market analysis and market knowledge acquisition, and domestic and foreign interfirm relations. Informative and intelligent, Internationalization of Companies from Developing Countries offers you a unique conceptual framework for analyzing and understanding the internationalization process of successful Ghanaian firms and how these principles can be applied to other businesses in developing countries. This unique book will assist you in keeping current with the dynamics of the international market by supplying you with important guidelines and suggestions. It covers: the limitations of contemporary theories that explain the process of internationalization and export development how companies from a developing country become integrated in the global economy how governments can support the internationalization process three prototype orientations of management decisionmaking: planning orientation, action orientation, and network orientation various ways of entering and developing a foreign market the concepts of relationship and interaction as they pertain to international business, especially the relationships between government institutions and corporations Comprehensive and concise, this valuable book fills a void in the current literature about internationalization in developing countries, especially in Africa. Internationalization of Companies from Developing Countries will help you establish productive business relationships and improve the position of your company and its partners in today's global arena.
This Special Issue is devoted to exploring entrepreneurship and economic growth challenges facing Africa. For decades, Africa has suffered serious setbacks in its journey towards progress. The region was plagued by protracted poor economic performance, mass unemployment, and high level of poverty. In recent years, however, Africa has made some progress, and the international development community is now rediscovering Africa which, previously, was written off as ""a hopeless region"". The articles selected for this special issue examine the critical role that entrepreneurship can play in reposi.
There is a growing concern within the development research and policy communities today about the persistent sluggish economic growth in most African countries despite the general upturn in the world economy during the last two decades and the general reduction of poverty in most developing countries. The search for explanations for Africa's poverty has stretched from considerations such as corruption, poor governance and institutional problems (Killick et al., 2001), to the limited attention to private enterprise development (Fafchamps et al., 2001). The African Union has recently estimated that corruption costs Africa 148 billion US dollars per year, thereby increasing the costs of business transactions in Africa by up to 20 per cent. Similarly the World Bank estimates that corruption impedes growth rates by 0.5 per cent per year. There is also the problem of weak supply side of the economy due, partly, to low levels of entrepreneurial activities throughout Africa. Other scholars have shown that the impacts of the activities of external agents such as donor organisations and Multinational Corporations (MNCs) operating in Africa have not always been positive, as expected by economic theorists. Based on this understanding, it makes sense to argue that reversing the downward trends in growth and development in Africa requires the joint and consistent effort of a multiple set of actors - foreign and local firms, governments, the bureaucracy, the donor organisations and the civil society - all pulling in the same direction. These challenges have encouraged some scholars to turn to sociologists and anthropologists for inspiration and insight. Sociologists generally argue that the keys to economic growth are to be found in the social structures and the nature of the value systems in each society. Individuals and local entrepreneurs as well as external agents such as donor organizations and foreign investors are guided in their behaviours by the social structures, values and governance mechanisms of the societies. Thus, if economic planners can identify the principles of co-operation and adaptation which are inherent in their societies, they should be in a position to mobilize them to provide vehicles for economic growth. To do otherwise would be to overlook an important creative potential within societies.
The overarching economic issue in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) today is to ensure a broad-based growth that lifts millions of Africans out of poverty. African countries are therefore consistently compared with high growth Asian countries such as Malaysia and South Korea which were at similar levels of economic growth as African countries for barely five decades ago. But while the Asian continent now enjoys the accolade of "economic miracle," the African situation is usually described by such adjectives as "disaster" and "tragedy" due to decades of non-growth experienced by nearly all SSA countries (Akyz and Gore 2001). The search for growth sustaining economic policies for Africa is therefore as urgent today as it was half a century ago when the torchlight of de-colonilisation was set ablaze in Ghana. The contributions from these papers suggest that the social dimension of economics requires a greater attention, if we are to find a more sustaining growth strategy for Africa. Several scholars have attributed the remarkable growth in Asian countries to their underlying cultural values and effective use of social capital derived from their networks of social relations. According to these studies the Asian people tend to have a strong sense of collective social obligation - i.e. an obligation to fulfil their individual needs without jeopardising the chances of others to fulfil theirs or the entire community to survive and progress (Biggart and Hamilton 1992; Whitley 1992, 1994).
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