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There is no doubt that there is a need for new traditions, that is, wisdoms for enhanced responsible business in Africa. As one of the oldest world economies, Africa has a rich history of responsible indigenous business traditions that have sustained and supported her people’s principled business entrepreneurship over the centuries. However, there is little knowledge about these African responsible indigenous business traditions in the international literature. Currently, internationally familiar Western responsible business traditions dominate global responsible management knowledge and practice. The chapter explores responsible indigenous business traditions amongst the Sesotho-speaking people of Southern Africa called Basotho, bringing to light an aspect of responsible indigenous business management knowledge and practice from Southern Africa. These Basotho’s responsible indigenous business traditions embedded in Mokorotlo business model are Seahlolo, that is, communal, or mutual aid sharing, Letsema, that is, communal work party, Tsimo-ea-lira, that is, the field of enemies, Moelela, that is, food paid for work at threshing time, and Mafisa, that is, communal livestock loaning. The chapter concludes by suggesting that these Mokorotlo business traditions are prima facie attractive to be taken seriously in the global responsible management knowledge and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to present and interpret the “Enterprise Politics Model (EPM)” developed by Professor Antonio Valero, Founder and first Dean of IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain.

Drawing from a careful reading of Valero’s writings in their original context and some developments of these by his followers, this paper systematically presents and discusses the key ideas of Valero’s model for management and corporate governance.

The main features of Valero’s philosophy of the firm and of senior management can be summarized in four points: the firm as a community of persons; the firm as an intermediate social institution serving the common good of society; the different nature of political and technical practice, which leads senior management to exercise practical reason – not only science or technique, and at the same time a kind of political art, or wisdom; and the role and responsibility of entrepreneurs and top management. Valero emphasizes the political nature of management and, from a practical perspective, suggests a global analysis based on four big areas of governance: business activity, managing structure, institutional configuration, and professional community. He makes his model applicable by developing “political procedures”.

Valero’s “EPM” is an original humanistic approach to management and corporate governance, with implications to business education. Valero’s contributions were based on his business and teaching experience and in a deep humanistic background, but adopted an intuitive outlook and need further conceptual development, actualization to contemporary business context and empirical research on the relationship between this model and performance.

Valero’s “EPM” is a practically oriented humanistic approach to management and corporate governance which can be a realistic alternative to conventional, and often criticized, approaches to management and corporate governance. In fact, it has already been successfully applied in several companies.

In a context of growing discontent toward capitalism and the role of business in society, the “EPM” – discussed in this paper – shows how business might be run and organized to be socially responsible, contributing to the common good and respecting individual rights and flourishing.

The paper discusses, systematizes and interprets an innovative way of understanding management and corporate governance.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how the new transdiscipline of ecological economics (EE) provides a very useful supporting scientific base for Buddhist traditions and their provision of practical wisdom for economics and management.

The key relevant theoretical and methodological features of EE are explained and related to the Buddhist world view. The strong consistencies between the two perspectives are highlighted. The complementary nature of the practical philosophy of Buddhism and the guiding paradigm of EE can contribute to change in contemporary management approaches aligned with sustainable and welfare-enhancing economic systems.

EE provides a very appropriate scientific base to complement and broaden the positive contribution of Buddhist traditions to sustainable economic systems and consistent management practices.

Despite some very clear parallels and complementarities, the mutual benefits of integrating and strengthening the cross-over between Buddhism and the influential new “sustainability science” of EE are yet to be realised. This paper is focused on this goal. The potential interplay promises significant benefits for both perspectives – EE needs more development of its sustainability ethical basis, and Buddhist perspectives would be enhanced by support from a highly consistent and influential scientific paradigm in a world where secular market economics continues to prevail.

Business education should be seen as a form of professional education which assists the student to acquire the virtue of practical wisdom. This article seeks to discuss the issues.

A middle level thinking (MLT) approach is taken to engage business education and practice that seeks to fashion explicit and vibrant ties between broad ethical principles and the concrete decisions, policies, and processes which shape how an organization operates.

The financial crisis of 2008 and past business scandals are symptoms of a broader cultural crisis. Universities and their business schools have contributed to this cultural crisis by providing students with an overly compartmentalized and specialized form of education. Business education must be re‐envisioned as professional education which prepares students to engage in a form of middle level thinking (MLT). For this kind of thinking to become sustainable within a university context, it must draw upon the university's own cultural mission; otherwise, it will be susceptible to the economic and specialized pressures which bear upon these institutions.

The article describes a practical process called the self assessment and improvement process which helps to catalyze MLT. It also examines this method's application within the authors' own business school, which is situated within a Catholic university.

By fostering MLT, business schools will promote the development of professionals who have the capacity to connect broad moral principles to concrete moral judgments and actions, thereby leading to specific practices which enable organizations to better contribute to the common good.

The article shows that acquisition of practical wisdom can be promoted within business schools through practical approaches which help to foster MLT.

This paper aims to explore how African‐Caribbean Pentecostals use the platform of their faith to reconstruct their entrepreneurial values and identities, improve entrepreneurial learning and exploit the cultural resources of faith‐based networks to promote and sustain their entrepreneurialism.

Methodological appropriateness rather than orthodoxy guided the design of this study. Rooted in the context of discovery rather than verification, focus groups were assembled and used for data collection. Ideas generated by the groups were further explored in narrative face‐to‐face interviews.

Findings indicate clear connections between motivation for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial learning and religious orientation among African‐Caribbean entrepreneurs. Religious orientation was evident as a context moderator within which relations of trust and ethnico‐religious compatibility generate social capital which, in turn, helps members to cope with the challenges of entrepreneurship.

This paper offers refreshing insights into the transcendental logic of black entrepreneurship, illuminating the interconnections between religion and enterprise. Such insights afford tremendous opportunities to construct new sites of meaning or frame new explanations of entrepreneurship among the population group – using religion as an important environmental munificence.

The purpose of this paper is to describe different concepts of valuable knowledge that are perceived to be lost when an older expert departs from a knowledge-intensive organisation.

A multiple case research methodology and semi-structured interviews involving 17 participants from five small-to-medium enterprises (SME).

Five concepts of valuable knowledge have emerged from the interviews: subject matter expertise; knowledge about business relationships and social networks; organisational knowledge and institutional memory; knowledge of business systems, processes and value chains; and knowledge of governance.

The scope of the research project is restricted to SMEs in New Zealand and this restriction limits the generalisation of the results to other contexts. This study may serve as a starting point for future investigations including larger organisations that may have a greater number of older experts.

By identifying the different types of older experts' knowledge, organisations are able to realise the potential of retaining that knowledge within the organisation.

This is one of the first investigations of the knowledge that older experts in the professional services industry possess within a small-to-medium enterprise context.

Conversations create the wealth of knowledge organizations. This conversation with Jim Botkin explores a variety of issues on how knowledge is changing how organizations create value as knowledge‐based enterprises. Jim Botkin argues that the knowledge framework is actually the larger context for organizations and that e‐business is actually a subset of its operations. Botkin also shares how knowledge has come to be a new factor of production in organizations. This is true for both “new economy” organizations and “old economy” legacy organizations. Even so, the acceptance of the knowledge movement is still tentative. The very name “knowledge management” still often implies information technology “applications” to key organizational visionaries and is not always well received. The controversies over nurturing knowledge communities within the framework of knowledge initiatives are also examined in the dialogue.

This chapter seeks to examine the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Kenya and evaluate whether the practices of CSR evidenced in Kenya resonates with the needs and aspirations of the people or has been caricatured from the West. The chapter epistemologically examines CSR and tilts this approach to Kenya and how Kenyan indigenous organisations are practising it. There is no denying that the West has been significant in shaping the frameworks of the contemporary CSR agenda thus making its definition not African. It is important to realise that there is no homogeneity in terms of the needs and realities between developed and developing countries. In this regard, any attempts to homogenise the conceptualisation of CSR cannot hold water due to disparities in the cultural underpinnings. A common understanding in the scholarship on CSR is that it is culturally determined. Most multinational organisations operating in Africa have always practised the kind of CSR that mostly resonates with the West rather than Africa. The organisation’s mandate is not only to make profits but also to increase and strike a balance of the needs and interests of the stakeholders. Through desktop research, published scholarly articles were analysed and it was established that there is no African CSR. The one practised in Kenya and the other parts of the African continent is a caricature of the Global North which does not conform to the needs, realities, and expectations of Africans.