Search results

As the knowledge management and research communications arm of the Global Development Network, GDNet builds the capacity of researchers from developing and transition countries to inform global development research and policy. In its early years, GDNet focused on information and knowledge management staff in developing country research institutes, recognising the importance of this group in moving locally generated research into policy. From 2005 onwards, GDNet piloted a series of knowledge management workshops in Africa, and in 2007, organised a two‐day conference in Cairo, in partnership with the ACBF and the World Bank Institute, to share and examine its findings with others. Called “Knowledge Management as an Enabler of Change and Innovation in Africa”, the conference brought together the experiences and lessons learned from efforts to build knowledge management capacity from across the African continent. In 2007, the discussion centered on two key themes: the need to create an enabling environment for the adoption of knowledge management practices in Africa and the importance of indigenous knowledge assets as inputs to poverty alleviation strategies. In exploring these themes, speakers highlighted several key challenges in “efforts towards building effective communication strategies and building a ‘knowledge friendly culture’ in the continent” (GDN, 2007). The 20th anniversary of ACBF is a timely opportunity to revisit the discussions of 2007, to question progress made towards meeting these challenges and share with delegates how GDNet’s capacity building activities have evolved in the light of the conference findings.

The present study aims to investigate the experience, contribution and opinions of users of respective institutional repositories (IRs) developed in India.

The survey method was used. The data collection tool was a web questionnaire, which was created with the help of software provided by surveymonkey.com

It was observed that 85.94 percent of respondents (154) were aware of the IR facility/service and 14.05 percent (26) were not aware of IR. More than half of the respondents, i.e. 52.43 percent (97), learned about the IR service through links provided on institutions' websites. About 36.21 percent of the respondents had not contributed to any type of repository, while 25.94 percent of respondents had contributed to their IR. A higher percentage (16.76 percent) of respondents felt it was an “easy and fast way to communicate research results”. The majority of the respondents, i.e. 113 (61.08 percent), were willing to deposit symposium/conference/seminar papers. The most important reason for contribution was found to be preservation of documents for the future. Peer review was very much acceptable as a quality control mechanism. More than half of the respondents (57.84 percent) wanted to provide open access without any barrier for their ideal repository.

Only users of the respective Indian institutional repositories are studied, and the findings are compared with other studies.

This is the first detailed study focusing on the users and their experience of institutional repositories.

This chapter explains the interrelationships between trade markets of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, which have experienced the same political, economical, and social changes due to their postwar market orientation. Particularly, the research is focused on the relationships between retailers and their suppliers, the effects of 2008 financial crisis, and changes in customer behavior on those markets.

The chapter builds upon the investigation of the existing literature on trade in selected Southeast European (SEE) countries targeting three time-periods: planned economy era; period after the launch of the economic transition; and the European Union (EU) accession preparation era. The supporting fieldwork is based on qualitative interviews with senior managers in trade companies operating on all investigated markets. Results are compared with other secondary data sources.

The research has contributed to the understanding of similarities and differences on three markets of former Yugoslavia: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Four areas are used as a framework for explaining the level of cooperation and interdependence between trade companies on investigated markets: changes in retail forms, growth in retail operations, increasing importance of the relationships with suppliers, and penetration of private labels.

Results of the study provides some directions for suppliers on the selected markets and for retailers as well. As retailers rely on their key suppliers, local suppliers should offer them elements of differentiation. On the other hand, results give an insight into actual situation on the markets of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia regarding retail structure, number of retail forms, private labels, etc.

Considering an extensive literature review, the analysis of data given in official statistical databases, as well as qualitative study among trade managers, these findings have important managerial implications for retailers and suppliers.

Across the global community the eradication of slums has been identified as a key project as part of the broader goal to eradicate poverty. Entrepreneurial efforts are viewed as a key means of ‘lifting’ people from poverty. Through a focus on Nigeria, this chapter examines slum upgrading programmes. The primary aim is to identify the opportunities and barriers facing inhabitants of informal settlements to realising entrepreneurial synergies that can occur in particular places.

A case study examination of the Kpirikpiri informal settlement in Ebonyi State, Nigeria was conducted that utilised a mixed-method approach. The research passed through three key phases. The first phase comprised a literature survey and review. The second phase involved a household survey to gather some baseline socio-economic and physical data that helped to fill the void of basic data. A total of 142 respondents participated in the survey, representing 10% of the total number of households in the area. The third phase involved the collection of qualitative data through focus group discussions and individual interviews.

Slum dwellers have skills and formal education equivalent to those in the Global North. Nevertheless, Nigerians tend to view entrepreneurial activities as secondary to other forms of employment, especially positions in the public sector. Paradoxically, slum dwellers place little trust in state authorities. Security of tenure is a major barrier to expanding entrepreneurial activities, as many landlords are reluctant to permit tenants to operate home-based enterprises, which is often a neglected element of place-based development strategies.

The chapter demonstrates the need for basic socio-economic datasets alongside user perspectives to shape the efficacy of development initiatives. In the case of Kpirikpiri, slum improvement programmes may have benefited from parallel educational programmes that expound the virtues of entrepreneurialism and concomitant training schemes, improved governance open to local social networks, less emphasis on physical upgrading of some forms of infrastructure and greater attention towards improving security of tenure as a path towards generating more home-based enterprises.

The entrepreneurial potential of the inhabitants of informal settlements is under-acknowledged in ‘upgrading’ interventions and also underplayed in the research literature. The chapter draws some much needed critical attention to the opportunities and barriers facing inhabitants of informal settlements, which helps to challenge some dominant transnational policy assumptions.

This paper aims to provide an updated review of policy literature and evidence on the development implications of extractive industries.

It synthesizes the main lessons drawn from an extensive review of policy and academic literature on this topic. It outlines the risks attached to the natural resource curse as well as the associated solutions, as demonstrated by empirical evidence and policy experience.

Based on the authors’ review of case studies and multi-country empirical analyses, there is a mixed picture on the link between extractive industries and inclusive growth. The authors find that, on the one hand, significant risks are commonly associated with the natural resource curse faced by countries that wish to tap this wealth for development. On the other hand, the mixed results also suggest that the many challenges related to expanding extractive industries are not necessarily unavoidable.

For policymakers, the main message is that some countries that have taken important steps to improve the governance of their wealth as well as channel these toward productive investments – notably human capital – appear to have transformed the natural resource curse into a boon for development.

The main contribution of this paper is that it provides the most comprehensive review to date on this body of the policy and academic literature. It will serve as a guide for policymakers, civil society and other stakeholders working on issues linked to extractive industries.

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the issues, challenges, and impediments coming in the way of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalization in small developing nations of South Pacific like Fiji and Samoa.

The paper encompasses both quantitative and qualitative data. Analyses of antecedents are descriptive in nature, while establishing the relationship between intervening variables and outcomes are quantitative. For quantitative data, structured questionnaires are used, while for the collection of qualitative data, archival and library research methods are employed. Structured questionnaire is used to collect data from 118 and 78 sampled respondents in Fiji and Samoa, respectively, and statistical analysis is performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences package.

These research findings pinpoint that the problem lies in evaluating the nature of issues affecting internationalization of SMEs. The results also show that the performance of Fijian and Samoan SMEs is same across different business sectors and those SMEs in these two countries exhibit different change patterns in their export growth.

The scope of the paper is limited only to the SMEs in Fiji and Samoa and cannot in any way be generalized to large firms.

SMEs seeking to internationalize will need to learn a lot about the internal and external factors impacting their organizations. Many a times entrepreneurs believe that through sustained planning, they can reduce the shocks resulting from environmental uncertainty, however, in reality some of them may be able to benefit while others despite planning may not be able to overcome growth‐related problems, as they may require reactive action. Therefore, learning is essential in international expansion and so is having a clear understanding of the environment that entrepreneurs operate in. Future research should seek to highlight documented cases of SME internationalization.

This paper is one of the important studies taken in the context of Pacific SMEs. The research that has been conducted in the past are mostly confined to Asian countries, with very little in the area of SME internationalization. The findings of this paper will have relevance for policy making and supportive measures at government levels for SME internationalization.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the quantitative effect of import liberalization on tariff revenue in Ghana.

In an attempt to achieve the objective of the paper, a robust decomposition analytical approach was used to examine how different components of the sources of change in import tax contribute to changes in import tax revenue in Ghana.

The paper concludes that Ghana suffered some revenue loss from the liberalization by reducing the level of average official duty rates, but gained in revenue as a result of real currency depreciation.

It has been suggested that public policy should aim at determining and targeting the optimum level of the average official import duty rates, focus on the identification of the major sources of duty revenue leakage, and substitute sales taxes for tariffs to improve tax revenue sufficiently.

This paper makes explicit the contribution of alternative import policy features to changes in import tax revenue in Ghana.