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Initiated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) over half a century ago, fair trade has successfully evolved from a regional business discourse to a global social movement within international trade. In the matter of fair trade coffee, this global social movement has transformed the traditional coffee trade structure of inequality and unfairness into a conglomerate of international institutions that embrace equity and inclusivity – a metamorphosis that can be attributed to NGOs’ institutional entrepreneurship.

In this exploratory study, the authors examine the fair trade coffee industry and trace the actions of NGOs along with other stakeholders at the organizational field level, in moving toward an inclusive model of globalization.

Departing from exploitative globalization, fair trade practices advocate inclusive growth through the promotion and establishment of greater equity for all as well as higher environmental standards in global value chains.

This study contributes to nascent research on inclusive growth by analyzing how fair trade promotes inclusive growth and trade in GVCs. This study also contributes to research on institutional entrepreneurship by examining two enabling conditions – the shift in institutional logics and the peripheral social position of NGOs – that enabled NGOs to serve as institutional entrepreneurs in the initiation phase of institutional entrepreneurship.

Policymakers may encourage collaboration between profit organizations and nonprofit organizations to provide entrepreneurial opportunities for trials, errors, and revisions. The evolution of fair trade coffee provides such an example.

The coevolution of NGOs and MNEs has made the globalization of fair trade practices possible. The collaboration between NGOs as institutional entrepreneurs (operating on the community logic) and MNEs as institutional followers (operating on the financial logic) support inclusive globalization and sustain fair trade practices.

Drawing on the process model of institutional entrepreneurship, the authors seek to understand the role of NGOs as institutional entrepreneurs in the dynamics of initiating, diffusing and sustaining fair trade coffee practices.

This study aims to examine how aid for trade policy and regulations (AfTPR) contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 8.1 (sustain per capita economic growth) and whether the effectiveness of AfTPR is conditional to the stable political environment.

This paper uses a widely accepted endogenous growth framework and applies panel data fixed effects and two-step difference and system generalized method of moments estimation strategies on panel data of 50 developing countries over 2005–2017.

The findings of the study confirm that aid to trade policy promotes sustainable economic growth in developing countries, but this category of development assistance is only effective and significant for low and lower middle-income (LLMI) economies. The positive and significant effect of AfTPR in upper middle-income countries is conditional to their level of political stability. Under a stable political situation, the positive effect of AfTPR on sustainable growth remains almost same for the LLMI countries, whereas for the upper middle-income countries this growth effect reached almost double.

International trade is considered as a driver for inclusive and sustainable economic growth, whereas aid for trade is acknowledged for its prospective contribution toward achieving these goals. The findings have dominant policy implications for the international development organizations and donors, which recommend that it is more desirable to transmit aid toward developing and implementing trade policy and regulations as per capita economic growth improves in the aid recipient countries.

According to the authors’ knowledge, no prior study empirically analyzes the effect of AfTPRs on SDG target 8.1.

This paper aims to examine the road ahead for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), focusing on its potential opportunities and challenges. It is intended to help the AfCFTA’s effective implementation by highlighting the major areas of intervention for State Parties.

The paper analyses relevant economic, political and legal research sources on regional integration in Africa and offers some personal views of the author to evaluate the past, present and future of the AfCFTA.

The paper shows that the AfCFTA can support its State Parties’ industrialization and diversification, better integrate micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to regional value chains, create jobs, encourage sustainable investments and help its State Parties have common positions on global issues and achieve development. But, it also shows the challenges facing the AfCFTA, which include infrastructure gap, revenue and job losses, overlapping membership of State Parties in Regional Economic Communities, cumbersome customs systems, difficulty to cross African borders, fledgling MSMEs and inadequate technical capacity on trade policy. Accordingly, it recommends that State Parties continuously take various actions to address these challenges and maximize the multiple benefits of the AfCFTA.

The paper provides a comprehensive and up-to-date appraisal of the opportunities and challenges of the AfCFTA, both in the context of the history of regional integration in Africa and the recent global shocks that adversely impacted the continent (COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine).

Following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, including the evolving health safety regulations, opening and closing of businesses, shortage of healthcare workers, especially nurses, restrictions on international travels, and the associated elimination of tourism services, it has been an unprecedented period for companies, communities and governments. These research chapters discuss socioeconomic shocks and development from Africa's experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. This book has presented national and regional issues that cut across selected United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), with a specific focus on public health systems, food security, peace or conflicts resolutions, gender diversity, state effectiveness, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), poverty alleviation, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and its facilitation, environmental sustainability, green recovery plan and financial inclusion. Based on these coronavirus pandemic related development challenges as contained in this book, the purpose of this conclusion chapter is three-folds: (1) wrap up this edited book project; (2) suggest relevant preparedness strategies for Africa if similar pandemic occurs in the future; (3) propose emerging areas of future research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether aggregate and sectoral disbursement of aid for trade (AfT) facilitates achieving gender equality and women empowerment in aid-recipient developing countries for the period 2005–2019.

The study develops static and dynamic panel data and empirical specifications and employs fixed effects and generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation techniques to estimate the impact of aggregate AfT and different categories of AfT on women empowerment. The study uses the Gender Inequality Index (GII) and Global Gender Gap Index (GGI) as the proxy measures of SDG-5, where the higher (lower) value of GII (GGI) implies higher gender disparities and lower women empowerment, and vice versa.

The study finds that aggregate AfT and aid disbursement for the development of economic infrastructure, productive capability building and trade policy and regulations contribute significantly to achieve women empowerment by reducing gender inequalities concerning the labour force and political participation, education enrolment and better healthcare and by increasing gender gap index in relation to economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. The impact of aggregate AfT and its different categories is found significant only in low- and lower-middle-income developing countries. The findings also indicate that the impact of AfT is not noticeably different across different regions of the world as well as the religious belief of the developing countries.

The study recommends that more allocation of gender-responsive AfT, whether aggregated or disaggregated, significantly helps women empowerment and assists developing economies to achieve SDG-5.

This study is one of the few that investigate the impact of aggregate AfT on gender inequality and women empowerment. This is the foremost study that examines the effects of each individual category of AfT on women empowerment vis-à-vis SDG-5.

This article aims to provide two analytical frameworks for understanding the role of trade in promoting inclusive growth in developing economies.

A working definition of inclusive growth focuses on long‐term, sustained growth associated with productivity growth and employment opportunities for broad portions of households and firms within countries. International integration can promote inclusive growth when workers and firms are able to adjust to enter into growing economic activities and adopt technologies availed through international trade. The frameworks described in this note build on simple household and firm choice models, which require only basic knowledge of development economics.

The discussion highlights how these frameworks can help analysts focus on research and policy questions related to the impacts of international trade across the distribution of households and firms within countries. It also discusses publicly available data sets that can be used to explore some aspects of inclusive growth. In addition, the note highlights important caveats that need to be acknowledged by analysts and discusses avenues for future research, which needs to be part and parcel of the inclusive growth agenda.

This is a first attempt to apply an analytical definition of inclusive growth, which emphasizes second order or behavioral responses of workers and firms' profits, to understand the link between international integration and development.

Presented on behalf of the Evian Group @ IMD, this paper aims to expand upon points made in the keynote speech at the 9th Annual EABIS Colloquium on Corporate Responsibility and Emerging Markets held in St Petersburg, Russia on 20‐21 September 2010.

Three themes are explored within the context of the BRICs: geopolitics and global governance in the twenty‐first century; the balance between public good and private enterprise; and frameworks for equitable trade and inclusive growth.

The global situation is precarious, characterized by multi‐polarity, asymmetrical power threats, and a vacuum in global governance. The trade‐based economic development of the BRICs is a positive economic sign but raises implications for sustainability. There is a need for balance between the ability of the public sector to provide public goods, including global public goods, and the need for government to create incentives for the private sector and unleash its creativity and energy. With the proper incentives and legal structure, including respect for the rule of law, the energy and creativity of the private sector can be harnessed to develop a framework for equitable trade and inclusive growth, and to further the development of a sustainable global market economy.

The paper provides a catalyst for discussion that bridges the gap between business school education, legal education, political science and economics.

Environmental protection and conservation of resources is a challenge for policymakers to attain sustainable growth and development. The current study uses the variable of inclusive growth instead of the traditional measure of growth.

The link between inclusive growth, renewable energy, industrial production, trade openness and the environment is explored by using panel data from 1995 to 2019 in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) countries. Before applying formal techniques, unit root tests were applied to check the stationarity of each variable. The long-run relationship among factors was found by the Kao cointegration test. The panel dynamic ordinary least squares (DLOS) was employed for regression estimation.

The results verified a decrease in ecological footprint (EF) in response to a potential rise in renewable energy consumption. An upsurge in EFs was explored due to a rise in gross domestic product (GDP) per person employed and trade openness. The EF significantly decreased by 0.671% in response to a 1% rise in renewable energy consumption.

It is highly suggested to enhance renewable energy usage. To achieve this, policymakers should implement and emphasize efficient energy technologies to ensure improving the environment. Efficient use of renewable energy resources will decrease global warming effects and ensure the sustainable use of scarce resources.

It first took into account the variable of inclusive growth instead of traditional growth measures. It explored the impact of GDP per person employed as an indicator of inclusive growth.