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Ọsẹ dúdú production and sale constitute a major indigenous business among the Yoruba people. Scholars have noted that the business is capable of boosting the socio-economic status of black soap entrepreneurs and of countries. However, ọsẹ dúdú enterprise has some significant threats and problems that are yet to be researched. This chapter examined the challenges of osẹ dúdú entrepreneurs in Southwest Nigeria. Twenty-six interviews were conducted among indigenous black soap producers and sellers in Ogun, Oyo and Lagos States. Data were analysed in themes. Weather, financial, spiritual, copyright and succession challenges, as well as issues such as a large number of sellers, debt, lack of support, pricing and brand competition, were found to be problems faced by black soap entrepreneurs. This chapter concluded that certain controllable and uncontrollable factors were not only capable of limiting the development of osẹ dúdú business but also have adverse implications for the achievement of the sustainable development goals through the indigenous resource. This chapter suggests that osẹ dúdú business actors such as mechanical engineers, local fabricators, financial institutions, and governmental and non-governmental agencies collaborate with black soap entrepreneurs to ameliorate the challenges of the latter. It is only through this alliance that black soap entrepreneurs can contribute to indigenous business development and the achievement of sustainable development goals in Africa.

Consecration is the process by which producers in creative fields become canonized as “greats.” However, is this the end of the story? Research on consecration focuses on the drivers of consecration but pays little attention to the post-consecration period. Furthermore, the research ignores the dynamics of consecration. To address these gaps, we examine the changing fortunes of a consecrated artist – the musician Phil Collins. We identify the ways in which three actors (fans, critics, and peers) assemble for consecration, disassemble for deconsecration, and reassemble for reconsecration. Examining the changing public image and commercial fortunes of Collins as a solo artist between 1980 and 2020, we identify an N-shaped process of rise-fall-rise that we call the Phil Collins Effect. This effect offers a new way of thinking about how cultural producers gain, lose and regain status in their fields.

This paper examines the corporate and institutional responses to the challenge of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The circumstances of South Africa have demonstrated the need for new ways of governance if businesses and society are to be sustainable. A confluence of historical, political and social factors in the 21st century, has produced the circumstances for new corporate principles, practices and reporting. The paper investigates the impact of institutional initiatives on corporate practices. Based on semi-structured interviews, the influences of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the King Report, the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), and trade unions on corporate practices are explicated. There is no single path to a solution. What is clear is that firms cannot be uni-dimensional in the pursuit of profits, but have to be more ‘inclusive’, and not only in South Africa, but everywhere.

Previous research suggests that women receive less critical attention and acclaim in popular music. The authors expect that gender differences in the amount and content of media discourse about popular musicians occur because music critics draw on the cultural frame of gender as a primary tool for critical evaluation. In order to explore the role of gender as a frame through which aesthetic content is evaluated, the authors conduct detailed content analyses of 53 critical reviews of two versions of the popular album 1989 – the original released by Taylor Swift in 2014 and a cover version released by Ryan Adams less than a year later. Despite Swift’s greater popularity and prominence, the authors find that reviews of her version of the album are more likely to focus on her gender and sexuality; less likely to describe her as emotionally authentic; and more likely to use popular aesthetic criteria in evaluating her music. By contrast, Ryan Adams was more likely to be seen by critics as emotionally authentic and to be described using high art aesthetic criteria and intellectualizing discourse. The authors address the implications of the findings for persistent gender gaps in many artistic fields.