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The purpose of this paper is to preview contributions on leadership and organizational development in the African context, covered in this special issue of the African Journal of Business and Economic Studies.

Summaries of the underlying theoretical/conceptual and/or empirical frameworks, as well as key findings for each paper, were outlined in order to provide insights of each paper’s thematic contribution.

Paper 1 identified four basic modes of understanding organizational culture which provides a unique and expanded view on pursuing research in the field. Paper 2 found that managers use authentic and transactional leadership skills to cultivate and nurture the creativities of employees toward increased performances. Paper 3 found the interaction between authentic leaders and followers as inducing high levels of moral and ethical behaviors in followers. Paper 4 found that employee engagement and affective commitment minimize employees’ attrition, irrespective of leadership styles. Paper 5 found that, managers can enhance organizational development by creating an atmosphere for innovation development, and being involved in its implementation. Paper 6 found that leaders who are emotionally intelligent positively evoke subordinates’ citizenship behaviors. Paper 7 identified three distinct and interrelated archetypes of managerial role preferences (i.e. change agents, affective leaders, and result-oriented realists) needed by leaders in their administrative practices.

The papers provide new insights, in terms of thematic learning and knowledge, which add to the understanding of the contemporary Afrocentric perspective on leadership and organizational development, especially, the dialogue of management activities that promote the relational, critical and constructionist perspectives on leadership and organizational development.

This paper aims to investigate the influencing dynamics of culture (national and organizational), employee characteristics, employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment in determining the organizational performances of firms in the retail banking sector in a developing country such as Ghana.

A conceptual framework linking national and organizational cultures to employees’ job satisfaction, job characteristics, organizational commitment and organizational performance was developed, and their measurement scales were adapted to guide the empirical investigation. Data were collected using a questionnaire filled in by 300 employees in nine retail banks in Ghana. The results were first analyzed by carrying out data reduction of the measured scales by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences-based factor analysis approach. The reduced data obtained from the factor analysis were then analyzed for model goodness fit by using the Analysis of Moment Structures-based structural equation modeling approach.

Effective organizational performance of retail banks in Ghana is directly influenced by the relationships among organizational culture, employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

The study sample was drawn from a single sub-sector of the Ghanaian economy. Replications and extensions of the study in different sectors that are experiencing high growth will help test the robustness and generalizability of the findings.

The study provides empirical knowledge that could be used to understand the influencing interrelationships among organizational culture, employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment on the organizational performances of retail banking firms in a developing country context.

The study adds to the literature as one of the most comprehensive studies of the links between culture, job satisfaction, employee characteristics and organizational commitment toward organizational performance within the banking sector in Ghana to date.

There is growing scholarly discourse towards COVID-19 pandemic and creative entrepreneurship in the perspectives of Global South. Extant literature lacks sufficient empirical evidence on the subject matter. This paper therefore provides insights into business models and business model shifts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic among creative entrepreneurs in Ghana.

In working towards achieving the purpose of the study, a qualitative design was deployed. Four artistic communities in three regions were understudied. The study conducted working interviews, Focus Group Discussions and field observations on the creative entrepreneurs.

The results showed a unique business model that captured ministries, agencies and departments; traditional authorities, foreigners and the diaspora community as key creative partners. The creative entrepreneurs equally proposed value via quality deliveries, attractive pattern mix, pure handy crafts, mart finishing, imbibing culture into productions and symbolic meanings. Their key activities include cutting and gluing, sewing and coloring, sketching and prototyping, annual Kente festivals, film shooting and editing. The creatives stream revenue through sales, advances, profit margins, contracts, gate proceeds, loans, friends and family support. The results also point at a regime of business model shifts among the creatives, deploying digitalization and diversification in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research by design is limited to the qualitative tradition; despite knowing well about the quantitative approach that could have provided a wider scope and coverage for effective generalizability. Certainly, it would be of future research interest to design a comparative mix-method study to achieve a wider coverage feat. Indeed, the paper does achieve the goal of providing an original empirical account, hence making a valid contribution to knowledge in the area of study.

The knowledge on demystified business models relative to the Ghanaian creative entrepreneurs has practical implications for practice: first, it generates a ground-up knowledge as to what creative entrepreneurial business models are, why they exist and exactly how to create one in a Global South perspective.

These creative business models and the COVID-19 induced model shifts among the Ghanaian creative entrepreneurs imply continuous creative livelihoods, sustainable business models and assurance for innovation in creative entrepreneurship space.

The study is of high scientific value, creative entrepreneurial essence and public interest to better demystify creative entrepreneurial business models and theoretically framed them. It offers strong empirical evidence on COVID-19 induced business model shifts. These creative business models and the COVID-19 induced model shifts among the Ghanaian creative entrepreneurs imply continuous creative livelihoods, sustainable business models and assurance for innovation in creative entrepreneurship space.

There is growing attention towards inclusive mining to make an economic case for gender equality and diversity in the industry. Available literature lacks sufficient empirical evidence on the subject matter in Ghana. Therefore, this paper aims to understudy women miners in Ghana and document their role in recent change regimes in mine works gender profiles. An observed change that is stimulating a shift in background dispositions leads to increasing number of women taking up mine jobs.

In working towards achieving the aim of the study, both qualitative design and a multiple case study approaches are deployed. Four multinational Ghanaian mines and a mining and technology university were used to understudy the women miners and their role towards a change in mine work gender perspectives.

The results showed a regime of “ore-solidarity movement” (women in mining – Ghana). A kind of solidarity identified conventionally as a social movement in active resource and self-mobilization, engaged in a symbolic contestation for change of the status quo (dominant masculinity cultures) in furtherance of gender equity and inclusion in milieu of mine works reforms in Ghana.

The study is of high scientific, political and public interest to better understand women’s movements in the mining industries in Ghana and to frame them theoretically. It offers solid empirical evidence on roles women miners play to ensure gender shape-shifting and liberalizing the mining space for women’s participation. This move towards inclusive mining implies poverty eradication among women, work towards achieving sustainable mining, competitiveness and assurance for gender-driven social innovative mining.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of transformational leadership on employee turnover intention through the mediating role of affective commitment.

The study examines conceptual relationships in the Ghanaian context, based on structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation, using sample employees from the private sector organizations. In addition, the mediation analysis is conducted with Sobel’s test and 95 per cent CI bootstrap analysis.

The study shows that affective commitment would decline workers’ quitting intention and serves to promote a degree of trust and willingness to follow their leaders’ philosophy, ideology, vision and guidance in the organization. Hence, affective commitment fully mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and employee turnover intention.

To help lessen employees quitting intentions, both middle and top-level managers should endeavour to create an atmosphere of trust, admiration, loyalty and respect for their employees.

Overall it is shown that affective commitment was the mechanism through which transformational leadership influences employees’ turnover intentions in the SLCs in Ghana.

The COVID-19 pandemic has long-lasting effects that necessitate business revision, innovation, and transformation in the hospital industry. The research in this field is, however, still incredibly underdeveloped. Hotels have faced unprecedented pressure due to the outbreak of novel COVID-19, forcing many to close temporarily or permanently. The aim of this study is to assess COVID-19 effect on hotels within the Bono region of Ghana, as the protocols are currently relaxed.

Using a quantitative approach, a stratified and purposive sampling method was used and 174 hotel managers in the Bono region responded to the research questions in relation to how their businesses were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings showed that the most prominent and recurring measures among hotels are the application of hygiene standards, employee training and awareness, reduction of employees’ guest contact and ensuring a safer environment for both guests and employees.

The study’s sample frame covers hotels in the Bono region of Ghana with lower star classifications, ranging from affordable to three stars in quality and service. Hotels should emphasize the importance of providing their personnel with ongoing training and education to prepare them to deal with the outbreak of the pandemic.

As a result, the study suggests that hotel operators give innovative, fascinating and delightful accommodation experiences that may boost customers’ authentic happiness, as well as offer possibilities for customers to gain positive, memorable experiences from their experience.

Academia and hotel managers need to contribute to theory development in hotel marketing by analyzing changes in customer expectations and industry recovery measures to affect good changes in industry best practices in the aftermath of the epidemic.

This study makes a significant contribution to the body of knowledge of the service delivery system model research because it is one of the initial studies to examine hotel business operations and activities during the COVID-19 utilizing the Bono region as a case. Theoretical, managerial and policy implications are discussed to cope with this crisis.

The purpose of the paper is to explore gender variations in entrepreneurship and internationalisation from the perspective of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm; in particular, the paper explores how differences in the personal idiosyncrasies of both males and females in part account for the variations in export internationalisation.

The study draws on extant literature on the critical success factors in entrepreneurship and internationalisation research (e.g. foreign market knowledge, firm-level technology and firm age) as the conceptual framework to explore the issue. The study is based on 21 male and 17 female export entrepreneurs from Ghana and uses a descriptive research design (i.e. frequencies and chi-square test) to analyse the results.

The results show that the perceptions of male and female exporters differ on key internationalisation success factors based on extant literature. Implicitly, whilst both groups shared a similar degree of basic knowledge on a few export success factors, across most of the other key export success factors, the male counterparts demonstrated a more expanded view compared to the females. The results support the assumption of the RBV theory applied in this study to argue that to account properly for the internationalisation outcomes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the personality characteristics of the owner entrepreneurs are critical resources which cannot be ignored.

In terms of limitation, the study is exploratory study based on non-probability sampling methods using descriptive frequencies tables and analysis of chi-square test and so readers must bear this limitation in mind in interpreting the results to improve on future studies.

The paper contributes to the empirical literature by offering a unique perspective regarding how women and men perceive and interpret export success factors and how that impacts on the internationalisation outcomes of women and men. The paper responds to calls by researchers (e.g. Terjesen et al., 2011; Ratten and Tajeddini, 2018; Kuschel and Labra, 2018; Javadian and Richards, 2020) to populate studies on the topic to deepen the present understanding. By using data from Ghana, West Africa, the study sheds a fresh insight on the topic from an under-studied and under-researched geographical context.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the contribution of the business climate on the sustainability of Cameroonian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in times of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

To achieve this purpose, the study proceed with a quantitative analysis using the simple LOGIT model on a sample of 52 individuals.

Through the administration of questionnaires and estimations, results reveal that certain variables such as the taxation regime of the enterprise, the different types of taxes paid by the enterprise, the frequency of payment of income tax, the nature of the training of managers, the clauses of the debt contracts with banks/EMFs (Microfinance institution), the time taken to apply for a loan from the bank and the nature of the manager’s training have a negative influence on the sustainability of Cameroonian SMEs during COVID-19, while others such as the evolution of financial profitability in the context of the coronavirus pandemic in Cameroon, the company’s sector of activity and the main methods of financing the SME have a positive influence on the sustainability of Cameroonian SMEs during COVID-19 pandemic. The improvement of the business climate by the institutional authorities is, therefore, essential in the perspective of an eventual development of the country; the said development cannot take place without capitalizing on the potential for income and job creation by SMEs.

The first limitation is related to the size of the sample and also to the specificity of our study. In fact, the study is conducted among individuals/actors likely to have access to information on the business climate and sustainability of Cameroonian SMEs at the time of COVID-19 encountered in the city of Yaoundé. In this context, the sample size is considered to be small (52). This element does not immediately allow the results of the present research to be generalized to all regions where SMEs are located in Cameroon, as other criteria or other elements must still be taken into account and the results obtained must, therefore, be interpreted with caution. This research could be deepened in the future by considering more business climate variables on the one hand and a larger sample size extended to all cities in Cameroon on the other.

The results of this research confirm the importance of institutional bodies establishing a rigorous policy of support for businesses. Such a policy would contribute to improving the business climate and extend beyond mere resilience.

The originality of this study lies in the fact that it looks at the sustainability of SMEs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon using a simple LOGIT econometric model.