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Against the backdrop of falling standards and failing government policies in the education sector in Nigeria, this paper aimed to investigate how and why non-state actors can make a significant impact on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals for universal basic education (UBE).

This study draws from semi-structured interviews of 15 heads and proprietors – six state-funded schools, six faith schools and three other privately owned schools – to examine and compare the different motivations, guiding principles and overall impact of these actors in the education sector.

Religious actors, along with private providers, are making a significant contribution to the provision of basic education in Nigeria. Students from faith schools tend to perform better academically and they also tend to be more disciplined and resourceful. However, because these schools are fee-paying, fewer households are able to access them.

The findings highlight the need to facilitate better cooperation and knowledge transfer activities between public, private and faith schools. It also emphasises the need for better government commitment and investment in provision of resources and facilities, effort in regulating the curriculum and regular inspection and quality monitoring of public schools.

The study highlights, on the one hand, the superior capacity of non-state actors – especially religious actors – to deploy their vast social capital towards the mobilisation of funds and human resources. On the other hand, while they have made inroads in their share of total national school enrolment, non-state actors have not made significant impact on access to quality education, owing to high fees and entry barriers faced by poorer households.

The aim of this paper is to use the special context of the Kenyan encampment policy to interrogate the role of social capital as a driver of resourcing for entrepreneurial action in the resource-constrained environment of refugee entrepreneurship in Kenya.

This paper takes conceptual and case study approaches to investigate how refugees deploy social capital to aggregate and recombine resources for entrepreneurial action and livelihood outcomes. It draws on 21 selected secondary sources and semi-structured interviews of 24 respondents from Kakuma camp and Kalobeyei settlement, as well as Nairobi city in Kenya.

This study proposes a new conceptual framework that illuminates the interaction between social capital, resource aggregation and resource recombination for entrepreneurial action and livelihood recovery. This framework was elucidated within the specific Kenyan context, where social capital was found to play a key role in enabling access to other resources such as financial and human capital to refugee entrepreneurs that would otherwise be inaccessible within the resource-constrained context. It also underlines the capacity of refugees to mobilise these resources in the creation of new ecosystems and institutions.

While the conceptual contribution of the paper holds broad explanatory powers, the empirical aspect is limited in terms of its focus on the Kenyan contexts. Future studies can benefit from cross-country comparisons of empirical, including longitudinal, data.

This paper argues for a new approach that can enable better integration of refugees through the provision of opportunities for full economic participation for refugees. This will be a win-win outcome for both refugees and host communities.

This paper makes original contribution by proposing a new conceptual framework that explains the bricoleur’s resource process through the lense of social capital in a resource-constrained and challenging institutional environment. This framework is elucidated with empirical qualitative data from Kenya. This study also signposts new operational and policy directions for humanitarian action among refugees.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a new entrepreneurship education (EE) intervention offered at conflict-ridden Maiduguri, Nigeria, is having transformative impacts through new venture creation and poverty reduction.

The paper adopts a single case study approach, drawing from in-depth interviews of participants, experts, and facilitators of the entrepreneurship training, in addition to relevant memos and documents.

The findings indicate that the EE programme is, by generating awareness and facilitating skill development, contributing to new venture creation, poverty reduction, and positive change in mindset. However, the impact is limited by inadequate support through venture capital and limited facilities for business incubation.

This study is limited in its focus on EE provided for university undergraduates and graduates. Further research should explore interventions aimed at less-educated youth in the region, and in other conflict contexts.

The study suggests that EE facilitates youth empowerment through venture creation, in the process transforming them from aggrieved outsiders to active stakeholders in societal peace and national prosperity.

The nascent theory of transformative entrepreneuring identifies poverty reduction and conflict resolution as the main mechanisms. This paper focuses on how EE triggers new venture creation, which in turn contributes to poverty reduction and overall change in mindset of otherwise unemployed and aggrieved youths.

Manufacturing and services SMEs in Africa face challenges and constraints exacerbated by ineffectual government policies, environmental turbulence and the near absence of institutional support. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if informal linkages and formal cooperation are helping firms to overcome constraints to uptake of technological innovations in Nigeria.

The paper is based on quantitative data obtained from structured interviews of 631 Nigerian firms. These firms were selected using stratified random sampling from a total population of 18,906 manufacturing and services companies in the national database obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The result of the binary logistic regression indicates that while informal linkages appear to be insignificant, formal inter-firm cooperation is an effective moderator of barriers to technological innovations.

The paper focusses only on technological, rather than non-technological, innovations.

The paper recommends that, in addition to other interventions to promote diffusion of technological innovations, governments should give priority to interventions that support formal cooperation among SMEs.

Previous studies have generally looked at the impact of cooperative networks on firms’ innovation uptake. This paper provides original insights into the “how” of cooperative impact, specifically with respect to helping SMEs to overcome constraints. The paper also delineates formal cooperation from informal linkages.

The purpose of this paper is to build on the research-supported view that interactions between top and middle management enhances effective implementation of organizational strategies by exploring the role of internal actors in driving organizational strategy at the intersection between strategy formulation and strategy implementation.

Adopting a social practice perspective, we undertook semi-structured interviews of 27 top and middle level managers drawn from a single case organization. Data collected were analysed using thematic analysis.

Differences in managerial perception of strategy has significant impact on implementation of strategic decisions as well as creating tensions in recursive communication practices between internal social actors. Furthermore, individual perceptions cannot only limit the extent of strategy awareness amongst key actors, the manifestations through social interaction between top and middle managers is a critical determinant of effective communication and realization of organizational strategy.

The research contributes to the strategy process and practice literature by exploring the dynamic interactions taking place at the intersections of strategy formulation-implementation phases of organizational strategy. It particularly highlights practical issues in top and middle manager interactions and implications for successful strategy implementation.

Against the background of growing concerns that development interventions can sometimes be a zero sum game, the purpose of this paper is to examine the unintended consequences of microfinance for women empowerment in Ghana.

The study employs a participatory mixed-method approach including household questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews to investigate the dynamics of microfinance effects on women in communities of different vulnerability status in Ghana.

The results of hierarchical regression, triadic closure and thematic analyses demonstrate that the economic benefits of microfinance for women is also directly associated with conflicts amongst spouses, girl child labour, polygyny and the neglect of perceived female domestic responsibilities due to women’s devotion to their enterprises.

In the light of limited empirical evidence on potentially negative impacts of women empowerment interventions in Africa, this paper fills a critical gap in knowledge that will enable NGOs, policy makers and other stakeholders to design and implement more effective interventions that mitigate undesirable consequences.

The innovation process demands an interaction between environment agents, knowledge generators and policies of incentive for innovation and not only development by companies. Universities have gradually become the core of the knowledge production system and, therefore, their role regarding innovation has become more important and diversified. This study is aimed at identifying the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

This study is aimed at identifying, based on a systematic literature review, the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

The analysis of the 72 selected articles enabled identifying 15 mechanisms of U–I collaboration, proposing a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process.

In this paper, the authors screened nearly 1,500 papers and analyzed in detail 86 papers addressing U–I collaboration, mechanisms of U–I collaboration and operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process. This paper provides a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process. This research contributes to both theory and practice by highlighting managerial aspects and stimulating academic research on such timely topic.

Socio-economic shocks have been the sources of burden to smallholder farmers, and the recent COVID-19 pandemics, can be termed a shock that could lead to distortions in the operations of the commodity value chain. The study, therefore, examined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on income and access to economic input such as labour, seeds, fertilisers, herbicides, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was carried out in Kano State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the selection of 260 respondents comprising producers (115), marketers (60), processors (46) and transporters (29). Primary data were collected from stakeholders in tomato value chain through the use of a structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that tomato value chain in Kano State, Nigeria, is male-dominated. The average age of stakeholders ranged between 43 years (transporters) and 51 years (processors). Results further revealed a significant relationship in income of marketers' pre- and during COVID-19 pandemic. However, non-significant relationship was observed in the income of producers, processors and transporters prior and during COVID-19 pandemic. There was also no significant difference in the economic value of seeds, manure and fertiliser before and during COVID-19 pandemic. The most important constraints to the producers were the high cost of farm chemical procured while the marketers were confronted with high cost of transportation. The processors were faced with high processing cost and transporters experienced request for undue levies by market authorities. The study recommends that mechanism be devised to improve availability of inputs to producers and dissemination of adequate market information to stakeholders in the tomato value chain regularly to improve contribution of the commodity to food security and economic development.