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1 – 10 of over 1000Using a single case study of The Global Soap Project, a social enterprise founded by an African Immigrant resident in the USA, this study aims to explore and posit how lives could…
Abstract
Purpose
Using a single case study of The Global Soap Project, a social enterprise founded by an African Immigrant resident in the USA, this study aims to explore and posit how lives could be saved in Sub-Saharan Africa and especially so in light of the Ebola pandemic ravaging swathes of West African communities.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative study interrogates both the identity of a diasporic social entrepreneur in an attempt to develop a framework that links this concept to community entrepreneurship using a single case study.
Findings
With hindsight, The Global Soap Project has much to offer in terms of “saving lives” in these communities, as the battle against the Ebola virus calls for containment measures.
Research limitations/implications
While arguably limited in terms of being a single case, this study furthers the understanding on the role of social entrepreneurship in complementing community efforts and coping strategies for tackling pandemics such as the Ebola virus.
Social implications
Evidently, while vaccines are being fast-tracked, the spread of the virus can be curtailed through personal hygiene, and the project illustrates how an individual social enterprise can be leveraged at the community level.
Originality/value
The study provides avenues for future research enquiry into how single cases might be transformed into multiple cases, both within and across sectors, for the benefit of humanity in general and affected communities in particular.
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Nina Rosalind Jenkins and Ioanna Karanikola
This paper aims to ascertain how hotels in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), engage in environmental sustainability and what benefits and negativities can be incurred from such…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to ascertain how hotels in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), engage in environmental sustainability and what benefits and negativities can be incurred from such activity, and to determine the extent to which hotels use their own corporate websites to disseminate information pertaining to their environmental sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in business has infiltrated since the latter half of the twentieth century. The hotel industry claims to engage in environmental sustainability due to the impact hotels have on the environment and considering the benefits that can arise from being environmentally friendly, such as positive corporate image and awareness of company’s stakeholders regarding company’s policies, practices and initiatives. A literature review regarding the current, most commonly used environmental practices and policies of hotels was conducted and content analysis was carried out in websites of companies and independent hotels in Dubai, UAE.
Findings
Key findings showed that the environmental practices and policies which were the cheapest and easiest to implement were the most commonly used among hotels, and that hotel companies provided more corporate online environmental information than independent hotels. Overall, currently, hotels in Dubai do not effectively use online environmental reporting to their stakeholders, which should be an area of improvement by 2020.
Research limitations/implications
Further research should be conducted in small and medium enterprises to identify benefits and challenges of and create awareness of the importance of online environmental reporting preparing for Expo2020.
Originality/value
The analysis presented aims to highlight the importance of online environmental reporting by hotels and to compare and contrast ways of communicating CSR activities between hotel companies and independent hotels in Dubai, UAE.
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Andrei Panibratov and Liana Rysakova
The aim of this study is to identify the distinctive features of the diaspora phenomenon through the aggregation and systematization of the business and management literature and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to identify the distinctive features of the diaspora phenomenon through the aggregation and systematization of the business and management literature and propose a framework to apply in the future studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The two-step research was based on a combination of bibliometric analysis and a manual in-depth study of academic articles. Overall, 421 academic papers in management and business journals until 2019 year were analyzed.
Findings
The authors provide a new holistic insight on the role of national diasporas for business outcomes via the analysis and systematization of the extant diaspora research. They revealed four definition approaches and five main clusters in the diaspora literature that have three main directions of research as international marketing with the tourism management focus, the IB research and diaspora entrepreneurship studies. The authors cover these main research streams and their contribution to the development of a topic.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed framework including definition approaches and suggestions on the further research can serve as a foundation for future studies to investigate the diaspora phenomenon. The findings also are of practical value for firms whose attention is paid to the effective management.
Originality/value
To bring more clarity to the existing and future development of diaspora research, this paper improves the structuring of the overall diaspora literature through clarification of the existing definitions of diaspora, provision of the criteria qualifying someone to be identified as a member of a diaspora, as well as an analysis and systematization of existing diaspora research streams and suggestions for future research directions.
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Nnamdi O. Madichie, Nosiphiwe Mpiti and Patient Rambe
This study aims to examine the influence of funding on the technology acquisition by small businesses in a metropolitan municipality, Mangaung, which governs Bloemfontein and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the influence of funding on the technology acquisition by small businesses in a metropolitan municipality, Mangaung, which governs Bloemfontein and surrounding towns in the Free State province of South Africa.
Methodology/design/approach
A case study using survey research strategy of 110 small businesses in a South African municipality informed the research design for this study. The structured questionnaires were quantitatively analysed yielding both descriptive and regression results to address the research objectives.
Findings
The findings suggest that the prime sources of public funding for hair salon businesses are the National Youth Development Agency and the Small Enterprise Development Agency. The results also demonstrate that public funding has a negative and significant impact on technology acquisition, perhaps suggesting the complexity of debt financing and the exorbitant interest rates charged on principals borrowed by foreign nationals.
Originality/value
The study recommends the judicious acquisition of inexpensive technologies (e.g. social media platforms) and cautionary utilisation of complex technologies and personal savings before resorting to external borrowing.
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Mohamed Farhoud, Alex Bignotti, Ralph Hamann, Ngunoue Cynthia Kauami, Michelle Kiconco, Seham Ghalwash, Filip De Beule, Bontle Tladi, Sanele Matomela and Mollette Kgaphola
Context matters in social entrepreneurship, and it matters a lot. Social entrepreneurs are deeply entrenched in the context where they operate: they respond to its challenges, are…
Abstract
Purpose
Context matters in social entrepreneurship, and it matters a lot. Social entrepreneurs are deeply entrenched in the context where they operate: they respond to its challenges, are shaped by it, and attempt to shape it in turn. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how social entrepreneurship in Africa is still understood within the scope of Western theories, without much consideration for local variations of the commonly shared archetype of social entrepreneurship or for how African norms, values and beliefs may shape our common understanding of this phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors survey the often-neglected literature on social entrepreneurship in Africa and bring it together in this paper to discuss – also from the vantage point of their own experience and research in diverse African countries – how important assumptions in the social entrepreneurship literature are confirmed, enriched or challenged by key dimensions of African contexts.
Findings
Four important themes in the literature on social entrepreneurship in Africa emerged – institutions, embedding values, entrepreneurial behaviour and bricolage and scaling impact – each with its own considerations of how African contexts may challenge predominant assumptions in the extant social entrepreneurship literature, as well as implications for future research.
Originality/value
The authors uncover ways in which the peculiarities of the African context may challenge the underlying – and mostly implicit – assumptions that have shaped the definition and analysis of social entrepreneurship. They end by offering their understanding of social entrepreneurship and its concomitant dimensions in Africa as a stepping stone for advancing the field in the continent and beyond.
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This study reports on a four-month ethnographic project conducted among young Catholic women in Mumbai, India. Here, the author examines how the media consumption of participants…
Abstract
This study reports on a four-month ethnographic project conducted among young Catholic women in Mumbai, India. Here, the author examines how the media consumption of participants is implicated in reconstituting Indian national identity. Because Hinduism is closely tied to conceptualizations of Indianness and because women continue to be marginalized in Indian society, Catholic women in India are viewed as second-class citizens or “not Indian enough” or “appropriately Indian” by virtue of their gender and religious affiliation. However, through media consumption that emphasizes hybridity, participants destabilize narrow definitions of Indian identity. Specifically, participants cultivate hybridity as central to an Indian identity that is viable in an increasingly global society. Within this formulation of hybridity, markers of their marginalization are reframed as markers of distinction. By centering hybridity in their media consumption, young, middle-class Catholic women (re)imagine their national identity in translocal cosmopolitan terms that subverts marginalization experienced by virtue of their religion and leverages privileges they enjoy by virtue of their middle-class status. Importantly, this version of Indian identity remains elitist in that it remains inaccessible to poor women, including poor women of minority groups.
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To get some insight into the issue of global branding and segmentation, we will look at an example of a multinational company that has several global brands. Colgate‐Palmolive is…
Abstract
To get some insight into the issue of global branding and segmentation, we will look at an example of a multinational company that has several global brands. Colgate‐Palmolive is truly global in scope, with subsidiaries in 55 countries and an official presence in 120. The company's product mix includes several global brands and equities (Figure 1) including the two parent brands, Colgate Toothpaste and Palmolive Soap. The former is sold in 53 countries and the latter in 43. C‐P's early experience in global branding was similar to that of many other packaged goods companies that expanded their sales base in the early twentieth century. Basically, they took the key products that were successful in the United States and Europe and began to move them out across the developing countries. In many cases, the success of these brands appears to be due to the order‐of‐entry phenomenon. They often were the first entries into a country. They literally created the category and their names became synonymous with it. But were these truly “global” brands?
This paper discusses why the MARC21‐based authority format has failed in a global setting and details the use of XML and its related technologies to achieve global name access…
Abstract
This paper discusses why the MARC21‐based authority format has failed in a global setting and details the use of XML and its related technologies to achieve global name access control.
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The brand increasingly is becoming the key source of differentiation that guides customer purchase choice. It is the focal point around which an organization defines how it will…
Abstract
Purpose
The brand increasingly is becoming the key source of differentiation that guides customer purchase choice. It is the focal point around which an organization defines how it will uniquely deliver value to the customer for a profit. The main aim of this research is to unveil the consumer perception about Cinthol and to understand the importance of brand identity of a product and the factors influencing it.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive study was conducted in the age group of 21‐55 years to ascertain the perception change in the brand identity of Cinthol, its brand personality, its awareness levels, its usage pattern, its promotional campaigns and the factors influencing the buying behavior of the consumers.
Findings
It was also observed that most of the respondents identified Cinthol as a family soap closely followed by male soap, though the difference between the two was not significant. Company is projecting this brand as male's soap overall satisfaction and loyalty, hence the ultimate outcomes.
Practical implications
The view presented in this paper is drawn from the marketing research perspective but question raised should be of great interest to practitioner as well. The work outlined should provide a marketing manager with a clear view and understanding of brand identity and image.
Originality/value
This brand identity and brand image study should help the brand to assess the impact of change in brand personality. Frequent changes may affect the brand image due to identity crisis.
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Benson Honig, Celestine Katongole and Maya Perry
To introduce researchers to useful techniques and methodologies that are effective in the African environment that reflect both the unique context, challenges, and opportunities…
Abstract
Purpose
To introduce researchers to useful techniques and methodologies that are effective in the African environment that reflect both the unique context, challenges, and opportunities of community-based research.
Methodology/approach
We argue that strategic research methods should be utilized that reflect the variation that is found environmentally and geographically. Because the field of strategy emerged in the United States followed by Europe, it lacks an adequate methodology to examine comparative underdevelopment by communities in Africa and the developing world. We provide a case study example of an action research project that highlights an effective way to introduce strategic change at the community level in an African context – a small rural town in Uganda.
Research limitations
Our example is based on a single case study in Uganda and may or may not have generalizable implications.
Originality/value
We explain the necessity and the process by which the action research takes place, longitudinally, providing a strategic solution to the problem of behavioral poverty. We introduce our process of community entrepreneurship as an alternative to strategic methods based primarily on existing organizations reflecting resource munificence. We demonstrate the importance of extensive community debate, collaborative decision making, and solidarity in supporting positive action-research outcomes.
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