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The purpose of this paper is to explore how corporate social responsibility (CSR) in mining companies can contribute to the promotion of artisanal miners' human rights (HR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

First, the paper designs a framework for a public policy on artisans, then it incorporates the possible contribution of companies to this policy drawing from the existent CSR literature. This framework is applied to relationships between mining companies and artisans in Katanga, a low‐conflict Province of the DRC. Finally, CSR guidelines for the promotion of artisans' HR are formulated. The theoretical framework articulates a public policy approach – which includes different actors – and a CSR approach – which develops the specific role of one such actor: the company – in the promotion of artisanal miners' HR. Data used in the empirical part are qualitative and include primary data gathered from visits to different mining companies operating in the Province and an interview with a local specialist in artisanal miners.

The first finding is that artisanal miners are a heterogeneous group, with multiple HR problems. Therefore, a public policy and a CSR policy to promote their HR are equally complex issues. However, local practices in the specific context of Katanga suggest two suitable CSR strategies for promoting artisans' HR: supporting new sustainable economic activities where artisans have been displaced by a company; and promoting the formalization of artisanal activity where companies are the artisans' clients.

This paper does not include interviews with mining company managers in Katanga in order to design very specific actions in each one of these CSR strategies. The research does not include field work in high‐conflict areas.

The heterogeneity and dynamism of artisanal miners' problems and the weakness of the Congolese State lead to a basic recommendation for responsible mining companies in low‐conflict areas: the implementation of dialogues with local communities and local governments in order to cover the needs of artisanal miners and discover innovation opportunities for the companies.

Although there is abundant literature on artisanal miners, the connection of artisanal miners and CSR has scarcely been developed. As far as the author knows, the illustration of this connection for the DRC has not been addressed. Additionally, the design of public policies for artisanal miners – part of the informal economy – and the contribution of companies to such policies can help address problems arising from other informal activities in Africa.

There is a growing interest in artisan entrepreneurs around the world. Scholars are increasingly interested in how artisan enterprises use tourism in a resource-constrained resources. Based on the concept of artisan chocolate entrepreneur, the purpose of this paper is to examine the phenomenon of artisanal chocolate making in a small island with limited resources yet influenced by increased tourism.

Artisan enterprises are considered relevant in developing countries and their creation merits further attention. This study examines artisan enterprises using in-depth interviews, case studies, and an interpretative approach. The approach enables examining how artisan chocolate enterprises use tourism to develop their businesses in a context characterized by limited resources.

The findings show that artisan entrepreneurs are encouraged to start and develop enterprises due to lifestyle choices. The findings reveal a connection between artisan chocolatiers developing place-bound features to address a growing demand of tourists’ expectation for authentic and local products. The approach of artisan entrepreneurs in such conditions can be explained through entrepreneurial bricolage.

This study contributes to the literature on the initial stages of artisan enterprises particularly in resource-constrained environments influenced by tourism. More specifically, the study provides evidence of the relevance of tourism for artisanal enterprise emergence, which is a relatively overlooked area in tourism and artisanal studies in developing countries. The study highlights the key place bound features that artisanal chocolate entrepreneurs associate to their products based on tourists’ demand for authentic and local products.

This paper aims to identify and describe the determinants of consumer attitudes towards artisanal cheeses within the speciality cheese market and the reasons behind the growing interest in this premium value sector as evinced by two surveys of specialist food retailers and artisanal cheese consumers. The survey results obtained are presented in the context of a changing consumption culture and the concept of an emerging “postmodern” consumerism. Artisanal cheese consumers focus on the unique characteristics of the products and their distinctive character in relation to mass produced industrial cheeses. Price and functional properties of artisanal cheeses are less important in the consumer purchase decision. Artisanal cheese consumers are characterised by “variety seeking” behaviour. This is stimulated by the broad range of available flavours, tastes and cheese types and suggests a low degree of brand or even cheese‐type loyalty among such consumers. The “plural” nature of the “speciality” cheese market accommodates well the highly individual and fragmented requirements of consumers of artisanal cheeses.

This study aims to analyze which collective actions (cooperation, coordination and collaboration), present in the supply chain of artisanal products, generate positive effects in terms of social gains.

The authors conduct multiple case studies in the supply chain of seven artisanal agroindustries in the Distrito Federal, Brazil. The data were collected through interviews, documental analysis and direct observation. The data were analyzed using the content analysis technique proposed by Bardin (1977). With priori and a posteriori analytical categories, it was possible to conduct: a detailed analysis of the current situation of artisanal agroindustries regarding collective actions from the perspective of supplier/supplier and supplier/client and a detailed analysis for the possible effects of collective actions that impact the supply chain and the indicators of social sustainability of artisanal agroindustries.

The results indicate that cooperation and collaboration have contributed positively in the transactions of the products of the artisanal agroindustries, reflecting in social gains for the producing families. In this context, some collective actions can be highlighted as follows: the collective commercial spaces, the demonstration spaces of the artisan products in the clients’ environment, the prospecting of improvements from the final consumers, the face-to-face meetings with the suppliers, the product dissemination by the customer, the joint marketing actions and the rationalization of transportation logistics.

The study used a qualitative approach and findings and discussion are inherently interpretative and cannot be generalized.

This study can contribute to researchers and practitioners interested in collective actions contributing to the incrementation of social responsibility in agri-food supply chains.

Understanding how the collective actions support the inclusion of smallholding and artisanal producers in agri-food supply chains can help policymakers and managers to implement initiatives related to social responsibility, which can be measured using social indicators. This creates a social benefit through rural growth and economic development, generation of income and social productive inclusion of the artisanal producers in larger agri-food supply chains.

For the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper approaching collective actions as the main source of incrementation of social benefits, which can measure the incrementation of social responsibility in agri-food supply chains.

A key strategy in the policy of saw millers and artisanal millers supplying the domestic market with legal and sustainable lumber is the transformation of chainsaw operators into legal artisanal millers to stop the production of illegal timber and supply only authorized wood to local trade points. The challenge, however, is how to develop the concept of its viability and acceptability to the chainsaw operators. Specifically, existing and potential investors’ knowledge about the possible costs and revenue is non-existent. This study aims to examine the financial and economic viability of the artisanal timber milling (ATM) business in rural Ghana.

Using data from three operational artisanal milling companies in Ghana, net present value, internal rate of return, profitability index and payback period were used in analyzing the viability of artisanal timber milling.

The results showed that the ATM business is financially and economically viable, attractive and profitable.

ATM business has the potential to create more jobs in the timber industry, reduce illegalities in the forestry sector and improve the living standard of individuals used by the sector.

As part of ATM’s medium and long-term strategies, the study encourages stakeholders to consider assisting existing and potential actors who have the passion to venture into this business to acquire concessions and financial support from financial institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide fresh insights into rural artisanal activities in a developing world context. It highlights key determinants of the decision to engage in an artisanal business and the challenges that impact upon the growth of these activities.

The study adopts a mix-method research approach to explore a rural setting where most respondents (81 per cent) combine farm and non-farm livelihood activities. Quantitatively, a multi-nominal regression is used to examine the determinants of diversified artisanal livelihoods. It modelled the differences between farming livelihoods that have not diversified, compared to those also involved in the artisanal activity or wage employment and the intensity of participation.

The findings show that nearly half of artisanal businesses (45.4 per cent) comprise only the owners and no employee, while 54.6 per cent employ one to three workers. Also, some artisanal ventures were more gender-specific than the gender-neutral activities. Other observations were in age (most artisans were under the age of 46 years) and vocational training (most were self-trained followed by a third receiving training only in specific areas such as technical works, building and construction and general trading apprenticeships).

The study is based on a relatively small sample size of 306 business owners, which makes it difficult to generalise despite the persuasiveness of the observations made.

First, the use of econometric methods enabled the development of valid data sets (and various descriptive statistical and logit regression) to analyse determinants of the decision to engage in artisanal work, and the intensity of participation. Second, the ambiguity in categorising artisanal activities is unravelled. The study characterises the local artisanal sector and examines the intensity of participation. Without these, targeted support would remain elusive for practical and policy interventions.

Artisanal activities constitute a high proportion of small businesses in the study area – with more than half (54.2 per cent) of respondents being classified as artisans, yet it is an overlooked area of entrepreneurship. Highlighted here are both types of activities and challenges regarding better conceptualising the understanding of artisans and regarding this mostly unarticulated base of practice.

This paper aims to understand whether product descriptor cues related to artisanal qualities can help marketers to delineate their clothing product offerings to consumers by influencing consumers’ perceived product values and the effect (if any) of consumers’ fashion clothing involvement on such value perceptions. In today’s intensely competitive market environment marked by minimal product differentiation, marketers are often using the terms artisan, handcrafted or similar to indicate that their products are different, produced with care, are of higher quality and even premium.

For the study, a 2 (Involvement: High/Low) × 4 (Cues: Control/Artisan-made/Part of a curated collection/Handcrafted) × 2 (products replications: Jeans/Handbags) mixed model repeated measures experiment was designed. A sample of 487 adult female US consumers was recruited using a market-based research firm.

Results indicated that framing luxury products as artisanal using product descriptor cues influenced the perceived value of these products. Moreover, consumers’ fashion involvement positively influenced their perceived value for artisanal luxury products.

The study is one of the few attempts in understanding the value of artisanal luxury products. Given the importance of the artisanal luxury industry to the global economy, focusing on how consumers perceive the value of artisanal luxury products is important to marketers and practitioners as well as academicians. From a theoretical perspective, the study indicates fashion involvement as a predictor of consumers’ perceived value, thereby filling a gap in literature. The study used two different product categories to aid in generalizability of the results.

The aim of this study is to understand how artisanal food entrepreneurs acting as businesses, which are grounded in the logic of profit and growth, navigate the anti-growth constraints of artisanal logic. The study answers the research question of, how and when do the artisanal entrepreneurs respond to tensions between the small-scale craftsmanship logic and the business growth logic?

This study consists of two cases of artisanal food entrepreneurs situated in rural regions of Sweden. The empirical material is collected through interviews, observations and secondary sources. The analysis consists of two steps: a narrative analysis and a categorization of institutional logics using Pache and Santos (2013) framework.

Our findings show that the artisanal food entrepreneurs used several types of response to the tensions between the two institutional logics. As businesses grew, business growth logic increasingly penetrated the companies' operations. They responded by combining and blending the two logics and avoided growing too large themselves by collaborating with suppliers and local farmers. In addition, other activities needed to be compartmentalized and hidden since these activities could threaten their business images and their own criteria for small-scale food artisans.

Much work on how different institutional logics affect businesses have been on a structural level. This study answers the call on that more research is needed on an individual level by studying how individuals interpret logics and use them in their business activities.

In developing countries like Tanzania, gems and jewellery industry mainly consists of disintegrated and unstable micro and small workshops which operate in a way that misalign value addition processes. This study is aimed to bridge gap by focussing on exploitation of industrial clusters in social normalisation and economic resilience to developing countries. The world economic shocks has been not only individually experienced but also globally shared while disrupted lives across all countries and communities and negatively affected global socio-economic growth.

Furthermore, the explorative design was adopted in this study in order to explore needs of respondents, and with the aim to direct the study towards a descriptive design. The sample frame consists of participants in gems and jewellery activities in Tanzania whereby sample was drawn from Dar es Salaam and Arusha. Semi-structured interview was used to collect quantitative data to establish evidence of Tanzanians’ SSJs linked to global value chains (GVCs).

Results revealed the benefits of exploitation of artisanal industrial clusters to Tanzanians’ SSJs when linked to global value chains (GVCs). Findings of the study demonstrate the importance of artisanal industrial clusters in facilitating Tanzanians’ SSJs to access GVCs. Further, insufficient education, trust and social protection directly affects inclusive GVCs, inferring that the impact of artisanal industrial clusters on inclusive GVCs in social normalisation and economic resilience.

Study findings reveals shortcomings in existing regulatory framework of linking Tanzanians’ SSJs to artisanal industrial clusters, for improvements to better support the inclusiveness in GVCs. Findings of this research invite interventions on institutional capabilities and entrepreneurial competencies to enhance the capabilities of small-scale jewellers (SSJs). Like other studies, this study involved cross-sectional data, limit targeted study population as representative of SSJs in industrial clusters and GVCs in economic crises at limited time.

The study findings makes important practical contributions to the Tanzania’s SSJs by examining mediating role of artisanal industrial clusters hence informing policymakers of mining sector how to improve accessibility on GVCs by focus on offering great institutional capabilities and entrepreneurial competencies. These findings will help SSJs and policy makers to get better understanding of the relationships in exploitation of artisanal industrial clusters when accessing GVCs. Therefore, they can make better decisions on implementing artisanal industrial clusters as well as management accessing GVCs, so that SSJs will attain the best possible performance.

This emphasises the importance of community empowerment in the GVCs process through artisanal industrial clusters. Study findings indicate the influence of industrial relations to social dynamics which are previously inadequately addressed and scantly researched. In actual fact study propose initiatives that ensure local communities benefit socially from the integration of SSJs into GVCs through artisanal industrial clusters. Findings suggest local communities that take into account inter-sectionality of artisanal industrial clusters and inclusive GVCs, by considering how factors like education, trust and social protection status intersect to influence the social inclusiveness of SSJs.

There is limited evidence of linking Tanzanians’ SSJs to GVCs in social normalisation and economic resilience and few researchers have explored this topic. This article leverages exploitation of industrial clusters in normalisation and economic resilience to developing countries such as Tanzania as way of improving shared prosperity, sustainability, inclusive growth, cohesion, value chain upgrading and financial inclusion to SSJs.

This research explores the role of entrepreneurs' dynamic capabilities in small artisanal firms' entrepreneurial internationalisation.

The paper applies an inductive, exploratory multiple case study approach to the empirical context of the Nepalese artisanal sector. Primary data were collected through interviews and observations and triangulated by secondary data, such as firms' websites and social media profiles.

The findings suggest that entrepreneurs' network utilisation, network-building and marketing capabilities are crucial to enabling small artisanal firms' entrepreneurial internationalisation. Entrepreneurs' network-retaining, market-oriented learning and innovative capabilities become more important as firms mature. Accordingly, the paper theorises that artisan entrepreneurs in a developing economy should build and apply different dynamic capabilities based on firms' internationalisation phase.

The fine-grained discussion of the findings and the six propositions from this study advance the current understanding of dynamic capabilities, entrepreneurial internationalisation and artisan entrepreneurship literature.