Africa and Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Solomon Nyaanga, Christian Ehiobuche

Description

Is entrepreneurial and environmental sustainability the only way to safeguard Mother Earth?
Professors Nyaanga and Ehiobuche present perspectives, prospects, and opportunities that African entrepreneurship offers and more effective strategies and principles to thrive.
Given the distinctiveness of the African continent in terms of its economic infrastructure, political systems, extreme poverty, rapid urbanization, deforestation, environmental impact of the extractive industries, rate of economic growth, rural development, high dependence on foreign aid, low human capital, rising high youth unemployment, climatic variability, natural environmental hazards, abundant natural resources, and alluring consumer goods, most people would concur that at its heart, entrepreneurship is the identification of possibilities in the unmet, underserved, and growing needs of people through the mobilization of resources and the establishment of enterprises. Still, the nature of the activity is very context-sensitive. What functions in one setting and for one population will not necessarily function in another. The needs themselves, as well as the approaches and structures that can be produced acceptably, vary from one place and person to another.
Although many business owners believe sustainability is important in their personal lives, they are persuaded that they lack the means to implement it in their fledgling business entities. This book presents baby steps and common-sense ways to see that sustainability is the most effective strategy for ensuring long-term success.

Sujets

• África
• Economy
• Economics
• Business
• Africa

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 28 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669868194
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

AFRICA AND SUSTAINABLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
A PATHWAY TO ECONOMIC SELF-RELIANCE
Solomon Nyaanga & Christian Ehiobuche

 
 
Copyright © 2023 by Solomon Nyaanga & Christian Ehiobuche.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2023903700
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-6821-7

Softcover
978-1-6698-6820-0

eBook
978-1-6698-6819-4
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 02/24/2023
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
847666
CONTENTS
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
 
Chapter 1 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Blending of People, Planet, Productivity, and Profit
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 2 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications to Environment and Climate Change—The Case of Africa
Introduction
Conclusion
Reference
Chapter 3 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications to Globalization and African Economy
Conclusion
Chapter 4 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications to African Development Agenda, Opportunities, and Challenges
Conclusion
Chapter 5 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications for Africa’s Culture and Traditions
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 6 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications for African Values and Way of Life
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 7 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications for African Family Structure and Institutions
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 8 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications for Technology, Knowledge, and Africa’s Connectedness
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 9 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications for SMEs
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 10 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications for Traditional/Family, Agro, and Rural Traders
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 11 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications for Other Forms of Entrepreneurship
Introduction
Conclusion
References
Chapter 12 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications to African Millennials and Digital Consumers
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 13 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications to Business Practices and Strategies and the Impact of Social Media and Environmental Activism
Introduction
Chapter 14 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications to Supply Chain Management and Logistics
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 15 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications to Leadership and Governance
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 16 Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Implications to Health and Quality of Life
Introduction
Conclusion
References
 
About the Authors
DEDICATION
To my family, thanks for your never-ending encouragement and support. Without you, this book would have never been possible. Also, much thanks and appreciation to colleagues for their invaluable contribution in this book for which I remain deeply grateful.
Solomon
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to express my deep and sincere gratitude to Dr. Christian Ehiobuche for his insightful and inspiring ideas that formed the foundation and ultimate success of this book. In the same vein, special thanks go to all the others who in one way or another played a role to the success of this book.
Solomon Nyaanga
 
As colleagues at Berkeley College, Professor Nyaanga and myself had the opportunity for several years to work together in multiple conference presentations and a couple of academic journal publication. However, this invitation to coauthor a book years after we have both gone to different institutions is a remarkable and irresistible honor. Thank you, Solomon, for believing in me, that we can do this together.
Christian Ehiobuche
INTRODUCTION
When comparing sustainable entrepreneurship with purely capitalistic contracts of trade, one finds that sustainable entrepreneurship is an idea that is relatively new to the world and equally alien to certain markets, such as the aforementioned purely capitalistic businesses. It is a concept of business that is targeted at increasing not only business value but also the collective social value, thus focusing on the shared value of a firm. In our era, sustainability is a gold rush in itself, for it ensures the providence of lucrative platforms for tomorrow’s commerce. Especially in an era where time is of the essence and all businesses and trades are focused on instant gratification with fast food, fast service, and fast fashion dominating the industry, sustainable entrepreneurship serves as a breath of fresh air and scratches a particular niche in the market that has been left untouched for decades.
The four Ps of sustainability are people, planet, productivity, and profit. This pathway methodology starts centering people in the first place, placing importance on the customer or consumer, and placing feedback on a pedestal. It acknowledges that the engagement of people or a society is paramount and is the way forward to a more successful and accurate contract. Then follows planet, which signifies that in a sustainable structure, planet and healthy practices come right after people engagement. Then follows productivity and thus profit. Highlighting the planet serves as a multipurpose plan. While caring for the planet serves the planet in itself, it also serves as a good marketing strategy, especially now that awareness about climate change is climbing the popularity scale, with activists such as Greta Thunberg becoming household names for being front liners across the globe in the fight for climate protection.
The state of sustainability is quintessential for entrepreneurship in the modern-day world because this is what promises our business practices an edge over centuries-old, monolithic commercial norms. It is a fact that sustainability and entrepreneurship are both highly and equally disruptive in society’s business cycle today yet are the wisest investment of time, energies, and resources for tomorrow. For ages, businesspersons and entrepreneurs have focused on the now and on instant gratification. But the present only lasts so long, and the future is inevitable, which is why brands such as Hooters and Toys”R”Us stand where they do today.
Why is sustainable entrepreneurship so lucrative in the first place? And what does it provide us in the short and long terms? The answer lies in globalizing economies. With the world shrinking to a global village, business needs to be all-present, and it should be happening, simply speaking, everywhere. Target audiences are no longer limited to cities, states, or even countries. Even the smallest start-up needs to serve global audiences to flourish, and with digital marketing finding its place on social media, it will be foolish not to respond to the challenge.
The Wall Street economy model where business is highly concentrated to just a few out of the top 1 percent has led us to a point today where entire economies are slumping and are starving out of innovation. Still water breeds diseases, and that is exactly what describes the fate of the Wall Street economy and those associated with it. Age-old methods and beliefs have led the global economy to a recession, with countries collapsing financially, leaving them vulnerable to manipulation. This lack of innovation has led to a near impossibility of revamping our business structures to ensure a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable tomorrow. In spite of the fact that we know what we are doing wrong to the environment and the world’s climate, we just do not know what to do and are instead just reluctantly continuing with unsustainability. The ones benefiting from the current economic model have eagerly spread the propaganda that the masses are to blame for the current situation when, in reality, around 7.6 billion tons of waste on average are produced by industries every year. The top 1 percent easily manipulates tongues into silence, while the masses are left to feel guilty about a few drops of water gone to waste from a leaking tap.
Sustainable entrepreneurship promises a solution to this dilemma by opening the market to newer minds and different ways of life and introducing it to newer communities. Additionally, it cuts back on the instability of the present system and promotes the search for those who will strengthen the system by altering it in unforeseen ways.
This brings us to the most crucial turning point of globalization of the economy, which is the exploration and birth of newer markets. This not only gives us the ability to make from scratch something far better than what we have today but also procures seemingly infinite processing brainpower. The good thing about sustainable commerce is that we are thinking about it, and the other side to the coin, however, stands that we need to think more about it.
And what better new market could the world come up with than Africa? Africa holds immense developmental potential and is home to huge amounts of human and natural resources. Africa’s differe