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Within developing countries, particularly in Africa, there is an emerging literature which highlights the unique obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs who start and develop their own businesses (De Vita, Mari, & Poggesi, 2014; Jamali, 2009; Minniti & Naude, 2010; Naude & Havenga, 2005; Nziku & Struthers, 2018). A key objective of this chapter is to critically appraise some of the conceptual approaches adopted in this literature. In so doing, the authors revisit a seminal paper first developed by Granovetter (1973) which suggested that female entrepreneurs, instead of being disadvantaged by the so-called ‘weak ties’ that bind their business networks, actually enjoy compensating benefits which Granovetter referred to as the strength of weak ties (SWT). Building on the conceptual work of Nziku and Struthers (2018) which developed an innovative taxonomy for analysing the SWT concept within a Principal-Agent (P-A) paradigm, the chapter will set out new insights which challenge some of the assumptions of the extant entrepreneurship literature. In particular, that women are inherently more risk averse in their business decision making than men. The theoretical context for this will be derived from a behavioural economics methodology first developed by Kahneman and Tversky (1979). They introduced the concept of loss aversion as a more realistic approach to attitudes towards risk on the part of entrepreneurs than risk aversion. The chapter contends that the loss aversion perspective may be more appropriate to the decision-making frame adopted by female entrepreneurs, especially in the context of Africa as well as in other developing regions of the world. The chapter will therefore suggest that such an approach can yield fresh insights on the topic of female entrepreneurship which the extant literature heretofore has not addressed, though this will have to be subsequently tested empirically.

Rural farm and non-farm based entrepreneurial activities within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) play significant roles in job creation as well as food security for the majority of rural dwelling citizens (UNCTAD, 2018). This chapter examines the policies and strategies for supporting both farm and non-farm entrepreneurial activities within rural communities in SSA. In order to achieve this, the authors have completed a systematic literature review of both conceptual and empirical work on the role of policies and strategies for rural entrepreneurship in selected SSA, namely Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and the United Republic of Tanzania (URT). This was completed alongside an assessment of the constraints and potential opportunities in order to stimulate linkages between rural entrepreneurship and structural economic transformation including the potential roles of both farm and non-farm based entrepreneurial activities. Key linkages between rural farm and non-farm based entrepreneurial activities are emphasised The chapter also highlights mechanisms through which governments and private sectors can work together for the maximisation of available opportunities and best practices that rural entrepreneurship can offer for job creation among rural communities in SSA.

This chapter uses discourse analysis to explain why entrepreneurship has become a primary response to Africa’s youth employment challenge. It analyses almost 20 years of academic literature and publications from one of the world’s foremost authorities on entrepreneurship: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). The study found that youth were positioned within a discourse of entrepreneurial essentialism; where entrepreneurship was narrativised as the only option for youth employment; and youth were framed as entrepreneurship being the natural solution for them. Youth were concurrently framed within numerous contradictory entrepreneurial discourses which were used to elevate and legitimise entrepreneurship as the key pathway for addressing Africa’s youth employment challenge. An important finding in this study was that the dominant model of entrepreneurship being promoted by GEM to address the challenge is a mainly skills-based pathway to self-employment and low-growth microenterprise development. This is concerning for two reasons: firstly, global evidence does not demonstrate much support for such an approach, and secondly, it undermines other responses to youth unemployment, particularly those which seek to address more structural, demand-side barriers to employment.

The debate that entrepreneurship is an engine of economic development has been a long-standing one. The higher the level of entrepreneurial activities, the higher the economic development. However, this literature is contradictory or elusive in Sub-Saharan Africa. Entrepreneurial activities are high in Africa, but economic development is not. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM, 2017) data, the chapter discusses some of the contradictory factors. Further data were collected from 60 businesses, 20 each from Cameroon, Nigeria and Uganda for more clarification in 2019. The results show that the economic development is solely measured in economic terms. Entrepreneurship in Africa operates in an embedded context quite different from that of developed nations. Africans are often only making do with the environment in which they find themselves; thus, entrepreneurship in Africa should not be seen as unproductive considering the context and motives of the entrepreneurs.

Women entrepreneurs face a myriad of challenges in running their enterprises, such as inadequate market information for their products or services, lack of marketing skills, insufficient capital to start and run the business and unfavourable policies in county governments among others, leading to unwillingness to participate in businesses. To overcome these challenges, a number of initiatives had been put in place as a way of empowering these women, for example, Women Enterprise and Development Fund (WEDF) aimed at financing and sustenance of women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Despite these initiatives, women continue to lag behind in terms of entrepreneurship leading to this study to unearth underlying issues pertaining to women entrepreneurship and empowerment. The study was guided by the following objectives: to determine the effects of WEDF loans on women empowerment, to evaluate accessibility of credit by women entrepreneurs, to establish the role of capacity building on the performance of women enterprises and to establish the effects of women enterprises on household livelihoods. This study is significant as it aimed at establishing the relationship between gender enterprise in relation to women empowerment by use of descriptive and explanatory research designs. The study targeted 246 women entrepreneurs in Eldoret whereby 51 respondents were sampled randomly who were issued with questionnaires having closed- and open-ended questions. Secondary data obtained from the banks were also used to enhance the accuracy of the data. The study established that WEDF loans had a positive effect on women empowerment and an improved household livelihood. On accessibility of loans, a few entrepreneurs had benefitted as women were required to be in groups in order to benefit and in addition, have collaterals. Performance of business enterprises owned by women who possessed marketing skills was good as opposed to those without the skills necessitating capacity building. The study therefore recommends that there is a need to encourage vulnerable groups to participate in economic development and women entrepreneurs to form groups which will enable them do table banking hence making them financially empowered.

In this chapter, the authors examine trust and social networks among entrepreneurs operating in a developing market context. At the centre of this study, trust emerges from the interplay of a range of cultural-specific factors, each of which describes how social relations shape economic action. Using case studies of exporting Nigerian small and medium sized enterprises, the authors document how exporting arrangements are enforced across West African markets. Interview data reveal how entrepreneurs take advantage of indigenous trust-based relationships to enforce exporting agreements. It is clear that exporting activities are shaped by trust and networks of kinship and market associations that permeate the West African region. This chapter facilitates a better understanding of trust and the range of indigenous relationships that underpin exporting activities in Nigeria and particularly across West Africa.

The chapter examines why growth in African economies between 1996 and 2016 appears not to have led to improvements in the key governance indicators (GIs) of government effectiveness, rule of law and control of corruption. Comparative data from other continents are presented to provide a contextual perspective for the case of Africa. The central research question is why has the continent been witnessing economic growth in real terms but simultaneously regressive movements in these three key indicators of governance which are central to the concept of ‘development’ itself? The data span the period from 1996 to 2016 inclusive using the WGI database of the World Bank for 171 countries including 43 African countries. The country sample is selected to ensure the same countries are included in the WGI database across all years of the sample period. The data are analysed numerically in terms of relative and absolute deviations and graphically. The results demonstrate a clear trend in several continents of worsening GIs while real economic growth has been positive. However, the distribution of this negative trend is highly skewed towards the African countries in the sample. The findings suggest that, despite real growth, economic and social development (in the widest sense) is actually regressing in many countries. We offer alternative theoretical explanations for this (apparent) contradiction and a number of possible policy solutions. The data are from the WGI database and all efforts have been taken to ensure its reliability in this analysis. Although there are small differences in how indicators have been measured, these do not seriously affect the underlying trends found in the data. A new approach to establishing value for money in public sector organisations is suggested which at the same time will help strengthen public accountability, transparency and efficiency in the delivery of the government services to the general public. The chapter may provide a new or a different perspective on how societies should perceive government and its various agencies in order to raise accountability. The chapter is conceived from a very old debate: growth versus development but argues that the latter is almost impossible in the absence of good governance and provides analytical evidence as the basis for this conclusion.

Examines the “efficient market” hypothesis for cocoa beans traded on the London Futures and Options Exchange. Futures market efficiency implies that futures prices accurately incorporate all currently known information. Consequently, current futures prices are unbiased forecasts of subsequent cash and/or futures prices and traders cannot earn abnormal returns. The recently developed cointegration theory is utilized to test efficiency in the London Cocoa Market. A problem in testing market efficiency is that the relevant economic data series may be non‐stationary. Under these circumstances, conventional statistical procedures for testing market efficiency are no longer appropriate. The use of a cointegration methodology properly accounts for the non‐stationary properties of futures and spot price series. The price data are monthly data from the London Futures and Options Exchange and they cover the period from 1985‐1991. The evidence presented here does not support the efficient market hypothesis.