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Isaac O. Amoako is a researcher at the Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR) and lecturer in enterprise and small business at the Department of International Management and Innovation, all at Middlesex University Business School, UK. He completed his Ph.D. in 2012 in the same university and his paper on “alternative institutions” used by exporting SMEs in Ghana has been accepted and forthcoming in International Small Business Journal (ISBJ). His research interests include enterprise and small business start-up and management, interorganizational trust, culture and organizations, and international business management. Prior to his academic career he was an entrepreneur starting and managing his own businesses for over 20 years.

Purpose — This chapter investigates how dishonesty may be legitimized in organizations through customary practices of gift giving, patronage, and non-meritocratic employment practices.Design/methodology/approach — A survey of managers was undertaken in four sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.Findings — Gift giving was perceived to be widespread in organizations in all four countries and yet the vast majority of managers we surveyed, rejected the proposition that the practice of gift giving causes dishonesty in organizations. There were cross-country variations as to whether the expectations of the society on individuals “glorify and endorse” dishonesty as they may feel pressured to accumulate and (re)distribute wealth among their wider social groups. Non-meritocratic employment practices were unanimously perceived to engender incompetent workforce, lack of accountability and transparency without necessarily improving trust, and loyalty in organizations.Research limitations — This study used quantitative methods to gauge managers’ perceptions of the relationship between customary practices and dishonest behavior in only four African countries. Further qualitative research is required to gain a deeper insight into how customary practices may inform dishonest behavior in organizations.Implications for managers — Managers should be clear about the distinction between customary practices and dishonest behavior in order to facilitate the development of appropriate organizational strategies to minimize their negative impacts.Originality/value — This paper explores the relationship between dishonesty and customary practices of gift giving, patronage and nepotism in African organizations from the managers’ point of view, an approach that had not been undertaken previously.

The economic life is often hindered by problems that can be successfully solved by tapping into concepts of social sciences. Herein, basic assumptions uniform people’s behavior but these may also create problems and thus, nowadays the economy meets the consequences of the so-called “soft issues” for various reasons. In this light, the aim of the volume is to show what kind of influences may turn out from honesty and dishonesty to management and the economy, in general. These effects generate an ensemble where factors could affect and be affected by each other in several ways.

This study was aimed at examining the motivations, elements and channels of sustainability reporting of a multinational mining company that operates a subsidiary in Ghana. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among the company’s key stakeholders. These informants were drawn from the case company, a public regulatory agency, members and the opinion leaders of the company’s host community. In addition to the primary data, secondary documents were relied upon to corroborate the views shared by the interviewees. We discovered that while the sustainability reporting mechanism was necessary for gaining internal legitimacy with the parent company, to a large extent, the host community did not appreciate the importance of that report. In place of that the management of the mining subsidiary employed less-formal channels of communication to engage the community representatives on matters relating to sustainability. Our findings suggest that the sustainability reporting process must be adaptable and not always communicated formally. Therefore, the process needs to be re-organised to meet the expectations of all key stakeholders within the subsidiary companies’ jurisdictions. To meet the expectation of stakeholders and gain legitimacy, those charged with the governance of subsidiary companies need to contextualise their sustainability reporting strategies.

Drawing on both the stakeholder theory and Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid, this chapter explores sustainability practice challenges of a gold minning multinational enterprise in Ghana. Primary data was collected through observation and the interviewing of multi-stakeholder groups. We found that internal stakeholders perceive sustainability expenditure as costly. However, while employees of the case enterprise see the cost as depleting shareholders’ wealth, managers view them as investment with possible long-term benefits. Meanwhile, the external stakeholders perceive the gold mining enterprise’s sustainability expenditure as meagre and that beneficiary communities are not economically empowered to sustain those investments. Again, we found that government’s inability to clamp down illegal gold mining threatens economic and environmental sustainability. Additionally, members of the host community identify the lack of adequate employment opportunities within the entity as a hindrance to their economic empowerment. We submit that the resolution of the sustainability challenges would contribute to the balancing of stakeholders’ expectations: the conduct of ethical business through compliance to environmental laws; promotion of host communities’ social well-being; and improved economic returns for shareholders. By meeting the needs of stakeholders, gold mining enterprises could gain acceptance in their host communities and boost corporate reputation.

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.

With the recent increasing relevance of sustainability, multinational enterprises are faced with divergent stakeholder demands and persistently shifting priorities. This study aims to examine stakeholders’ perceptions of the sustainability performance of a gold mining subsidiary in Ghana.

Using a purposive sampling technique, the authors interviewed managers and employees of the case enterprise, officials of regulatory institutions and host community members on their perceptions of the case enterprise’s sustainability performance. The authors triangulated the opinions expressed by these stakeholders with data from annual reports. The data were analysed through the lens of stakeholder theory.

The authors found that while members of the host community and the regulatory institutions were keenly interested in the case enterprise’s social and environmental activities, they perceived their performance as unimpressive, considering the economic benefits derived from the mining operations. On the contrary, the managers and employees of the case enterprise were satisfied with their environmental compliance and social intervention programmes, even though the company’s economic position had declined. The authors submit that the variations in the sustainability performance perceptions among the stakeholders are due to the lack of a deeper understanding of the other stakeholders’ expectations.

To equitably satisfy diverse stakeholder expectations, the study highlights the role of stakeholder collaborations in understanding the expectations of more salient stakeholder groups such as community members and employees, as well as the lesser salient groups such as academics. It also demonstrates the fluidity of sustainability and its benefits in designing a consensual sustainable management strategy. This implies that managers of the case mining enterprise make the necessary efforts to meet the diverse stakeholder needs while attaining their primary objective of creating wealth for shareholders.

Compared to advanced economies, studies on sustainability performance in emerging economies are limited. Nonetheless, these limited studies leave out stakeholder perceptions, focusing more on quantitative performance indicators. Using thematic and content analyses, the authors investigate stakeholder perceptions on the sustainability performance of a case mining subsidiary operating in Ghana. The study focused on Ghana because it is ranked with South Africa as the top two producers of gold in Africa. Nonetheless, unlike South Africa, Ghana faces more sustainability challenges from the mining sector due to weak institutions in enforcing sustainability standards.

Using a subsidiary of a multinational mining company in Ghana as a case, the purpose of this study is to examine the formal and informal forms and channels of sustainability reporting in the emerging economy’s context.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted amongst managers and employees of the mining company and members of their host community. Based on the interview themes, archival data were extracted from the 2020 Integrated Annual Report of the case company to corroborate the results from the interviews.

The authors found that most of the stakeholders from the host community interviewed were not aware and, to an extent, not interested in formal sustainability reports. In place of that, the management of the mining subsidiary uses informal channels of communication, including meetings and durbars, to verbally engage the local community and their representatives on sustainability matters. Whilst the formal sustainability reports met the internal requirements set by the parent company, the informal engagements were critical for gaining external legitimacy from the host community and other interest groups. Hence, the authors argue that mining companies and their subsidiaries, particularly in developing economies, need to consider informal forms of sustainability reporting alongside the formal channels to engage local communities to address sustainability issues and avert disruptions to their operations.

Sustainability reporting studies have focussed mainly on annual reports published in print or corporate websites, ignoring informal forms of sustainability reporting. This study sheds light on the informal forms of sustainability reporting. This is important as formal forms of sustainability reporting may be less useful for engaging local mining communities in developing economy contexts.

Higher education institutions around the world have increasingly come to see information and communication technology (ICT) as vital to the business of teaching and learning. Institutions invest a considerable amount of time and resources to erecting the appropriate institutional infrastructure, creating policy and practice, instituting strategy, training faculty, and building the capacity of technology staff. However, in under-resourced regions of the world, such as Africa, ICT, the availability and use of, has several challenges to overcome: a lack of institutional infrastructure, sufficient bandwidth, and limited capacity to employ ICT in the research process or the classroom. Universities report inadequate funding, poor management and infrastructure, resistance to change, inadequate training, and high costs associated with effective ICT use. Moreover, critiques of Western technopositivism surface misgivings related to the performance outcomes and appropriateness of ICT adoption in Africa. In this chapter, the author will explore the work of international organizations and regional and national research and education networks in the diffusion of ICT discourse, consider on-the-ground adoptions and innovation at universities in Nigeria, and reflect on the suitability and sustainability of technology adoption, all within an ICT for development (ICT4D) framework that lenses the evolution of technological applications in higher education. This chapter is significant in that it connects African higher education to ICT4D and frames the various discourses, policy landscapes and practice arenas, as they relate to international actors, continental initiatives, networks, universities, and faculty.