scholarly journals Strategic Responses to Institutional Voids (Rationalization, Aggression, and Defensiveness): Institutional Complementarity and Why the Home Country Matters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Luiz ◽  
Takudzwa Magada ◽  
Regis Mukumbuzi
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Institutional Voids ◽  
Strategic Responses ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Internal Resources ◽  
Institutional Complementarity ◽  
Developing Markets ◽  
Home Context ◽  
Republic Of The Congo

AbstractWe seek to understand how the strategic responses of firms to institutional voids are affected by their home countries’ institutional contexts. It adopts an exploratory, multiple case studies approach examining the responses of advanced and emerging multinational enterprises, and local firms in two African countries which are characterized by such voids, namely the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe. Our research suggests that firms’ strategic responses to institutional voids in emerging or developing markets are affected by the home country’s institutional environment and firms’ experiences and advantages arising from that home context. Firms adopt strategic responses which reflect their respective advantages and this results in diverse approaches based on the interplay between capitalizing upon internal resources and institutional know-how. For some firms this may result in a defensive strategic response, whilst for others opportunistic and aggressive agility, or rationalization and reconciliation may manifest. We demonstrate differences between advanced and emerging multinational enterprises and domestic firms covering the spectrum between institutional outsiders and insiders. We emphasize the contextual nature of these strategic responses and argue that this requires integrating both a resource and institution-based analysis of firms’ underlying advantages and how they are able to leverage off these advantages in institutionally voided environments. Practical implications arise for doing business in emerging and developing markets.

Studying National Commemoration and Political Celebrations in Africa: The Online Archive African Independence Days

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. vii-xxviii
Author(s):  
Marie-Christin Gabriel ◽  
Carola Lentz
Keyword(s):  
Burkina Faso ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Online Archive ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many

AbstractThe Department of Anthropology and African Studies (ifeas) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz hosts a comprehensive archive on African Independence Day celebrations. Created in 2010, the archive is one of the outcomes of a large comparative research project on African national days directed by Carola Lentz. It offers unique insights into practices of as well as debates on national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa. The archive holds more than 28,000 images, including photographs, newspaper articles, documents, and objects from twelve African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. It primarily consists of an online photo and newspaper archive (https://bildarchiv.uni-mainz.de/AUJ/; https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-ifeas-eng/departmental-archives/online-archive-african-independence-days/); some of the material is also stored in the physical archive on African Independence Days at ifeas as well as in the department's ethnographic collection (https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-ifeas-eng/ethnographic-collection/). Most of the material concerns recent celebrations, but the collection has been complemented by some documentation of earlier festivities. Archives hold many stories while they also have a story to tell in their own right. This article discusses both aspects. It first traces the history of the Online Archive African Independence Days at ifeas. It then provides an overview of the different categories of material stored in the archive and tells a few of the many stories that the photos, texts and objects contain. We hope to demonstrate that the archive holds a wealth of sources that can be mined for studies on national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa, and, more generally, on practices and processes of nation-building and state-making.

scholarly journals Multi-criteria decision-making model for supporting manufacturing settlements location in Africa after COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 184797902110233
Author(s):  
Stefania Bait ◽  
Serena Marino Lauria ◽  
Massimiliano M. Schiraldi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Plant Performance ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Location Selection ◽  
Decision Making Model

The COVID-19 emergency is affecting manufacturing industries all over the world. Notably, it has generated several issues in the products’ supply and the global value chain in African countries. Besides this, Africa’s manufacturing value-added rate grew only 1.5 since 2018, and the foreign direct investment (FDI) from multinational enterprises (MNEs) remains very low due to high-risk factors. Most of these factors are linked to a non-optimized location selection that can adversely affect plant performance. For these reasons, supporting decision-makers in selecting the suitable country location in Africa is crucial, both for contributing to countries’ growth and companies’ performance. This research aims at presenting a comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making model (MCDM) to be used by MNEs to evaluate the best countries to develop new manufacturing settlements, highlighting the criteria that COVID-19 has impacted. Thus, it has affected countries’ performance, impacting the plant location selection choices. A combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods have also been used for comparative analysis. The criteria used in the proposed approach have been validated with a panel of MNEs experts.

scholarly journals Repenser Le Rôle Des Institutions De Conservation De La Nature À L’ère De La Globalisation En Afrique: À Propos Du Parc National De La Salonga (RDC)

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Mampeta Wabasa Salomon
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
National Park ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
The Other ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Contemporary Management

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the protectionist conservatism influenced by colonialism, which exploited African countries for the prosperity of the colonizing countries, still has a high visibility in the Salonga National Park (PNS). If, in theory, the Central Africans seem to free themselves from the colonial powers on their land, in practice they are still there. The hostility of settlers who have become neo-colonists to the development of Central Africa remains intact, he adds (Ndinga, 2003). This reflects a "logic from above" that has disregarded local values. Yet, in the era of sustainable development and globalization, African protected areas appear to be essential tools for States to reposition themselves in a complex set of actors with the aim of capturing and using the new environmental rent (Giraut, Guyot, & Houssay-Holzschuch, 2003). This is a "bottom-up logic", placing people at the heart of all activities and aiming to reorganize their long-term relationships with the environment. From these two logics, a third "logic from the other side" emerges, reflecting a collective awareness of the fragility of the planet. The restoration of the rights of Africans in the various national frameworks constitutes a major challenge for the contemporary management of African protected areas. Because the protected areas inherited from the different colonial systems must accompany the change in management methods and the redefinition of their functions in order to better serve the local community in the long-term.

Operational Structure of Multinational Enterprises in Africa

2016 ◽  
pp. 329-350
Author(s):  
Edet E. Okon
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rate ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Capital Outlay ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Foreign Affiliates

The operational structures of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in Africa, a developing and emerging economy do not necessarily differ from those of the developed or even Less Developed Economies (LDEs) except in few areas such as size and capital outlay. Meanwhile, both MNEs of African origin and those which originate from outside Africa do have salient attributes: they have many foreign affiliates or subsidiaries in foreign countries; they operate in a wide variety of countries around the globe; the proportion of assets, revenues, or profits is high; their employees, stockholders, owners, and managers are from many different countries; and they are involved in much more than merely establishing sales office, but incorporate a full range of manufacturing, research and development activities. This chapter examined operational structures of MNEs with focus on meaning, attributes, financing, exchange rate risk and international financial investment, strategies for improved financing and outlay of MNEs in selected African countries.

Tax Abuse and Implications for Human Rights in Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 189-208
Author(s):  
Annet Wanyana Oguttu ◽  
Monica Iyer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
International Taxation ◽  
Fair Share ◽  
Profit Shifting ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Development Goals

This chapter analyzes whether the international tax reform measures instituted under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project are effective in ensuring African countries get a fair share of taxes from multinational enterprises (MNEs) transacting within their borders, so that they can finance their development goals and promote the human rights of their citizens. The OECD chose to focus on curtailing sophisticated tax-avoidance schemes by strengthening existing anti-avoidance provisions. MNEs have abused these existing laws, however, making them largely ineffective. Given that MNEs are always a step ahead in devising new tax-avoidance strategies, one wonders whether emphasis on strengthening anti-avoidance laws will achieve much. The OECD seems to have missed an opportunity to evaluate the whole tax system and deal with the very root of the problems inherent in international taxation.

Political Capital and MNE Responses to Institutional Voids: The case of Chinese state-owned enterprises in Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 017084062095401
Author(s):  
Dan Wang ◽  
Lin Cui ◽  
Thin Vu ◽  
Taiwen Feng
Keyword(s):  
Host Country ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Political Capital ◽  
Institutional Voids ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Chinese State ◽  
Closed Door

This study explores how multinational enterprises (MNEs) take advantage of their ownership-based political capital – political ties and political identity – in responding to institutional voids in host country contexts. Investigating multiple cases of central and local Chinese state-owned enterprises in Africa, we identify unique responding strategies comprising allied fleet and co-dependent alliance formations to overcome human capital voids, and dual management and closed-door management strategies to address industry standard voids. We propose a typology which extends the theory of MNE responses to institutional voids not only by adding the political dimension to strategy formation in responding to institutional voids, but also by providing greater insights into MNE strategies to convert home-based political capital for better response to host country institutional voids.

scholarly journals Access to Controlled Medicines in Low-Income Countries: Listening to Stakeholders in the Field

2020 ◽  
pp. 002073142090674
Author(s):  
Agnes Vitry ◽  
Gilles Forte ◽  
Jason White
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Written Information ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Psychotropic Medicines ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
International Conventions

Little is known on current practices and challenges associated with the legal trade of medicines controlled under international conventions in low-income countries. This qualitative survey involved semi-structured interviews of stakeholders engaged in the trade of controlled medicines at a global level or at a country level in 3 African countries (Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo). Nine interviews were conducted, including 3 international wholesalers, 2 relief organizations, 2 procurement officers, and 2 regulatory officers. Additionally, 4 other participants provided written information. All participants consistently reported that the current process of procuring controlled medicines in compliance with international conventions was long and complex given the number of administrative steps required for obtaining export and import authorizations, which are mandatory for both narcotic and psychotropic medicines. It may be difficult or impossible to obtain import authorizations from some health authorities in low-income countries because of long delays, mistakes in forms, absence or shortage of staff, or when annual national estimates are exceeded. The complexities of the trade of controlled medicines directly contribute to the lack of access to essential controlled medicines, both narcotics and psychotropics, in low-income countries.

scholarly journals Returns on social development initiatives of MNEs: issues and perspectives

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suraksha Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Agenda ◽  
Global Partnership ◽  
Developing Markets

Purpose This paper aims to reflect on different issues and perspectives on returns on investments made by MNEs towards social development. Need for an inclusive society drives accountable and effective cooperation between different actors in a market. Although multinational enterprises (MNEs) that operate in developing markets invest in social development, their managers find it very challenging to incorporate social development agenda into their business practices. Therefore, academics should develop business models which can guide thoughts and actions of managers of MNEs towards social development while allowing them to hold on to the business objectives and targets. Design/methodology/approach A review of current literature with available anecdotes about business practices helped the author to form a viewpoint and make recommendations. Findings The objective of the eighth millennium development goal is to promote global partnership between MNEs and domestic firms with or without intervention of a subsidiary. Addressing the particular needs of developing countries, such as capability enhancement or poverty reduction by managers of MNEs in a global setting, becomes a very complex issue. Investments by MNEs in developing countries towards these objectives are driven by different factors such as operational transparency, technological efficiency, investment types, innovation capability, branding strategy, quality assurance, public–private partnership, market-based pricing, reciprocity, distribution for penetration, etc., apart from linkages they create for developing resource-based competencies required for survival in a competitive market. Research limitations/implications Empirical investigation of the viewpoint presented here will be required to convert recommendations into models applicable by managers of MNEs. Practical implications This study will help to enable managers of MNEs to perform need-based socially responsible actions. Social implications This study will facilitate participation of MNEs in social development through their contributions towards poverty reduction and capability enhancement. Originality/value This paper pushes managers and academic scholars to think about the strategies required to incorporate social agenda into business models of MNEs benefiting from developing markets.

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