Although the world's poorest inhabited continent, Africa has recently shown signs of being a source of economic growth in the coming decades, with increased foreign investment - notably from China - and huge growth in GDP from a number of African states. In contrast to the heaving weight of books focusing on business opportunities in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, Africa has been poorly served by academic publishing. This compendium of scholarship offers cutting-edge knowledge relating to business in Africa. The objectives of this collection include: To shed new light on the socio-cultural and historical underpinnings of business practice in Africa and their implications for promoting entrepreneurship and business behaviour in the region To consider the important constraints on business activities in Africa, and the emerging 'best practice' for redressing their real and potential impacts To facilitate a better understanding of contemporary business practice in Africa through the application of relevant theories and models, including emergent ones. The Routledge Companion to Business in Africa is a comprehensive reference resource that provides the perfect platform for embarking on research and study into Africa from the business perspective.

The Routledge Companion to Business History is a definitive work of reference, and authoritative, international source on business history. Compiled by leading scholars in the field, it offers both researchers and students an introduction and overview of current scholarship in this expanding discipline. Drawing on a wealth of international contributions, this volume expands the field and explores how business history interacts theoretically and methodologically with other fields. It charts the origins and development of business history and its global reach from Latin America and Africa, to North America and Europe. With this multi-perspective approach, it illustrates the unique contribution of business history and its relationship with a range of other disciplines, from finance and banking to gender issues in corporations. The Routledge Companion to Business History is a vital source of reference for students and researchers in the fields of business history, corporate governance and business ethics. "This collection is an excellent starting point for understanding the field and finding areas where business history, management theory, and social science can intersect." Canadian Business History Newsletter, January 2019

Although the world's poorest inhabited continent, Africa has recently shown signs of being a source of economic growth in the coming decades, with increased foreign investment - notably from China - and huge growth in GDP from a number of African states. In contrast to the heaving weight of books focusing on business opportunities in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, Africa has been poorly served by academic publishing. This compendium of scholarship offers cutting-edge knowledge relating to business in Africa. The objectives of this collection include: To shed new light on the socio-cultural and historical underpinnings of business practice in Africa and their implications for promoting entrepreneurship and business behaviour in the region To consider the important constraints on business activities in Africa, and the emerging 'best practice' for redressing their real and potential impacts To facilitate a better understanding of contemporary business practice in Africa through the application of relevant theories and models, including emergent ones. The Routledge Companion to Business in Africa is a comprehensive reference resource that provides the perfect platform for embarking on research and study into Africa from the business perspective.

The field of business ethics continues to expand intellectually and geographically. During the past five decades, scholars have developed and deepened their inquiries into the ethics of commercial and corporate conduct. This Companion provides a novel overview of the discipline of business ethics, covering the major areas of the field as well as new and emerging topics. The eight thematic units range over an extraordinary set of subjects and include chapters on the history and pedagogy of business ethics, moral philosophy, the nature of business, responsibilities within the firm, economic institutions, the 2008 financial crisis, globalization, and business ethics in different regions of the world. Led by a well-respected editorial team, this unique volume gathers an international array of experts whose various critical approaches yield insights from areas such as public policy, economics, law, and history, in addition to business and philosophy. With its fresh analyses, wide scope, and clarity of approach, this volume will be an essential addition to library collections in business, management, and applied ethics.

The amount and range of brand related literature published in the last fifty years can be overwhelming for brand scholars. This Companion provides a uniquely comprehensive overview of contemporary issues in brand management research, and the challenges faced by brands and their managers. Original contributions from an international range of established and emerging scholars from Europe, US, Asia and Africa, provide a diverse range of insights on different areas of branding, reflecting the state of the art and insights into future challenges. Designed to provide not only a comprehensive overview, but also to stimulate new insights, this will be an essential resource for researchers, educators and advanced students in branding and brand management, consumer behaviour, marketing and advertising.

The globalization of marketing has brought about an interesting paradox: as the discipline becomes more global, the need to understand cultural differences becomes all the more crucial. This is the challenge in an increasingly international marketplace and a problem that the world's most powerful businesses must solve. From this challenge has grown the exciting discipline of ethnic marketing, which seeks to understand the considerable opportunities and challenges presented by cultural and ethnic diversity in the marketplace. To date, scholarship in the area has been lively but disparate. This volume brings together cutting-edge research on ethnic marketing from thought leaders across the world. Each chapter covers a key theme, reflecting the increasing diversity of the latest research, including models of culture change, parenting and socialization, responses to web and advertising, role of space and social innovation in ethnic marketing, ethnic consumer decision making, religiosity, differing attitudes to materialism, acculturation, targeting and ethical and public policy issues. The result is a solid framework and a comprehensive reference point for consumer researchers, students, and practitioners.

The research papers and cases in The Changing Dynamics of International Business in Africa provide multi-disciplinary insights on the opportunities and challenges of doing business in Africa, as well as on the changing competitive dynamics in the region, as Western, BRIC and African multinationals intensify their fight for market dominance.

Although change management and therefore effective adaptation to environmental complexity is considered a uniquely human cultural activity, the extensive change management literature is largely based on the experiences of organizations in the advanced economies of the West. As the economies of African countries become increasingly open, African organizations will need to be agile in order to adapt and grow in a dynamic, global environment. Currently, there is a dearth of contextualized knowledge on change management within Africa, but this handbook aims to address this by bringing together a wide range of experts to explore organizational change and change management from an African context. The handbook adopts a multidisciplinary (historical, philosophical, processual, and strategic) perspective as well as empirical accounts of change management. It addresses such issues as: What are the external and internal pressures for change? What is the content and process of change management? What are the essentials of effective change management? How can change management be theorized from an African perspective? What sort of leadership can best align with change management demands in an African context? How do organizations build internal change management capability? It is hoped that answers to these questions contained in the handbook will provide a contextualized understanding of change management which African organizations and scholars can leverage to respond to the threats and opportunities inherent in their increasingly dynamic environment. The handbook should constitute an essential reference for academics, researchers, and advanced students of change management, development studies, and African studies, as well as practitioners.

'The Routledge Companion to Strategic Human Resource Management' is a prestige reference work offering a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the field. It surveys the state of the discipline and introduces and makes sense of new cutting edge themes.

Brand management to sustain corporate reputation and customer loyalty is essential for both multinationals and indigenous fi rms in Africa. This book provides a practical overview of country branding and positioning activities in Africa, based on a broad defi nition of base of the pyramid (BoP) marketing, which includes both goods and services, as well as business-to-business marketing, corporate branding, and country branding. The text highlights branding strategies that can be adopted in BoP markets, as well as marketing mix strategies appropriate for much of the continent. Taking into account the role of social networks, culture, and religion, the book explores avenues for developing and building competitive advantage, and how African countries can leverage country branding as part of the development process. The book is ideal for researchers, educators and advanced students in international marketing, management, and brand strategy who are interested in the unique branding characteristics of the African continent.