Africa and Sustainable Global Value Chains

This book contains a collection of studies on the interactions between businesses in Africa and Global Value Chains (GVCs) in terms of social, environmental and economic sustainability. This is particularly pertinent given the asymmetrical power distribution between the global buyer and the African supplier, their governance relationships and the ongoing competitive pressures to reduce costs and increase flexibility to meet GVC demands. Rather than focusing on the sustainability of a single organization, GVCs address the sustainability of inter-firm value chains and global industries as a whole. With little differentiation between value chain creation and social / environmental degradation extending to people and raw material extraction (upstream) and disposal or recycling (downstream), sustainability issues need to be at the forefront of African business research interests. Nowadays, sustainability is considered a competitive advantage for a firm looking to join a GVC. Whether sustainability is approached from the viewpoint of an exporting firm motivated to join a GVC in its respective industry or whether a firm's continuing contractual or collaborative relationship with a buyer depends on its compliance with sustainability standards, both approaches focus on the ability of firms in Africa to benefit from joining sustainable GVCs.

Autorentext

Dr Regina Frei is a Chartered Engineer and Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, UK. She leads the Product Returns Research Group. Her research interests include sustainable business, sustainable value chains, reverse supply chains, product returns in retail, plastics recycling, and the Circular Economy. She is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a Friend of the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN).

Dr Sherwat E. Ibrahim is an Associate Professor of Operations Management and Director of the MBA programs at the School of Business, American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt. Her research interests include Africa sustainability, global value chains, supply chain governance, strategic outsourcing, and technology adoption. She is a council member of the International Forum on Sustainable Value Chains (ISVC) and a founding member of PRME Africa Chapter. Dr Temidayo Akenroye is a Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management at Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, UK. His research interests cover circular economy, sustainable procurement, agricultural value chain, health supply chain and international logistics. He is a Member of the Board of Directors (Trustees) at Agritech and Social Innovation Hub, Nigeria, and sits on the Research Advisory Panel for Africa Resource Centre, South Africa.

Inhalt

Foreword - Diego Vazquez-Brust and Joseph Sarkis: Foreword

Editorial - Regina Frei, Sherwat Ibrahim and Temidayo Akenroye

Part 1: Background and motivation - Why do global buyers engage in GVCs with Africa?

1. Sustainable practices of African big firms in Global Value Chain - April Bai and Matthew Quayson

2. Sustainability for Global Value Chains: A bibliometric review on African based studies - Jamal elBaz, Saadia Iddik and Fedwa Jebli

3. Embodied land resources trade in major African countries: A global trade and supply chains perspective - Joseph Sarkis and Xu Tian (Mini)

4. Risk assessment for global buyers in GVCs with Africa - Lanre Jawando

Part 2: Why do African suppliers engage in GVCs?

5. Maatian Philosophical Perspective of Sustainability - David B. Zoogah

6. Adoption of Supplier Codes of Conduct through the lens of Innovation Diffusion Theory - Johannes Heller

7. Practical insights to developing sustainability conscientious African Firms - Ekpen Owie

8. Exploring the barriers to adoption of sustainable agriculture practices in the process of coffee farming: implications for global value chain - Temidayo Akenroye

9. An explorative study of the extent to which multinational buyer firms' sustainability requirements include/exclude Zambian Contractors and suppliers - Progress Choongo, Christine Chanda Nakamba, Peter Lubosi Simasiku

Part 3: How do African suppliers engage in GVCs?

10. Assessing Lean readiness in a pharmaceutical manufacturing environment in Sudan - Mohammed Hassan Sayed and Alfatih H. Ismail

11. The buyers' response to bridge the gap across markets: a case of exporting agricultural products from Nigeria - Frank Ojadi

12. Sustainability in Ethiopian Textile Supply Chains - Marcus Brandenburg, Berihun Bizuneh, Taame Berhanu and Ambachew Maru Woubou

13. Handcraft Export business in Ghana - Audrey Forson

Part 4: How do global buyers engage in GVCs with Africa?

14. The Impact of EPA on West Africa: The mediating role of an intra-African Trade Policy for Africa's sustainable growth in the Global Value Chain - Peter Adjei-Bamfo, Emmanuel Lartey, Bernard Odoi, Stephanie Adjei-Bamfo and Emmanuel Baiden

15. Governance mechanisms and Sustainability compliance in Egypt Food Chains - Yasmine Elhenawy

16. Danish-Nigerian dairy supply chains - Natalie Heinisch

17. Re-imagining corporate sustainability in sub-saharan Africa: Evidence from the maize supply chain of a leading Nigerian commodities business - Lanre Jawando

    Conclusion - Regina Frei, Sherwat Ibrahim and Temidayo Akenroye