Overview
- Explores the practices in African businesses and their interactions with sustainable Global Value Chains
- Contains a selection of conceptual discussions on sustainability in global value chains as well as empirical case studies from various African countries and diverse industries
- Identifies challenges and barriers to the implementation of sustainable principles in African companies
Part of the book series: Greening of Industry Networks Studies (GINS, volume 9)
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Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Why Engage in GVC Sustainability Within Africa?
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Front Matter
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Why Should African Suppliers Care?
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Front Matter
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What Can African Suppliers Do to Engage in GVC Sustainability?
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Front Matter
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What Can Buyer Firms Do to Encourage Sustainability in African GVCs?
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
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.
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Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
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.Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Africa and Sustainable Global Value Chains
Editors: Regina Frei, Sherwat Ibrahim, Temidayo Akenroye
Series Title: Greening of Industry Networks Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78791-2
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-78790-5Published: 08 February 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-78793-6Published: 08 February 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-78791-2Published: 07 February 2022
Series ISSN: 2543-0246
Series E-ISSN: 2543-0254
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXII, 325
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Economic Geography, Environmental Economics, Corporate Environmental Management