Wencelaus Muthama (p)

Hugo Pinto

Kenya has been fronted the Silicon Savannah owing to its leadership position in digital economy within the East Africa Community (EAC) region. Facilitated by the government policy of access to universal broadband, build ICT infrastructure, entrench ICT institutional framework in business and government transactions Kenya’s economy has more than doubled in the last decade. As more and more services were digitized, new digital platforms emerged revolutionizing the interaction of government, businesses, civil society and citizens not only in Kenya and the East Africa regional integration. Internet adoption aided innovations, access to services, reduced transaction costs, expanded markets and financial inclusivity of communities. However, job creation and entrepreneurship did not grow in tandem. Kenya’s estimated 138,000 formal establishments where only 3% have 50 or more employees and 7.4 million micro, small and medium enterprises where 94 % are unlicensed micro firms points to scaleup bottlenecks in entrepreneurial digital platform economy (DPE) ecosystem. Spatial and sectoral disparities abound with most of the businesses being skewed to Nairobi where over 80% are in service sector despite government adoption of manufacturing as one of the Big Four policy agendas. The Covid-19 pandemic and the attendant measures to save lives and livelihoods widened inter and intra-regional inequalities in Kenya with worsening national and rural / urban poverty. However, World Bank and other official documents have indicated that Kenya’s economy remained resilient and shown signs of recovery to the pre-Covid 19 levels. This study examined the entrepreneurial ecosystem factors supporting the economic recovery and identified the constraints of digital DPE in comparison to other benchmark middle income countries by evaluating it against the 12 pillars of Digital Platform Economy (DPE) Index and augment with administrative data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Policy recommendations are discussed in the study.

Anna Dokukina (p)

Wencelaus Muthama

The research is focused on the problem of ecological impact on the company’s organizational and production performance. In particular organic cosmetics market is considered. There is the case of a company which operates in the cosmetic industry and uses a number of natural resources. The study is aimed at defining issues and providing solutions to cope with the ecological influence in terms of production specifics of the company in question. Findings are related to the transition of traditional manufacture to greener pro-duction. Conclusions allowed to modify the company’s environmental policy on the basis of modernization of production process.

Stephen Kehinde Medase (p), Joseph Amankwah-Amoah, Jutta Günther

Anna Dokukina

Dynamic capabilities (DC) are established on unique firms' routines that emerge from their specific resource stance and are shaped by their innovation trajectories (Teece et al., 1997; Khan, 2018; Landoni, 2020). DCs let firms renew and effectively utilise their resources (Khan, 2019; Hou, 2008; Teece et al., 1997) in times of crisis, eventually transforming their performance (Schilke, 2014a). The ubiquity and diversity of knowledge explain its dynamism amongst firms. While knowledge integration might be complex in times of crisis, its integration through different mechanisms, such as skills, market capabilities, education attainment, can allow firms to surmount its complexity. Our set of DCs includes human capital, ICT, leadership, and interpersonal skills. Firms can navigate the hurdles of producer-customer relations if they possess unique capabilities to survive in the marketplace in turbulent times. One fundamental attribute of successful firms is building a network of knowledge and capabilities that can extract value from their productive activities and connect with their market base (Bartoloni & Baussola, 2020). ICT offers firms the leverage to connect with customers in different markets with employees' interpersonal, leadership, or technical skills.

In this paper, we integrate the dynamic capabilities perspective, knowledge-based view, and human capital theory to link a distinct set of skills and innovation performance in times of crisis. The study principally examines the link between business association membership (BAM), a distinct set of dynamic capabilities, COVID-19 support services and innovation performance. We employ the Netherlands' World Bank Enterprise Survey dataset collected between late 2020 and early 2021, modelling the number of innovations introduced in processes and products as a function of firms' dynamic capabilities. In examining this nexus, we estimate econometric models for count cross-section data, which deal with the count nature of innovation and firm-specific unobservable arising from the data. First, we find that being a business association member and engaging in online activity matter for innovation amid the pandemic. Second, firms' dynamic capability explains the intensity of firms' innovation activity. Third, we also find that business association and online activity moderate the link between COVID-19 business support packages, dynamic capabilities, market heterogeneity and innovation performance. Finally, these relationships tend to matter for SMEs and large firms. Our predictive margins also show the relationship as captured in the regression output to a more considerable extent. Generally, online activity and belonging to a business association matter for firms survival during the pandemic.

Hugo Pinto (p), Gabriela Vieira, Carla Nogueira

Stephen Kehinde Medase

There is a gap in terms of infrastructural and human capital resources to achieve a sustainable use of mineral resources while assuring regional benefits in Africa. The need for growth in the industry, while exploring the existent natural resources and promoting regional development and reducing poverty and inequality, may be understood as a wicked problem, with a large number of stakeholders and varying opinions, highly interconnected. Universities and other higher education institutions may play a critical role in this interplay, to break vicious circles of cumulative causation, by linking scientific knowledge, demands for sustainable use of resources, emphasizing population and key actor’s expectations in the field, such as the government bodies and the mining industry. This communication is motivated by the SUGERE – Sustainable Sustainability and Wise Use of Geological Resources, a ERASMUS+ project that tries to ensure a deep articulation in this domain of universities from Africa, in particular from Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique with Portuguese, Italian and Spanish institutions. Based in a series of interviews and a focus group to researchers, professors and other specialists involved in this network, inspired by a complexity theory approach, the study explores the current situation and possible measures to create leverage points. The results emphasize the need for articulation to solve different constraints and the role that capacitation of talent, may have in generating social innovations and achieving sustainable development goals.