Africa Journal of Management · Informa UK Limited
Sustainability and global value chains in Africa: Introduction to the Special Issue
The challenges and opportunities facing African organizations reflect a long history of tensions, tragedies, triumphs, and accomplishments in relationships across continental boundaries. For example, Africa has long been a source of critical minerals and other raw materials that are integral to a wide range of global industries, but scholars of management have not integrated an understanding of Africa's role in global commerce fully in research on international exchange. Perhaps most importantly, scholarship in the field of management has not addressed the extensive opportunities for the development of innovative ideas, capabilities, capacities, inventions, and breakthroughs that would be made possible by international investments in human development and human capital on the continent. Resolving African problems and pursuing African opportunity requires renewed commitment by management scholars to this agenda. In this introductory article, we focus particularly on the structure of relationships across continental boundaries through global value chains (GVCs) and the role political and corporate sustainability conversations and initiatives play. We also seek to explore their implications especially for African organizations that simultaneously pursue economic growth and constructive social and environmental impact. We conclude with a framework for further study by management scholars on these important issues.
The challenges and opportunities facing African organizations reflect a long history of tensions, tragedies, triumphs, and accomplishments in relationships across continental boundaries. For example, Africa has long been a source of critical minerals and other raw materials that are integral to a wide range of global industries, but scholars of management have not integrated an understanding of Africa's role in global commerce fully in research on international exchange. Perhaps most importantly, scholarship in the field of management has not addressed the extensive opportunities for the development of innovative ideas, capabilities, capacities, inventions, and breakthroughs that would be made possible by international investments in human development and human capital on the continent. Resolving African problems and pursuing African opportunity requires renewed commitment by management scholars to this agenda. In this introductory article, we focus particularly on the structure of relationships across continental boundaries through global value chains (GVCs) and the role political and corporate sustainability conversations and initiatives play. We also seek to explore their implications especially for African organizations that simultaneously pursue economic growth and constructive social and environmental impact. We conclude with a framework for further study by management scholars on these important issues.
Full publication is available on: DOI 10.1080/23322373.2021.2018220
Contributors from our Network
Joerg Hofstetter
KEDGE Business School, France
Dr. Joerg S. Hofstetter, an expert in sustainability, procurement and multinational multi-tier value chains with over 20 years of experience, is Associate Professor in Supply Chain Management at KEDGE Business School Bordeaux, President of the International Forum on Sustainable Value Chains (ISVC), Lecturer at the University of St. Gallen, and Fellow of the Center for Organization Research & Design (CORD) at Arizona State University. He consulted various national government and intergovernmental organizations (including the OECD, the World Bank Group) as well as over 100 private and public companies across different industries, and is non-executive board member in the private sector. He is a founding member of the GRONEN Foundation, a member of Future Earth’s Working Groups on Circular Economy and Global Value Chains, a member of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform’s Trade & Competitiveness Research Committee, and involved in several UNIDO working groups. Previously, he served at the University of St. Gallen as Vice Director of its Chair of Logistics Management and Assistant Professor of Management. Dr. Hofstetter, a German national, has extensive knowledge in sustainability, circular economy, sustainability in multinational multi-tier supply chains, sustainability in procurement, global value chains, value chain mapping, sub-supplier management, supplier development, distribution management, and corporate supply chain management. He received several substantial public and private research grants, works internationally with both the public and the private sector, and published in leading academic journals, expert journals and books. Under Dr. Hofstetter’s leadership, the International Forum on Sustainable Value Chains (ISVC), a Switzerland based non-profit association, has become a recognized academia-led platform with members from different parts of the world and sectors developing and implementing scientifically proven, hands-on solutions to master the many sustainability challenges in global value chains. He holds a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Stuttgart, Germany, and a Ph.D. in Management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He lives in Zürich, Switzerland with his wife, an international IPR lawyer and senior manager, and their daughter.
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