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.

Chapter3. Embodied land resources trade in major African countries: A global trade and supply chains perspective ( Joseph Sarkis and Xu Tian (Mini)).- Chapter4. Risk assessment for global buyers in GVCs with Africa (Lanre Jawando).- Part 2:  Why do African suppliers engage in GVCs?. Chapter5. Maatian Philosophical Perspective of Sustainability ( David B. Zoogah).- Chapter6.  Adoption of Supplier Codes of Conduct through the lens of Innovation Diffusion Theory ( Johannes Heller).- Chapter7. Practical insights to developing sustainability conscientious African Firms (Ekpen Owie).- Chapter8. Exploring the barriers to adoption of sustainable agriculture practices in the process of coffee farming: implications for global value chain ( Temidayo Akenroye).- Chapter9.  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?. Chapter10.        Assessing Lean readiness in a pharmaceutical manufacturing environment in Sudan ( Mohammed Hassan Sayed and Alfatih H. Ismail).- Chapter11. The buyers’ response to bridge the gap across markets: a case of exporting agricultural products from Nigeria ( Frank Ojadi).- Chapter12. Sustainability in Ethiopian Textile Supply Chains (Marcus Brandenburg, Berihun Bizuneh, Taame Berhanu and Ambachew Maru Woubou).- Chapter13. Handcraft Export business in Ghana ( Audrey Forson).- Part 4:  How do global buyers engage in GVCs with Africa?. Chapter14.  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).- Chapter15. Governance mechanisms and Sustainability compliance in Egypt Food Chains (Yasmine Elhenawy).- Chapter16. Danish-Nigerian dairy supply chains -(Natalie Heinisch).- Chapter17. 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.