Author Archives: GIBS Blog

60 entrepreneurs to benefit from SAB Foundation funding (Ventureburn)

The SAB Foundation has put out a call for growth-orientated entrepreneurs committed to achieving new levels of success to apply to its popular Tholoana Enterprise Programme. The SAB Foundation’s entrepreneurship development mission is to unlock business development support and investment that helps entrepreneurs to build viable, growing and sustainable businesses that can create jobs. This […]
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Prioritise top entrepreneurs to boost SMEs in West Africa(Ventureburn)

The entrepreneurial ecosystem in West Africa is robust and innovative. This is according to high-profile delegates attending this region’s conference aimed at accelerating small and growing business growth on the continent this week. Hosted in Accra, Ghana by the United States-based Aspen Institute of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and Impact Investing Ghana, the conference attracted leading investors, entrepreneurs […]
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Black ownership of South African businesses falls below 30% (Bloomberg)

Black ownership of businesses in South Africa dropped 1.5 percentage point to below 30% last year, as Africa’s most industrialized nation struggles to economically empower a larger portion of its population. Black management control also dropped 5.4% percentage points to 51.6%, the B-BBEE Commission said in an annual report. The commission’s mandate is to supervise […]
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New GIBS article: Tougher than the rest? The impact of COVID-19 on South African exporters By Marianne Matthee, Adrian Saville, Wayde Flowerday, and Carli Bezuidenhout

The export sector is vital to the performance of the South African economy given its structure as a small, open economy. The contribution of the export sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) rose from 19.5% in the early 1990s to 24.4% by the end of that decade, as trade sanctions imposed on South Africa’s […]
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Grocery retailers and the food market: Trends and future prospects (Forbes)

Ecommerce at the core The COVID-19 pandemic introduced lockdown policies that forced several grocery retailers to shift to e-commerce and offer online shopping and delivery services. McKinsey reported that 20- 30% of grocery store businesses turned to e-commerce at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Although physical stores have resumed operations, online shopping is still a […]
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New GIBS article : The Face of nonbinary beauty communication on Instagram: A content analysis by Adele Berndt, Ria Wiid, Tomas Mullern and

Gender is a feature of beauty marketing, used in marketing segmentation and communication images, where binary images are predominant. Recently, the social identity of gender has become increasingly nuanced as a more complex set of identities, including genderqueer and nonbinary, influences marketing communications. As part of cultural expression, advertising reflects and impacts how consumers perceive themselves and others, with Generation […]
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New GIBS article: Dramatic social change(COVID-19) moderating complexity leadership and organisational adaptability in Zimbabwean SMEs by Tongesai Chingwena and Caren Scheepers

Major social changes, such as those induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, intensify the needfor organisations in Africa to accelerate adaptation. Leadership plays an important role in theirorganisations’ adaptation. This study focuses on how leaders can build adaptive organisations throughappropriate complexity leadership practices by establishing which of these most predict organisationaladaptation. The study aims to contribute […]
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New GIBS article: Home country (in)stability and the locational portfolio construction of emerging market multinational enterprise by Helena Bernard and John Luiz

Emerging markets often experience instability due to rapid changes to the institutional environment, social changes like rapid urbanization, or even unrest. We argue that emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) manage such instability by constructing and changing locational portfolios, and qualitatively analyze six cases in South Africa over a period that included the entrenchment of Apartheid, increasing […]
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Strengthening economic co-operation between South Africa and China (IOL)

The China-Africa Development Fund has committed to invest over $5.5 billion (R80bn) in 37 African countries and leveraged $26bn in investment and financing from Chinese enterprises in Africa. The fund has invested and financed a number of key projects in South Africa in sectors such as electricity, energy, home appliances, cement and culture thereby making […]
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New GIBS article: Social entrepreneurs’ learning experience in South African incubators-by Aleia Bucci and Jonathan Marks

Africa’s strong entrepreneurial spirit and desire for social change has led to growth in social entrepreneurship and incubation throughout the continent. However, there is a limited understanding of how entrepreneurial learning occurs during incubation. This study explored social entrepreneurs’ learning experience in South African incubators. A phenomenological methodology provided a deeper understanding of their lived […]
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