Shared value for multinational corporations as a strategic imperative for expansion into Africa .
Date
2014-07-31
Authors
Magner, Ryan Victor
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
In a socio-economic era characterised by sluggish global economic growth as
well as wide-spread social challenges, businesses, governments and society at
large seek ways and means to create economic value in a way that is also
socially responsible.
It is against this backdrop that Porter and Kramer (2011), in their ground
breaking article, “The big Idea: Creating shared value”, argue that a concept
they coin as “shared value”, has the ability to address the globes economic
growth concerns whilst also addressing its societal challenges.
The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which Multinational
Corporations based in South Africa regard shared value as a strategic
imperative when expanding business operations into the African continent. In
order to achieve this end, 5 top-of-mind South African based companies were
studied, based on their broad African footprint, and sustained success on the
African continent. Semi-structured guided interviews were then conducted with
senior executives and strategy professionals at these organisations in order to
ascertain the strategic concerns regarded by their organisations as imperative
in nature. Content analysis was then used to extract emergent themes and
outcomes from the transcribed interviews conducted.
It was found that although shared value, as it is very specifically defined by
Porter and Kramer (2011), was generally quite poorly understood, varying
degrees of overall understanding of shared value as a whole were observed
between organisations. This main finding serves as key evidence to all affected
and interested parties of the possible beginnings of a paradigm shift in business
thinking as it pertains to defining its role within society at large.
Description
MBA 2014
Keywords
Social responsibility of business,International business enterprises -- Management.