Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37943

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    Studies on Philanthropy and Impact Investment in Ghana
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Osei, Dennis Boahene; Alagidede, Imhotep Paul
    Anecdotal evidence of practices and institutions has accumulated over the years through oral traditions and all over the psyche of the African. While giving to good causes is not new in the Ghanaian traditional system and culture, there is a general paucity of literature regarding recent developments on the topic. Studies regarding investments that simultaneously generate financial, as well as social and /or environmental returns, are equally lacking. Using Ghana as a case study, this thesis contributes to the literature on three thematic areas in accordance with identified gaps in the philanthropy and impact investment literature. Specifically, the thesis relies on quantitative (instrumental variable probit model) and qualitative (content analysis, multiple-case study) research techniques to examine the relationships, and determinants of formal and informal charitable giving; uncover the motives, priorities, strategies, opportunities, and challenges of corporate foundation giving; and explore the approach to impact investing. These are critical issues whose understanding is theoretical and western-oriented, lacking empirical attention in the emerging literature of African philanthropy and impact investment. Given this, the thesis produced three independent essays to address these salient gaps in the philanthropy and impact investment literature. Empirical findings evolving from these essays are instructive and generally present crucial insights on African philanthropy and impact investment which is relevant for policy and practice. The first essay examines the extrinsic (socio-demographic) and intrinsic (personality) determinants of both formal and informal charitable giving. In addition, it explores whether the relationship between different types of charitable giving –cash and in-kind donations as well as time donations (volunteering) – is substitutable or complementary. Our findings, based on survey data from 1,533 households and instrumental variable probit model revealed that while marital status, education, household size, religiosity, ethnicity, and empathic concern are important predictors of formal cash and in-kind giving, informal giving of cash and in-kind is driven by income, religiosity and empathic concern. On the other hand, it was evident that formal volunteering is mainly determined by income, household size, religiosity, and empathic concern, whereas gender and religiosity influence informal volunteering. We established that, in both spheres of formal and informal giving, the relationship between cash and in-kind giving and volunteering is complementary. Premised on these findings, we recommend non-profits and policymakers to recognise the complementary role and distinctive determinants of the spheres of giving in designing tools and policies to raise the levels and effectiveness of fundraising and volunteering campaigns. In the second essay, the practice of corporate philanthropy was explored through the lens of corporate foundations. Specifically, we investigate the motives, priority areas, strategies, opportunities, and challenges of corporate foundation giving. Based on qualitative content analysis, our findings revealed that corporate foundations are influenced by both altruistic and instrumental motives of giving, and that, their approach to giving prioritises multiple areas of national interest such as education, health, economic empowerment, environment/social amenities, and sports. We also found that corporate foundations rely on a combination of strategies (request, media-lead, adoption, and contest) to identify potential beneficiaries and implement their giving programmes. Further evidence indicates that giving of corporate foundations presents opportunities to both foundations (serve society, get partnership offers from other companies, and obtain goodwill from the public) and their parent companies (indirect business and advertising opportunities). However, corporate foundation giving is constrained by insufficient funding, lack of support from stakeholders, managing expectations of individuals, poor maintenance culture, and cultural rites. The findings have implications for practitioners as it presents insights which could serve as a model to guide new entrants into the corporate foundation landscape of developing economies. In addition, the findings could assist the development of government interventions necessary to foster greater corporate giving. The third essay applies a change in perspective to explore the approach to impact investing from a supply-side standpoint. This contrasts existing studies which are mostly theoretical and provide an understanding that is western-oriented and from a demand-side viewpoint. Using multiple-case study design and qualitative data from two Ghanaian organisations, we provide evidence of an impact investment approach characterised by concurrent motive of financial and social/environmental returns, longer time horizon, and engagement or provision of non-financial support. We conclude that this approach leverages the tools of venture capital to realise social or ecological purposes. The findings can potentially assist investors and entrepreneurs to make informed decisions and navigate the complexity surrounding the emerging impact investment environment in Ghana and economies of similar nature. Additionally, it can help in developing explicit policies to regulate the sector, increase its awareness, widens its appeal, and use to serve the intended purpose of addressing social and environmental problems
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    Studies on philanthropy and impact investment in Ghana
    (2021) Osei, Dennis Boahene
    Anecdotal evidence of practices and institutions has accumulated over the years through oral traditions and all over the psyche of the African. While giving to good causes is not new in the Ghanaian traditional system and culture, there is a general paucity of literature regarding recent developments on the topic. Studies regarding investments that simultaneously generate financial, as well as social and /or environmental returns, are equally lacking. Using Ghana as a case study, this thesis contributes to the literature on three thematic areas in accordance with identified gaps in the philanthropy and impact investment literature. Specifically, the thesis relies on quantitative (instrumental variable probit model) and qualitative (content analysis, multiple-case study) research techniques to examine the relationships, and determinants of formal and informal charitable giving; uncover the motives, priorities, strategies, opportunities, and challenges of corporate foundation giving; and explore the approach to impact investing. These are critical issues whose understanding is theoretical and western-oriented, lacking empirical attention in the emerging literature of African philanthropy and impact investment. Given this, the thesis produced three independent essays to address these salient gaps in the philanthropy and impact investment literature. Empirical findings evolving from these essays are instructive and generally present crucial insights on African philanthropy and impact investment which is relevant for policy and practice. The first essay examines the extrinsic (socio-demographic) and intrinsic (personality) determinants of both formal and informal charitable giving. In addition, it explores whether the relationship between different types of charitable giving –cash and in-kind donations as well as time donations (volunteering) – is substitutable or complementary. Our findings, based on survey data from 1,533 households and instrumental variable probit model revealed that while marital status, education, v household size, religiosity, ethnicity, and empathic concern are important predictors of formal cash and in-kind giving, informal giving of cash and in-kind is driven by income, religiosity and empathic concern. On the other hand, it was evident that formal volunteering is mainly determined by income, household size, religiosity, and empathic concern, whereas gender and religiosity influence informal volunteering. We established that, in both spheres of formal and informal giving, the relationship between cash and in-kind giving and volunteering is complementary. Premised on these findings, we recommend non-profits and policymakers to recognise the complementary role and distinctive determinants of the spheres of giving in designing tools and policies to raise the levels and effectiveness of fundraising and volunteering campaigns. In the second essay, the practice of corporate philanthropy was explored through the lens of corporate foundations. Specifically, we investigate the motives, priority areas, strategies, opportunities, and challenges of corporate foundation giving. Based on qualitative content analysis, our findings revealed that corporate foundations are influenced by both altruistic and instrumental motives of giving, and that, their approach to giving prioritises multiple areas of national interest such as education, health, economic empowerment, environment/social amenities, and sports. We also found that corporate foundations rely on a combination of strategies (request, media-lead, adoption, and contest) to identify potential beneficiaries and implement their giving programmes. Further evidence indicates that giving of corporate foundations presents opportunities to both foundations (serve society, get partnership offers from other companies, and obtain goodwill from the public) and their parent companies (indirect business and advertising opportunities). However, corporate foundation giving is constrained by insufficient funding, lack of support from stakeholders, managing expectations of individuals, poor maintenance culture, and cultural rites. The findings have implications for practitioners as it presents insights which could vi serve as a model to guide new entrants into the corporate foundation landscape of developing economies. In addition, the findings could assist the development of government interventions necessary to foster greater corporate giving. The third essay applies a change in perspective to explore the approach to impact investing from a supply-side standpoint. This contrasts existing studies which are mostly theoretical and provide an understanding that is western-oriented and from a demand-side viewpoint. Using multiple-case study design and qualitative data from two Ghanaian organisations, we provide evidence of an impact investment approach characterised by concurrent motive of financial and social/environmental returns, longer time horizon, and engagement or provision of non-financial support. We conclude that this approach leverages the tools of venture capital to realise social or ecological purposes. The findings can potentially assist investors and entrepreneurs to make informed decisions and navigate the complexity surrounding the emerging impact investment environment in Ghana and economies of similar nature. Additionally, it can help in developing explicit policies to regulate the sector, increase its awareness, widens its appeal, and use to serve the intended purpose of a
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    Determinants of successful coopetition between SMEs in SADC countries – implications for strategy and firm performance
    (2021) Feela, Tshepo
    The purpose of the study was to investigate the existence of coopetition (the simultaneous competition and collaboration between two or more firms) amongst the SMEs in the SADC as well as to ascertain whether these relationships have a positive effect on firm performance. Firm performance is divided into financial performance, strategic performance, and innovation performance. Furthermore, an additional aim is to investigate which variable(s) (foresight, risk aversion and exploiting opportunities) moderate the relationship between coopetition and firm performance. The results show that there is strong coopetition amongst SMEs in SADC and that coopetition has a positive and significant effect on firm performance. However, although no variable moderates this relationship, risk aversion has a positive and significant direct effect on firm performance
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    Impact of firm-level characteristics and international marketing strategies on export performance of SMES in South Africa
    (2021) Siddiqui, Ammar
    Internationalization has caused numerous businesses across the world to extend their operations to foreign countries. Amongst the various forms of internationalization, such as direct investment, franchising and joint ventures, the primary and most common mode used by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is exporting. Exporting allows businesses to function in their home country and serve customers in other countries. Exporting relieves businesses from domestic competition, increases production, from which economies of scale, competitive prices and competitive advantages are gained. Despite these advantages, there are reports that limited SMEs in emerging economies like South Africa that are facing increasing competition from international forms entering their markets are exporting. Such reports raise questions as to the factor that becomes barriers for SMEs in South Africa to export. Previous studies have produced mixed findings, with some suggesting that exporting determinants are SMEs characteristics in terms of size and age, others suggesting managerial capabilities and characteristics and some contending that it is environmental factors and competence in dealing with expert market conditions and requirements. Considering the mixed findings from literature, there was a need for a consolidated study to identify country-specific factors that will propel SMEs in South Africa to not only export to perform optimally and superiorly. Even though the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities view (DCV) theorists posit that firm performance is guaranteed when firms possess resources (tangible and intangible) and dynamic capabilities to adapt marketing strategies to changing market conditions, researchers have ignored the mediating role of the resultant marketing strategies in the relationships between performance drivers and export performance. Thus, this research had two main objectives: 1) examine the extent to which firm characteristics (firm size, age of the firm and employee education), managerial characteristics (international experience, education level, foreign language knowledge, risk taking ability, rigidness, proactive approach), environmental characteristics (psychic distance, cultural specificity), export market competencies (commitment, international expertise, market knowledge, innovation) impact both optimal and superior export performances); 2) test the mediating role of international marketing strategies in the relationships between the sets of drivers and export performance (subjectively) of South African SMEs. An integrated conceptual framework was developed delineating these relationships. iii To empirically test the conceptual framework, data was collected from 350 respondents of SMEs involved in export activities, located in the Gauteng and Western Cape of South Africa. Convenience sampling method was used in the research. The findings indicate that optimal export performance was significantly driven by an organization’s characteristics (i.e., size and education of employees), environmental characteristics of the firm (only psychic distance) and export market competence (internal market knowledge and experience, innovation and commitment. Superior export performance was significantly impacted by managerial characteristics (i.e., Foreign Language Expertise, International Experience, and Education level), Personality Factors (i.e., Risk Taking Ability, Rigidness, and Proactive Approach). The international marketing strategies and managerial characteristics had the greatest influence on the optimal export performance of the organisation, while the market competencies made the greatest impact on optimal export performance. The developed integrated model explained 87.6% of superior export performance, 78.5% of optimal export performance and 79.2% of international marketing strategy. With this high explanatory powers, this research theoretical contributes in the field of international marketing and strategic management by providing a holistic model with which to identify various factors and their facets helping and hindering SMEs to perform superiorly and optimally in not only an emerging market context but also in an African context. This study also theoretically contributes by confirming the RBV and DCV theories in an African market context. Practically, and for the SMEs that perform well, they can use insights from this study to identify what they are doing rightly. For the SMEs that perform poorly or are planning to export, this comprehensive findings will be a rich guide into internal factors (managerial and firm characteristics and export market competence) and environmental factors to focus on for effective strategy implementation and resultant superior and optimal export performances. Future research should test this model with a larger sample size and in other emerging and developing countries.