The literature shows that Nigeria’s major challenge was managing resource income volatility in order to isolate expenditure from resource income. The often-cited justification is the existence of a very poor institutional environment and that this situation has resulted in a disastrous macroeconomic performance. The question borders on how to make a sovereign fund a substitute for a broader institutional development necessary to guarantee sustainability and macroeconomic stability. This study examines the relationship between a measure of sustainability and the components of the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) characteristics since the introduction in 2004 of an oil fund in Nigeria. The expectation is that a positive relationship exists between the quality of institutions and weak sustainability. The specific approach is to examine the association between each component of CPIA and adjusted (genuine) savings using Spearman rank order correlation analysis. The results show that genuine savings is not positively correlated with any of the components of CPIA.  Therefore, the establishment of oil funds in Nigeria has not yielded positive results in terms of sustainability due to the weakness in institutional framework.

Multinational companies (MNCs) identify various profitable opportunities in subsistence and Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) markets, due to continuous population growth and changing lifestyle. However, MNCs experience institutional voids in BOP markets, such as the lack of qualified labor, poor infrastructure, the inability to access quality suppliers, and others. In order to tap into those opportunities, MNCs choose to tackle such voids by integrating the BOP population into their value chains to access local experience and knowledge, and thus the BOP become partners and not just consumers. This paper focuses on studying the strategies embraced by MNCs to face persistent institutional voids across the different constituencies of their supply chains. The focus of the study is on Egypt as one of the understudied African countries. A multiple case study research is employed involving four companies from the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) sector in Egypt. Interviews are carried out with ten managers from the four MNCs, where two to three managers were drawn from each company. This is in addition to interviewing four managers from MNCs’ partner NGOs. Furthermore, four focus groups with distributors, sellers, and consumers in BOP areas were employed; involving 10 individuals per focus group. The results of the research show the various strategies adopted by MNCs across their value chains, how they resolve voids addressed, and the possible impacts on BOP stakeholders and MNCs.

Attempts by some state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to pursue rigorous branding and rebranding strategies have been met with disdain, particularly in Ghana where stakeholders and other commentators question the rationale for such strategies; labelling them as needless and wasteful due to the high associated financial implications. Yet, rebranding is necessary to offer differentiated products and services that outperform those of competitors. Using the 2010-2012 re-branding exercise undertaken by Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) – a state-owned oil marketing company in the petroleum downstream sector of Ghana as a case illustration, the paper evaluates the impacts of rebranding on firm performance through investment in employees and brand equity. The paper discusses and concludes with highlights of the specific contribution of rebranding in state-owned enterprises and make appropriate recommendation for its effective utilization to attain competitive advantage and superior performance.

In view of the high risk, high voltage environments which the Eskom Bloemfontein engineering workforce (engineers, technologists, and technicians) is exposed to in the design, installation and maintenance of coal-fired power plants, sub-stations, transmission lines and electrical equipment, their psychological dispositions especially locus of control (LOC) should be an interesting area of research interest. The influence of LOC of the engineering workforce on improved job performance is critical to eliminating power related risks, accidents and deaths emanating from work-related fatigue, job stress and exhaustion. This study adopts a revised Rotter’s LOC Scale questionnaire to explore the combined influence of internal and external locus of control on organisational performance. The results demonstrate a positive relationship between internal locus of control and job performance. It also demonstrates that a sizable number of the Eskom engineering workforce are easily influenced by external forces, with implications for the job performance of the engineering workforce.

Much research has gone into establishing the nature of ethics initiatives adopted by organisations in an attempt to enhance ethical behaviour. Less attention, however, has been given to the actual efficacy and impact of such initiatives. We address this gap directly, utilising cluster analysis to investigate the combined effects of various ethics initiatives on levels of observed unethical behaviour and the propensity to report such behaviour. Significant differences were found to exist between clusters with respect to level and type of observed unethical conduct, and whether or not this behaviour was reported. Contrary to expectations, the findings reveal that the strength of an organisation’s ethics management programme does not ensure lower rates of observed unethical behaviour. It is argued that the quality, rather than the quantity, of ethics initiatives determines the overall impact of ethics management programmes. Particular emphasis is placed on highlighting the role of ethics training, over and above other initiatives such as ethical codes, ethics support and rewarding ethical behaviour.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct validity of an Ethical Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ) that was developed outside the South African and African context, thus adopting an etic position. A representative sample of the South African workforce was used in the study (N=3 894). The results confirmed the factorial composition of ethical leadership in terms of three elements, namely Morality and fairness, Role clarification leadership and Power sharing leadership. All three factors reported acceptable measurement properties. The instrument can therefore be used with confidence to measure Ethical leadership, and recommendations were made for further studies.