Richard A. Owusu

Local content and struggling suppliers : a network analysis of Nigerian oil and gas industry

The study investigates how local content can be enhanced in the oil and gas industry in a developing country like Nigeria. The empirical base was 18 in-depth interviews of professionals directly or indirectly related to the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The interviews revealed barriers for indigenous companies in accessing the industry. These were related to three major capabilities; capital, competence and delivery possibilities. It is suggested that the barriers can be solved by recognition of the interdependencies between actors associated with these capabilities. The actors include in addition to the foreign companies and the indigenous companies, educational institutions, legal system, educational and R and D institutions, financial institutions, industrial regulators and providers of infrastructure. The paper suggest framework for understanding the oil industrial network of Nigeria. The findings have implications for local content in all developing nations having a significant natural resource extraction industry.

Managing Risk and Turbulence in Internationalization of Foreign Companies to South Africa: Lessons from Seven Finnish Business-to-Business Firms

In this article the authors examine how seven Finnish business-to-business firms have managed risk and turbulence in their internationalization to South Africa. Thirty interviews with managers and other relevant informants were conducted. The study finds that the levels of perceived risk and turbulence were high in the market and the firms have used networks, alliances, gradual involvement, and a combination of entry modes to deal with the situation. The study contributes to the literature on business in Africa by providing implications for why and how firms develop their involvement in African markets and how they deal with challenges and opportunities.

Project marketing to Africa: lessons from the case of IVO Transmission Engineering and Ghana’s national electrification scheme

There is a need for new models for foreign business and investment in Africa. The world’s “poorest” continent has a massive deficit in infrastructural, production and other facilities. The foreign business and investment dividends expected for economic liberalization and democracy that have been implemented by most African countries since the late 1980s are yet to be fully achieved. In this paper, project business is suggested as a model for foreign firms to do business in Africa, in the short to medium term. Thereby they will establish relationships and networks and gain valuable knowledge and experience of the African economies. Such experience, relationships and networks can be used to do profitable business in the short to medium term. In the long term, economic growth in the African economies will expand opportunities, and the firms in question will be well placed to take advantage of them.

Which UGC features drive web purchase intent? A spike-and-slab Bayesian Variable Selection Approach

– The purpose of this paper is to identify user-generated content (UGC) features that determine web purchase decision making. , – The authors embed a spike-and-slab Bayesian variable selection mechanism into a logistic regression model to identify the UGC features that are critical to web purchase intent. This enables us to make a highly reliable analysis of survey data. , – The results indicate that the web purchase decision is driven by the relevance, up-to-dateness and credibility of the UGC information content. , – The results show that the characteristics of UGC are seen as positive and the medium enables consumers to sort information and concentrate on aspects of the message that are similar to traditional word-of-mouth (WOM). One important implication is the relative importance of credibility which has been previously hypothesized to be lower in the electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) context. The results show that consumers consider credibility important as the improved technology provides more possibilities to find out about that factor. A limitation is that the data are not fully representative of the general population but our Bayesian method gives us high analytical quality. , – The study shows that UGC impacts consumer online purchase intentions. Marketers should understand the wide range of media that provide UGC and they should concentrate on the relevance, up-to-dateness and credibility of product information that they provide. , – The analytical quality of the spike- and- slab Bayesian method suggests a new way of understanding the impact of aspects of UGC on consumers.

A 3-R principle for characterizing failure in relief supply chains’ response to natural disasters

principle for characterizing failure in humanitarian/relief supply chains’ response to natural disasters,and describes a Bayesian methodology of the failure odds with regard to external factors tha ...

A business network perspective on local content in emerging African petroleum nations

Purpose The paper aims to identify and analyze the actors and their interrelationships in realizing local content objectives in African oil- and gas-producing nations. Design/methodology/approach The paper includes content analysis of relevant research papers and reports within the oil and gas industry, local content and industrial networks published between 2000 and 2014. Findings The study developed a framework that integrates the literature on local content with the industrial network theory. The framework classifies the various critical actors for achieving local content, proposing that achieving local content requires the development of business network links and a resource alignment among local companies and institutions and foreign companies and institutions, in addition to multinational oil companies. Research limitations/implications The framework of this study contributes to an emerging theory on local content by integrating the industrial network theory, which provides specific frameworks for analyzing embedded business environments, along with the previous economic and legal-based studies of local content achievement. Practical implications The way the relevant actors organize their resources and business networks provides potential for local content in an emerging oil and gas industry in Africa. Originality/value The paper is one of the few to integrate studies of local content with the industrial network theory. The literature review provides a summary window of the research on the subject over a 14-year period.

Activities and Resources of Institutional Actors in International Development Projects

In this paper, we draw on industrial network research to analyze the activities and capabilities of institutional actors in project networks. We use the concept of ‘political embeddedness’ to show how business and political exchange can be interrelated in industrial networks, with business actors engaging in political behaviour and institutional actors taking on business roles such as purchasing. We report on a comparative case study that encompasses three international project networks, which vary according to the type and role of institutional actors. Our case analysis shows the multifaceted activities and capabilities of institutional actors, in terms of: 1) their relationships with firms and other institutional actors, and 2) their role and importance in the network. We also conclude that these activities and capabilities have implications for international project marketers in terms of their activities at each stage of the project cycle. As our empirical cases come from developing countries of Africa and Asia we will also provide knowledge and implications for business in the developing and emerging economies of these regions.