Uwafiokun Idemudia

Corporate Innovation and Sustainable Community Development in Developing Countries

The role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in fostering or undermining development within poor communities in developing countries has been a subject of intensive debate within academic and practitioner circles. MNCs are not only considered an obstacle to development but also as sources of solutions to some of the pressing social and environmental problems facing these communities. This article reviews the way in which companies frame (a) sustainable community development, and (b) their engagements in the community. It then considers the implications of both for sustainable community development and poverty alleviation in developing countries. The article then proposes an agenda for future research centering on how corporations innovate in their governance roles and the conditions in which community development innovations are created, take shape, and are put into practice. The article concludes with an introduction to the other articles presented in this special issue highlighting also their main contributions.

Africapitalism: A Management Idea for Business in Africa?

The efforts to rethink the role of business in development, especially in developing countries, have facilitated the emergence of an array of concepts. Africapitalism – i.e. the private sectors commitment to the socio-economic development of Africa – proposed and championed by Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, is the most recent addition. While the idea of Africapitalism enables a creative space for rethinking business-society relationship from a development perspective in Africa, the failure to clarify what underpins the idea and how it differs from similar other western constructs potentially limits both its analytical and practical usefulness. This paper attempts to address this gap in the emerging literature by seeking to initiate a conversation around the set of values that might underpin the concept. It also explores the implications of Africapitalism for management in Africa.

Shell Nigeria’s Global Memorandum of understanding and corporate-community accountability relations: A critical appraisal

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Shell Nigeria’s Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) promotes corporate-community accountability as a basis for fostering sustainable community development in the Niger Delta. Design/methodology/approach - Shell Nigeria’s GMoU stand-alone reports were analysed through the lenses of accountability and transparency theoretical frameworks to explore the extent to which GMoU, as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, is dialogically embedded and practised. Meaning-oriented content analysis was deductively used to isolate pertinent themes and generate findings from the background theoretical literature. Findings - The authors find that Shell discursively appropriates the meaning of accountability and transparency in a manner that allows it to maintain its social legitimacy and the asymmetric power relations between itself and host communities whilst restricting communities’ agency to hold it accountable. Shell does this by interpreting the notion of participation restrictively, selectively deploying the concept of transparency and accountability and subtly exerting excessive control over the GMoU. Thus, the GMoU’s potential to contribute to sustainable community development and positive corporate-community relation is unlikely tenable. Originality/value - Accountability and transparency are core and critical to corporate-community relations and for achieving community development CSR objectives, but are often taken for granted or ignored in the CSR literature on the Niger Delta of Nigeria. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by using accountability and transparency lenses to unpick GMoU model and contribute to studies on CSR practices by oil multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries. Indeed, the use of these lenses to explore CSR process offers new insights as to why CSR practices have failed to contribute to sustainable community development despite increased community spending by oil MNCs.