
Amon SimbaNottingham Trent University | NTU · Division of Management
Amon Simba
Doctor of Philosophy
Director AfrIE Research HUB at Nottingham Business School.
Associate Editor Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM)
About
76
Publications
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Introduction
Prof. Dr. Amon Simba. Amon is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at NTU, UK. He is also a Professor at HEC Montreal, Professor Adjunct at CUT Free State Bloemfontein. His expertise lies in African Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. Amon is an Associate Editor for JSBM, IJESB & JSBE. He is also a Research Grants Board Member at the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Publications
Publications (76)
In the modern healthcare and medical sectors corporate bio-pharmaceutical firms continue to scale down their in-house research and development (R&D) activities in favour of outsourcing the services to bio-tech ventures. These small but, entrepreneurial research-oriented organisations have increased dramatically. They are predominantly owned by bio-...
Purpose: This study analyzes technostress in African entrepreneurship. It advances contextualized theoretical explanations of technostress depicting its impact on entrepreneurs who excessively consume digital technology in Africa. The study also describes how research linking transactional benefits to digital technology has created an imbalanced li...
This study deploys a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) method to examine finance for women entrepreneurship. It uncovers distinguishable connections women entrepreneurs establish as they engage with Ajo-a traditional savings club, family financial contributions, and the bank. A survey of 909 Nigerian women entrepreneurs suggests that the impac...
Purpose
The study aims to explore the role of non-mainstream financial schemes in supporting innovation within SMEs in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. It investigates how informal credit, business group affiliation and foreign and state ownership arrangements influence SMEs’ innovative activities in environments with limit...
The diversity of business philosophies and practices across family firms suggests their performance is influenced by factors that can be hard to isolate or understand. Based on 215 observations of Vietnamese firms operating in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis techniques to discern the con...
This study adopts a configurational approach to facilitate a better understanding of the informal financing mechanisms inherent in women’s entrepreneurship. It draws on observations involving 200 Nigerian women entrepreneurs to study the antecedents that underpin informal financing in women’s entrepreneurship. Six antecedents, including firm age, s...
Purpose
Small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries, particularly in the Sub-Saharan African region, find it hard to innovate due to severe resource constraints and high institutional voids. Given this, the paper examines three international strategic responses that small and medium-sized enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa adopt to im...
This study investigates the performance of ethnic entrepreneurs in sub–Saharan Africa, focusing on labor productivity and export intensity. It challenges the prevailing notion that businesses established by ethnic entrepreneurs (from developed and developing economies) underperform due to limited resources, suggesting instead that such entities may...
Non–Western views about entrepreneurship and innovation are perceived as inferior and pseudo–scientific by the research community. This status quo reduces the research options for African scholars. It pushes them to adapt overutilized Western theories, making cosmetic changes to force–fit them to frame behaviors and actions only recognizable in their...
Much of the literature on entrepreneurship education describes the teaching concept as a whole, which means that additional work must be done to tease out its individual components. Accordingly, this study focuses on soft skills—a core component of entrepreneurship education that represents entrepreneurial behaviours, attitudes, and attributes. It...
Research indicates that entrepreneurs are relying on digital technology for their entrepreneurial endeavours, yet there is little knowledge on how to balance technology usage and wellbeing. Drawing on the concept of technostress and 643 observations of nascent South African entrepreneurs’ interactions with digital technology, we advance knowledge a...
Choosing a foreign market entry strategy is known to be essential for firm internationalisation yet there is very little focus on the role, purpose, and value of open innovation for internationalising high-tech SMEs. A review of the international business, international entrepreneurship and international marketing literature combined with a bibliom...
Since its first use in organisational research, nearly five decades ago, imprinting has gained recognition in entrepreneurship studies. Accordingly, this study utilises the behavioural concept to develop new theorisations to account for the entrepreneurial processes of immigrant entrepreneurs. It pays attention on its effects on immigrant entrepren...
Organisational learning has long been one of the main focuses of management, entrepreneurship and leadership researchers and practitioners. However, studies explaining how entrepreneurs influence and direct individual learning in SMEs are still lacking. Thus, with this exploratory study, we focus on entrepreneurs in Iran, and we develop an in-depth...
Research presents the informal economy as a fading phenomenon mainly confined to the peripheries of mainstream economics. However, such views overlook its transformative effect on the social and economic spheres of many regions of the developing world through employment creation. Drawing from a new dataset combining World Bank, International Moneta...
Studies on the impact of group-based financing on women entrepreneurs in the developing world are under-represented in entrepreneurship research. With this exploratory study, we focus on women entrepreneurship from a community financing perspective to account for the underlying mechanisms of a community financing scheme and its impact on women entr...
This study utilizes a social feminist perspective of social capital to investigate how entrepreneurial networks influence women’s entrepreneurship in developing economies. To this purpose, we collected and analyzed rich data generated through in-depth interviews and artifacts of Nigerian women entrepreneurs and key stakeholders. The qualitative dat...
Growing evidence points to the role of entrepreneurial leadership in enhancing positive business outcomes. Yet little is known about the entrepreneurial leadership attributes and skills exploited by entrepreneurial leaders within a developing economy context. This study examines the role of entrepreneurial leadership within fashion SMEs. It exempli...
This chapter exposed the formal and informal institutional contexts within the SSA regions. Both formal and informal institutional contexts offer support and hindrances to women entrepreneurs and their enterprises (Brush et al., 2009). The informal institutional contexts have a stronger impact on women entrepreneurship than the formal institutions....
Although informal entrepreneurship has attracted attention from entrepreneurship scholars, it remains under-theorized. This systematic review critically analyses, evaluates and integrates data on informal entrepreneurship gathered from studies published in eight (8) leading entrepreneurship journals. Although this form of entrepreneurship is practi...
Background: Existing research recognises that entrepreneurship orientation (EO) is essential for success. However, the mediating role of EO in driving entrepreneurial intention (EI) amongst young adults, especially in the context of the digital revolution, remains largely underexplored.Aim: Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the mediated...
Plain English Summary
Although the manufacturing sector is declining in the West, it remains important in Africa. For most African countries, it helps alleviate poverty by creating jobs that enable the economic and social development of citizens. However, manufacturing SMEs face involuntary financial exclusion, even though access to financial facil...
This multilevel, cross-national study examines the influence of social trust and trust in government on latent entrepreneurs' intention to start a business. Building upon the theory of institutional hierarchy and social relations, this research shows that the negative impact of fear of business failure on entrepreneurial intention varies across cou...
Research overemphasises the facilitative role of institutions in cluster formation. It overlooks the collective actions by microentrepreneurs when confronting issues of microentrepreneurship in a weak institutional environment. Drawing from a social embeddedness perspective in entrepreneurship, we analyse the mechanisms underlying their methods of...
Considering that EL is yet to advance as a practice in leadership and SME research, this study operationalises it to develop understanding on its impact on decision-making in emerging economy SMEs. Twenty-five entrepreneurs sampled in three business clusters encompassing IT/software development, services and manufacturing/production, in Iran, provi...
Growing evidence points to the role of entrepreneurial leadership in enhancing positive business outcomes. Yet little is known about the entrepreneurial leadership attributes and skills exploited by entrepreneurial leaders within a developing economy context. This study examines the role of entrepreneurial leadership within fashion SMEs. It exempli...
Research suggests that internationalizing SMEs in the West enjoy far greater institutional support. There is, however, little understanding of the internationalization processes of emerging economies' SMEs (EESMEs) and yet they are notable contenders in international trade. Accordingly, this research draws from an integrated strategy tripod framewo...
Numerous policy initiatives designed to support the growth of female-owned enterprises in the developing economies have repeatedly failed to achieve their objectives. Research recognizes the lack of contextualized growth models for defining female-owned enterprises in such contexts as the main issue. Thus, and drawing from our qualitative data, we...
This article is based on a dataset compiled by the World Bank. This publicly accessible dataset contains information about business management which was collected from 212 EMFs that were located in ten different markets across Central, Eastern Europe and Asia. In order to measure the impact of internationalisation on product innovation in these EMF...
Existing theory has suggested that extreme events can induce a poverty–constrained mindset, however in our field work we found micro–entrepreneurs used a paying–it–forward mechanism to expand their entrepreneurial functioning by simultaneously improving others. We tested these counter–factual insights by using panel data covering the trading histor...
Research on women entrepreneurship is increasingly gaining traction in entrepreneurship research. Thus, and in considering this intensive focus on women entrepreneurship within the field of entrepreneurship, it is the right time to take stock and understand how it has evolved in the developing world. But and as opposed to undertaking a canvasing ap...
In many regions of the developing world, women are known to be the driving force supporting the livelihoods of their families, relatives and even communities. Therefore, understanding their socio-economic activities in the developing world is crucial. From that perspective, this chapter provides insights into women entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe. It...
This article is based on a dataset compiled by the World Bank. This publicly accessible dataset contains information about business management which was collected from 212 EMFs that were located in ten different markets across Central, Eastern Europe and Asia. In order to measure the impact of internationalisation on product innovation in these EMF...
Consistent with studies that focus on business growth amongst female and male entrepreneurs, this study examines the way women entrepreneurs in Lagos-State, Nigeria, perceive business growth. It utilises Nvivo for coding transcribed data obtained through face-to-face interviews that involved 35 women entrepreneurs in Lagos-State. From an in-depth a...
Women entrepreneurship research in the developing world relies on theoretical perspectives derived elsewhere. Hence, understanding the original business-development approaches adopted by women entrepreneurs in developing economies remains elusive. Accordingly, we collected and analyzed rich data generated through 31 in-depth interviews and artifact...
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to develop new insights into the interplay between trust, indigenous institutions and weak/dysfunctional formal institutions using the Nigerian context - a developing country in Western Africa. It advances new understanding on how Nigerian entrepreneurs trust in their indigenous institutions such as family ti...
There has been a significant increase in scholarly literature about female entrepreneurship in Africa. In order to take stock of the state of female entrepreneurship on that continent, this paper examines articles published in peer-reviewed journals over the period 1987 to 2019. Using a mixed embeddedness approach, the analysis of these articles sh...
Research on how COVID-19 is creating a crisis-within-a-crisis situation for the world’s most vulnerable communities by compounding their daily struggles and economic hardships is still developing. Accordingly, we utilise the everyday trading experiences of micro-entrepreneurs in Kenya’s informal settlements to contextualise how they tackled this un...
This research explores the ways micro–entrepreneurs used humanitarian aid cash transfers in the form of digital community currency (DCC) to alleviate hardship during COVID–19 pandemic. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, we draw on two streams of literature on necessity entrepreneurship and effectuation to examine how DCC enables micro–entr...
Purpose
This study, a systematic review, focuses on the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) originating in developing countries. It critically analyses, evaluates and synthesises studies featuring formal and informal institutions, embedded in social and business networks, as a marketing solution for institutional voids...
This article examines the institutional logics of entrepreneurial behaviour. It investigates how institutional contexts affect entrepreneurial behaviour, especially in challenging environments.
By drawing on a rich qualitative study of 14 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria, the paper uncovers how indigenous institutional forms suc...
Consistent with studies that focus on business growth amongst female and male entrepreneurs, this study examines the way women entrepreneurs in Lagos-State, Nigeria, perceive business growth. It utilises Nvivo for coding transcribed data obtained through face-to-face interviews that involved 35 women entrepreneurs in Lagos-State. From an in-depth a...
Researchers seem to focus overwhelmingly on entrepreneurial leadership as seen in recent studies in the literature. This situation becomes more complex as research draws on parallels between leadership and entrepreneurship. This has led to an ongoing debate on the veracity of entrepreneurship as a distinct field of study. The purpose of this articl...
This conceptual paper focuses on bricolage and it pays particular attention on the context of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in resource-constrained environments – a common feature of most emerging economies. Knowledge about the underlying factors that determine bricolage as a common practice among MSEs operating in emerging economies is yet to...
Purpose
Through utilizing social capital as an overarching concept, the purpose of this article is to investigate cross-country rates of business formation in the formal vs informal sectors. Plus, empirically assess the impact of social capital constructs on the national rates of entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a regression-...
There is a growing body of work which highlights the importance of Transnational Entrepreneurs (TEs) as catalysts for economic development in both their home and host countries. However, their opportunity identification predispositions are less understood. Thus, this study explores the nature and practices of TEs of African origin and it also focus...
Consistent with recent studies, we emphasize that entrepreneurial leadership benefits from
mutual cross-fertilization between entrepreneurship and leadership, making it an effective
mechanism for studying micro small and medium enterprise (MSME) management and
development. Since it is an emerging concept and existing knowledge on MSME management an...
Cet article s'appuie sur une perspective multidimensionnelle sur le capital social pour examiner comment une institution de microfinance peut optimiser le capital social des entrepreneurs pauvres. Les resultats montrent qu'en creant un environnement qui encourage une plus grande frequence de reunions et d'interactions entre emprunteurs, les groupes...
This paper studies the factors influencing the business growth of women-owned
sewing businesses (WOSBs), a sector identified to replace the dwindling Nigerian oil
sector, in Lagos State Nigeria. Drawing on the Brush, de Bruin and Welter's gender-aware
theory, this research evaluates the gender-aware model to see if it is applicable in the
Nigerian...
Case overview:
The case study focussed on the dairy sector in the southern African country of Zimbabwe. It offered an analysis of the management and business development approaches DHL employed in the country’s dairy sector. The narrative detailed how DHL’s commercial performance progressively declined overtime. Several factors including operationa...
Statistics show that more than 60% of chronically hungry and deprived people are women, and Africa contributes the highest percentage. Entrepreneurship has been theorised a fundamental means for alleviating hunger, poverty and unemployment level prominent among women. However, global women entrepreneurship monitoring institutions have revealed that...
While trust is critical to micro-lending groups, much-less is known about
the vital factors and mechanisms that foster its emergence in microlending groups. This
paper examines the practices of trust building and use in micro-lending groups. The
results suggest that trust is produced and developed in micro-lending groups through
a combination of ca...
Networks are increasingly recognised as a source for social capital (i.e. knowledge, human and finance) in entrepreneurship. Anecdotal evidence originating from low-income and emerging economies in Africa, suggests that diaspora networks, a distinctive form of networks, are acting as a conduit for social capital for entrepreneurial minded individua...
Abstract
Synopsis: The case study analysed competition in the automobile industry in Zimbabwe – a developing economy. From that perspective, it discussed Puzey and Payne's business operations. A company with a long-standing history in the country’s automobile industry. Since its establishment during the colonial era, the company endured a prolonge...
This paper uses a multi-dimensional perspective on social capital to investigate how a
microfinance institution can enhance the social capital of poor entrepreneurs. Findings
show that by creating an environment that encourages frequent meetings and
interactions between borrowers, group-based microfinance facilitates the development
of relational t...
Despite alleged widespread adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and responsible business practices by organisations worldwide, questions still remain on the motives for such adoption; effects and/or benefits of CSR adoption as well as how stakeholders can tell genuine responsible businesses from those paying lip service and using the C...
This empirical study examines the extent to which risk aversion and entrepreneurial ability influence an individual's decision to enter into entrepreneurship. Precisely, it delineates the gender gap in self-employment, nascent and high growth entrepreneurship. In doing so, it utilizes the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor South Africa databases conta...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a multi-layered theoretical framework to enable engaged scholarship to develop as a practice in entrepreneurship and small business research. To do so, it illuminates the salient features of engaged scholarship, collaborative learning and actor-network theory (ANT).
Design/methodology/approach –...
Slack et al. (2004) define operations management as a process used in organisations to produce goods and service. This process based notion of operations management, confirmed by Karlson (2009), is then made more explicit by Roth and Manor (2003) who argue that operations management transforms inputs into goods and services based on customer needs...
Global markets are no longer dominated by multinational enterprises (MNEs) alone, international new ventures (INVs) or born globals are increasingly becoming serious contenders in terms of employment & wealth creation as well as revenue generation. In seeking to penetrate global markets they often rely on their entrepreneurial behaviours. Specifica...
Retail pharmacies operating in developing and emerging nations are faced with a myriad of intractable macroeconomic conditions including over-regulation, government interference, inept policy implementations and intensive competition. These conditions demand that retail pharmacies become strategic in their approach to business management in order t...
Despite alleged widespread adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and responsible business practices by organisations worldwide, questions still remain on the motives for such adoption; effects and/or benefits of CSR adoption as well as how stakeholders can tell genuine responsible businesses from those paying lip service and using the C...
Local authorities are widely regarded as catalysts accelerating localised processes of economic development in industrialised countries but in low-income countries they are perceived as dysfunctional, inefficient and ineffective in meeting and addressing societal demands. This perception is not, however, grounded in empirical reality. As such, util...
Despite alleged widespread adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and responsible business practices by organisations worldwide, questions still remain on the motives for such adoption; effects and benefits of CSR adoption as well as how stakeholders can tell genuine responsible businesses from those paying lip service and using the CSR...
Local authorities are widely regarded as catalysts accelerating localised processes of economic development in industrialised countries but in low-income countries they are perceived as dysfunctional, inefficient and ineffective in meeting and addressing societal demands. This abstract view is however, not grounded in empirical research. As such, u...
Full Title: The entrepreneurial marketing management and commercialisation arrangements of born global bio-enterprises: The case of UK companies
Abstract: Born global bio-enterprises are a unique "breed" of relatively small biotechnology enterprises operating in multiple countries. The companies are nimble and seemingly well-prepared for challeng...
In the last two decades, the rapid transformation in information and communication technologies together with the adoption of more liberal structures governing trade as well as the modularisation of production and services has resulted in the proliferation of small born-global bio-tech firms. The firms have an international flair and they rapidly g...
The advent of born-global bio-tech firms signal the genesis of a new business model that is emerging in the biotechnology sector. Born globals are small firms whose knowledge supply-chain includes global resources from multiple countries. Their innovation ‘ecosystems’ consists of experienced scientists, science parks, academics, well-established bi...
The traditionally auspicious 'Big Pharma' business model in the pharmaceutical industry is rapidly evolving. Large pharmaceutical companies are re-configuring their business models to achieve operational efficiency. The preferred option appears to be out-sourcing science-related R&D as opposed to conducting the research in-house. This has marked th...
Objectives: The research aims to investigate the impact of knowledge networks on the innovative capabilities of bio-tech firms in the East Midlands region. Prior Work: In knowledge intensive sectors where the business environment is always changing there is a growing trend whereby firms are adopting a new open science paradigm of cooperation and co...