Yes / In recent years, there has been significant attention given to stakeholder management, which involves the intricate interaction between organisations and individuals, as well as diverse groups that can significantly affect or shape an organisation's decisions. While progress has been made, African countries are seen as the next promising frontier for progress and advancement. Nevertheless, there remains a lack of understanding of this concept, as the continent is undergoing remarkable economic growth. Entrepreneurs operating in such environments face intricate landscapes when it comes to stakeholder management. Consequently, understanding how stakeholders contribute to the growth of entrepreneurial ventures in Africa is crucial to promote sustainable and responsible business practices. This chapter presents insights that can stimulate future research on stakeholder management within the intricate and diverse African setting. The chapter conceptualises the relationship between stakeholders and entrepreneurship in Africa and shows how entrepreneurial firms navigate the challenges associated with weak institutional environments. / The full-text of this book chapter will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 7 Jun 2025.

The building of agro-biotechnology capabilities in small countries: The cases of Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay. Isabel Bortagaray 411 pages Directed by Dr. Susan E. Cozzens This dissertation has studied the role of institutional environments on the building of agro-biotechnological capabilities in small countries, through a comparative case study design. The key question was whether the institutional environments in Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay have evolved in a way that have fostered or hindered the transition towards modern biotechnology at the level of firms and sector. Biotechnology provided a particularly interesting area of study because of the dramatic changes it has undergone since the 1970s and consequently, it facilitated to study the transition from second generation to third generation biotechnology. Innovation studies have trend to focus on pharmaceutical biotechnology. This research however, attempted to understand the dynamics behind biotechnology applied to agriculture, in countries with agricultural-based economies. In this context three small countries were selected: Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay, based on some commonalities in terms of size (population), their reliance on agriculture, and some historical features that inter-connect them. The choice of biotechnology applied to agriculture enabled to study the extent to which the institutional environments have changed and processed change vis a vis fundamental technological development. The institutional environment was defined as composed by institutions (rules of the game), the web of organizations (players of the game), and policies. Technological capabilities were defined as composed by skills, processes and resources. Primary data was collected based on in-depth interviews to research organizations, hybrid research-related organizations, firms, and policy-making agencies in each country. These findings suggest that institutional thickness (number and variety of organizations and institutions), cohesiveness (shared sense of strategic purpose), and coherence between institutions and policies with regard to their goals and means are crucial for strengthening more complex, cumulative, encompassing (different biotechnologies with multiple focuses), and expanding biotechnologies.

This dissertation comprises two topics. In Chapter 1, I explore the short- and long-run relation between insurance development and economic growth for 40 countries between 1981 and 2010. Applying a pooled mean group estimation, I find that life and nonlife insurance have different short- and long-run effects on the growth. On a full sample analysis, life insurance exerts a significantly positive long-run effect on the growth, while its short-run effect is not significant. Nonlife insurance, in contrast, has a significantly positive short-run growth effect but no long-run effect. On a reduced sample analysis, the observation on life insurance is qualitatively similar, but the growth effect of nonlife insurance is no longer significant both in short and long run, suggesting that specific countries drive the overall effect in the full sample. The results pass a battery of robustness tests. The analysis on individual countries reveals that the short-run effect and adjustment speed toward the long-run equilibrium varies across countries. I also analyze if the level of income and insurance development makes any difference on the growth effect of insurance. The results show that the growth effect of life insurance is significant in non-high income countries and countries with low level of life insurance development, while the effect is not significant both for life and nonlife insurance in high income countries. In Chapter 2, I employ the dynamic panel threshold model to investigate how institutional environments shape the impact of insurance development on economic growth. I conduct four hypotheses for possible intermediate effects of institutional environments on insurance-growth nexus: quasi-institution positivity, quasi-institution negativity, quasi-institution duality, and quasi-institution neutrality. I use multiple measures related to political, economic, and legal environments to evaluate the soundness of institutional environments. Empirical results show that the quasi-institution negativity hypothesis is supported for life insurance because the observation is consistent across all institution-related measures. The results in nonlife insurance are not as uniform as those in life insurance. The quasi-institution positivity, negativity, and neutrality are respectively supported in different institutional measures, and the coefficients in most cases are significant only at a marginal significance level. The overall findings suggest that a sound institutional environment does not necessarily benefit the growth effect of life insurance, but an unhealthy one does deter it and that the effect depends on specific measure in the case of nonlife insurance. In Chapter 3 I briefly introduce some directions for further research.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The Brazil by your continental characteristics leads to economic activities that consider regional differences, therefore, the tourist activity should adapt to these differences. This paper board the historical question related to tourism, the environment involved in the process of tourism development, the trend of regionalization and centralized management and policies for rural tourism, as the tourist routes are under study that profile. This research seeks to analyze the influences of public policies, regional disparities and institutional environments in the deployment of tourist routes in Rio Grande do Sul. Thus, the importance of knowing the various actors involved and the study of institutions and organs responsible for the development of tourism in the country (in national, state and municipal). As a case study were choose a tourist routes, each of which represents the socioeconomic realities of a region of Rio Grande do Sul: Grape and Wine Route (Northeast - richer), Campos de Cima da Serra Route (North, but close the Northeast), Missions Route (north and a little of the South) and Path Farroupilha Route (Half South). The Grape and Wine Route is administered by the Association of Tourism in Sierra Northeast (ATUASERRA-founded in 1985), the Campos de Cima da Serra Route has the organ responsible the Consortium for Sustainable Development in the Region dos Campos de Cima da Serra (CCS CONDESUS - created in 2001), the Missions Route are the foundation of Municipalities Mission (FUNMISSÕES - founded in 2001) and Path Farroupilha Route have the work done by the Group Manager of Path Farroupilha Route - Costa Doce and Pampa Gaucho - made by the Agency's Development Tourism in Costa Doce (AD Costa Doce - founded in 2005) and Tourism Development Agency in Pampa Gaucho (ADETUR Pampa Gaucho - founded in 2007). With these four tourist routes, including the various socioeconomic realities existing in the state, you can achieve the proposed objectives and reach conclusions. The regional disparities, even abrupt changes in public policies and direction to tourism, the uncertainty caused by these fluctuations, lack of empowerment of the actors involved, affect the good running and continuity of plans and programs for tourism and your successful. / O Brasil por suas características continentais conduz a que as atividades econômicas considerem as diferenças regionais, portanto, a atividade turística deve se adaptar a estas diferenças. Este trabalho aborda a questão histórica relacionada ao turismo, o ambiente institucional envolvido no processo de desenvolvimento da atividade turística, o direcionamento da Regionalização, da Gestão Descentralizada além das políticas de turismo rural, que influenciam para que as rotas turísticas em estudo têm esse perfil. Esta pesquisa busca analisar as influências das políticas públicas, disparidades regionais e ambientes institucionais na implantação de rotas turísticas no Rio Grande do Sul. Assim, a importância de conhecer os diversos atores envolvidos e o estudo das instituições e órgãos responsáveis pelo desenvolvimento da atividade turística no País (em nível nacional, estadual e municipal). Como estudo de caso foram selecionadas quatro rotas turísticas, sendo que cada uma representa a realidade socioeconômica de uma região do Rio Grande do Sul: Rota Uva e Vinho (Região Nordeste mais rica), Rota Campos de Cima da Serra (Norte, mas próxima à Região Nordeste), Rota Missões (Norte e um pouco da Sul) e Rota Caminho Farroupilha (Metade Sul). A Rota Uva e Vinho é administrada pela Associação de Turismo da Serra Nordeste (ATUASERRA - fundada em 1985), a Rota Campos de Cima da Serra tem como instância responsável o Consórcio de Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Região dos Campos de Cima da Serra (CONDESUS CCS - criada em 2001), a Rota Missões têm a Fundação dos Municípios das Missões (FUNMISSÕES - fundada em 2001) e a Rota Caminho Farroupilha tem o trabalho realizado pelo Grupo Gestor da Rota Caminho Farroupilha - Costa Doce e Pampa Gaúcho formado pela Agência de Desenvolvimento do Turismo na Costa Doce (AD Costa Doce - fundada em 2005) e Agência de Desenvolvimento do Turismo no Pampa Gaúcho (ADETUR Pampa Gaúcho - fundada em 2007). Com essas quatro rotas turísticas, englobando as diversas realidades socioeconômicas existentes no Estado, pode-se atingir os objetivos propostos e chegar a conclusões. As desigualdades regionais, as mudanças até mesmo abruptas das políticas públicas e direcionamentos voltados ao turismo, a insegurança causada por essas oscilações e a falta de capacitação dos atores envolvidos, afetam o bom andamento e a continuidade dos planos e programas de turismo bem como o efetivo sucesso e cumprimento das metas estabelecidas neles.

This thesis studies three major reforms in the public sector of Norway. The sectors studied are the police, higher education, and primary schools. The main motive for studying these reforms are of a theoretical nature, the reason to study them is to produce general knowledge about reforms. The study aims to answer two main questions. One is about the possibilities and limitations contained in using reforms to change organizations. The second is about how organizations can promote the ideals of representative democracy. In its efforts to attain answers to these questions the thesis blends empirically-oriented research with aspects of organization theory and political theory. The thesis is divided into four different parts. First, there is a descriptive presentation of the three reforms. Secondly, there is a discussion of various theories of reforms and organizations. The primary aim of this analysis is to illuminate and explain the empirical data, but this discussion should also provide its own answers to the main questions asked in the thesis. Thirdly, these theories are applied to analyze data from the three reforms. And finally, the study concludes with a summary of what general insights about the reforms we are left with after studying the Quality Reform, The Police Reform 2000, and the Knowledge Reform. The study shows that reforms have both policy and content aspects, and that it is important to distinguish between the two in order to analyse and understand them. The policy aspect is that reforms are a strategy for change - they are tools for implementing change in organizations. The content aspect is that reforms have a specific content - they have certain objectives that they want to realize. The study concludes that in order to understand this complex and fascinating phenomenon, we need to understand reforms both as instrumental tools, institutional adaptations and symbols.