Anne König, C. Schmidt, Bastian Kindermann, Marc Alexander Peter Schmidt, T. Flatten
{"title":"How individuals learn to do more with less: The role of informal learning and the effects of higher-level education and unemployment in Ghana","authors":"Anne König, C. Schmidt, Bastian Kindermann, Marc Alexander Peter Schmidt, T. Flatten","doi":"10.1080/23322373.2022.2039051","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT With a rapidly growing population, Africa faces a significant job creation challenge. One solution to this is to encourage local entrepreneurship. Yet, entrepreneurs are facing an environment where resources are scarce. A way to enact entrepreneurial opportunities in such a penurious environment is to use bricolage and create products or services by making do with what is at hand. We support the notion that bricolage can to some extent be learnt at the individual level. We examine this viewpoint in an empirical study in Ghana with 353 actual and aspiring entrepreneurs. We examine the direct effects of informal learning in the workplace on bricolage, while investigating the moderating effects of higher-level formal education and unemployment. Our findings show that bricolage can be fostered at the individual level through informal learning, and thereby enables individuals in Ghana to form opportunities through bricolage.","PeriodicalId":37290,"journal":{"name":"Africa Journal of Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Africa Journal of Management","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2022.2039051","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"MANAGEMENT","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
ABSTRACT With a rapidly growing population, Africa faces a significant job creation challenge. One solution to this is to encourage local entrepreneurship. Yet, entrepreneurs are facing an environment where resources are scarce. A way to enact entrepreneurial opportunities in such a penurious environment is to use bricolage and create products or services by making do with what is at hand. We support the notion that bricolage can to some extent be learnt at the individual level. We examine this viewpoint in an empirical study in Ghana with 353 actual and aspiring entrepreneurs. We examine the direct effects of informal learning in the workplace on bricolage, while investigating the moderating effects of higher-level formal education and unemployment. Our findings show that bricolage can be fostered at the individual level through informal learning, and thereby enables individuals in Ghana to form opportunities through bricolage.
期刊介绍:
The beginning of the Twenty First Century has witnessed Africa’s rise and progress as one of the fastest growing and most promising regions of the world. At the same time, serious challenges remain. To sustain and speed up momentum, avoid reversal, and deal effectively with emerging challenges and opportunities, Africa needs better management scholarship, education and practice. The purpose of the Africa Journal of Management (AJOM) is to advance management theory, research, education, practice and service in Africa by promoting the production and dissemination of high quality and relevant manuscripts. AJOM is committed to publishing original, rigorous, scholarly empirical and theoretical research papers, which demonstrate clear understanding of the management literature and draw on Africa’s local indigenous knowledge, wisdom and current realities. As the first scholarly journal of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM), AJOM gives voice to all those who are committed to advancing management scholarship, education and practice in or about Africa, for the benefit of all of Africa. AJOM welcomes manuscripts that develop, test, replicate or validate management theories, tools and methods with Africa as the starting point. The journal is open to a wide range of quality, evidence-based methodological approaches and methods that “link” “Western” management theories with Africa’s indigenous knowledge systems, methods and practice. We are particularly interested in manuscripts which address Africa’s most important development needs, challenges and opportunities as well as the big management questions of the day. We are interested in research papers which address issues of ethical conduct in different African settings.