Sustainable Business Practices: Spotlight on the role of microbusiness and thoughts on research direction

Description

The Department of Business Administration, University of Lagos, began its long-awaited 1st International Conference (DBAFIC 2024) on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. With the theme, “Exploring the Future of Sustainable Entrepreneurship Development in Africa”, the Conference delivered its promises to be “a paradigm-shifting one, as it parades the creme de la creme of Business Theory and Practice”.

My speech (the closing keynote) emphasised the need for businesses, particularly microbusiness, in the Nigerian context to adopt a triple bottom line approach to doing business. Microbusinesses are important because they account for up to 90% of activities in the Nigerian business landscape. Therefore, the aggregate impact of their activities on society, natural environmental, and economy highlights the need for placing them high in the sustainability agenda.

Starting by tracing the roots of sustainability businesses practices to the Brundtland Report (1987), I then focused on exploring the key role that microbusinesses can play in enhancing sustainable businesses in the developing African context. Drawing from theoretical models, particularly my recent paper on microbusiness social responsibility in the Nigerian context, and practical evidence, the crux of my speech was that acting responsibly or sustainably is not new to the African context, and that there is scope to adopt appreciative approaches/methods (i.e., building a vision for the future, by focusing on past and potential future successes) that are idiosyncratic to the African world view and experiences as a way of encouraging sustainable business practices. For microbusinesses, identifying and doing business in ways consistent with the traditional values of the age-long concept of a “good person” will provide a novel approach to being a sustainable businessperson. The concept of the “good person” (Omoluabi in Yoruba – Ezigbo mmadu in Igbo – Mutumin kirki in Hausa) spans ethnic values and positive behavioural orientations and, therefore, can define/underpin the ethical values (Entrepreneurial Orientation) and innovative capabilities that underpin sustainable entrepreneurship in the Nigerian contexts. The implication for teaching, research, policy, and business models for sustainability were explored along the lines of what I term Afro-Centred Appreciative models of sustainable entrepreneurship, and using relevant examples.

Period	16 May 2024
Held at	University of Lagos, Nigeria
Degree of Recognition	International