Millenium Edition

The broad cross-section of brands featured in this, the Millenium Edition, of the Encyclopedia of Brands & Branding in South Africa, bear testimony to the fact that strong brands are still founded on the building blocks of guaranteed qauality, service excellence, effective distribution and inspired innovation.

A South African Perspective

This is the first comprehensive academic textbook on entrepreneurship in South Africa. Entrepreneurship education has experienced remarkable growth in the last three decades, and the need for a major work on the subject soon became apparent. The editors and contributors are all involved in entrepreneurship teaching at the major universities and technikons. Many of them also have the added advantage of having been entrepreneurs in their own small business ventures.

This book fills a number of gaps in the South African academic market:
• It provides an original text, which comprehensively describes and illustrates entrepreneurship and new venture creation within a South African context.
• The text, activities and case studies are relevant at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
• Many topics, such as mentoring, networking and business failure, are covered in an academic book in South Africa for the first time.

The book is divided into six parts:
A Entrepreneurship development and what is required to become an entrepreneur.
B The entrepreneurial process, starting with creativ-ity and innovation, opportunities, the business plan, resource and legal requirements, financing, as well as how to get started.
C Alternative routes to starting a business, namely entering the family business, franchising and buying a business.
D Post-start-up challenges such as managing growth, growth strategies, business failure and turnaround, harvesting, as well as international and e-business opportunities and strategies.
E Corporate venturing.
F A number of practical and real-life South African case studies.

Entrepreneurship: a South African perspective is an indispensable book for
• students and lecturers at universities, technikons and business schools
• managers, management consultants and management trainees
• developers and presenters of in-house business courses.

Agricultur and rural Develop

The role of agriculture in sustainable development and poverty reduction for the vast majority of developing countries cannot be overemphasized. Forty-five percent of the developing world's population lives in households involved in agriculture, and twenty-seven percent in smallholder households, and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The agricultural sector generates on average twenty-nine percent of gross domestic product (GDP), employs sixty-five percent of the labor force in agriculture-based countries, and is a key to generating overall growth. This book attempts to address these questions and challenges, by examining how agricultural innovation arises in four African countries, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, through agribusiness, public policies, and specific value chains for food staples, high value products, and livestock. Determinants of innovation are not viewed individually but within the context of a complex agricultural innovation system (AIS) involving many actors and interactions. The country reports are based on qualitative interviews with agribusiness representatives about their experiences in this area. The synthesis chapter preceding the country reports presents the main findings of the country reports, links common themes, and distills lessons learned.

This book examines how agricultural innovation arises in four African countries – Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda – through the lens of agribusiness, public policies, and specific value chains for food staples, high value products, and livestock. Determinants of innovation are not viewed individually but within the context of a complex agricultural innovation system involving many actors and interactions. The volume is based on qualitative interviews with agribusiness representatives that were designed to shed light on their experiences on public policies that either enhances or impedes innovation in Africa’s agriculture sector.Following are the volume's main messages on policies, institutions and strategies that nurture innovation in the agriculture sector:

1) agribusiness innovation is in many cases driven by the need to maintain grades and standards within the value chain, not only in the case of export markets, but also in evolving domestic and urban markets and value chains;

2) that staple food sector has potential to be a source of growth, innovation and poverty reduction;

3) successes in value chain innovation and agribusiness production depend critically on the structure of the whole agricultural innovation system and are highly context specific;

4) especially successful innovation were dependent on creating synergies between market-based and knowledge-based interactions and strong linkages within and beyond the value chain; and

5) the public sector’s innovation support has to extend to interactions, collective action and broader public-private partnership programs.This book will be of interest to policymakers, agribusiness leaders, farmer organizations, NGOs, and researchers.

A review of the international corridors

The objective of the study is to examine, identify, and quantify the factors behind Africa's high prices for road transport. Such prices are a major obstacle to economic growth in the region, as shown in several studies. For example, Amjadi and Yeats (1995) concluded that transport costs in Africa were a higher trade barrier than were import tariffs and trade restrictions. Other analyses by the World Bank (2007a) demonstrated that Africa's transport prices were high compared to the value of the goods transported and that transport predictability and reliability were low by international standards. This study's findings should help policy makers take actions that will reduce transport costs to domestic and international trade.