Joseph Kaggwa Ssegawa and Mark Muzinda
Result-based management (RBM) is common approach used in the development sector to initiate, plan and implement projects. However, to the knowledge of the authors the approach has…
Abstract
Purpose
Result-based management (RBM) is common approach used in the development sector to initiate, plan and implement projects. However, to the knowledge of the authors the approach has hardly been used in delivering projects in other sectors, for example, information technology, infrastructure or business. The purpose of this paper is to document a case study in which the RBM approach was used to guide the delivery of a business project in Botswana.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study strategy was used to document the delivery process of the project. Data were collected from a variety of sources that included review of documents, interviews, focus discussions and a site visit. The content analysis technique was used to analyse the collected data.
Findings
The case illustrates the possibility of using the RBM approach to initiate, plan and implement a project in the business sector.
Research limitations/implications
Being a case study, the approach needs to be tested with more case studies.
Practical implications
Apart from illustrating the possible use of RBM approach, the paper illustrates systematic processes used in the case study for project delivery. It also outlines some of the resultant challenges which may be appreciated by practitioners, academics and trainees.
Originality/value
The use of RBM approach in guiding the delivery of a business project.
Details
Keywords
Following Joseph Schumpeter's conception of innovation as ‘new innovations’, this chapter contends that innovations that transform lives in developing countries of Southern Africa…
Abstract
Following Joseph Schumpeter's conception of innovation as ‘new innovations’, this chapter contends that innovations that transform lives in developing countries of Southern Africa are not radically new and different novelties but rather ‘new combinations’ at the interface of new materialisations (creative expression) and exploitations of new opportunities (entrepreneurship). We argue that this posture is not a contestation of the reality that novelty enter the system through the development of new technologies, processes and new ways of organising, but rather such novelty is a process of recombining existing elements in new ways. I build on this argument to demonstrate that in resource-poor contexts where institutional voids frustrate entrepreneurs' potential to deploy innovation capabilities for generating groundbreaking innovation, innovations and entrepreneurship are outcomes of ‘tinkering’, improvision and refinement of unsophisticated creative ideas. Drawing on exemplars from health, education, finance and poverty alleviation interventions that support sustainable human development, I also demonstrate that high knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) and low knowledge-intensive frugal innovations are mutually constitutive and recursive outputs of the interaction of knowledge application and innovation conversion rather than serial processes of cause and effect. Using combinative innovation, internal coupling and combinative capabilities as heuristics for understanding the entrepreneurship–innovation nexus, I provide empirical support to the view that entrepreneurial effectuation, new combinations, bricolage and improvision constitute useful cognitive arena for the conversion of entrepreneurial and innovation behaviours, practices and processes into KIE and frugal innovation outputs.
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Keywords
Megan J. Hennessey, Celestino Perez and Brandy Jenner
Researchers piloted a problem-based learning (PBL) activity in a master’s degree-granting strategic studies program to explore how students apply knowledge and skills learned from…
Abstract
Purpose
Researchers piloted a problem-based learning (PBL) activity in a master’s degree-granting strategic studies program to explore how students apply knowledge and skills learned from the curriculum to their formulation of a strategy addressing a real-world global security scenario.
Design/methodology/approach
This mixed-methods pilot study used ethnographic observation, participant feedback, document analysis and surveys to assess the learning and engagement of multinational postgraduate students in the context of a PBL environment.
Findings
Findings revealed gaps in students’ causal logic and literacy, as well as student discomfort with ambiguity and reliance upon heuristic frameworks over willingness to conduct substantive, current and relevant research. Additionally, observed group dynamics represented a lack of inclusive collaboration in mixed gender and multinational teams. These findings suggest foundational issues with the curriculum, teaching methodologies and evaluation practices of the studied institution.
Originality/value
This study highlights the need to include explicit instruction in problem-solving and causal literacy (i.e. logical reasoning) in postgraduate programs for national and global security professionals, as well as authentic opportunities for those students to practice interpersonal communication.