This week, I visited the Co-op on Baker Street, close to the School’s Sussex Place Campus, looking for some instant iced coffee. My eyes were drawn to Co-op’s branded Fairtrade Iced Coffee. The blue, green and black logo seemed familiar. I had stumbled upon it a few years ago as I was searching for a…
Applications are now closed Our annual PhD award is a prestigious recognition of cutting-edge research that highlights the merit of the individual PhD student’s academic focus. The award identifies and celebrates research at the intersection of business and development that can have a ‘real world’ impact, particularly in developing countries. The award is open to…
Unemployment and literacy – two themes that have been met with interest in public policy for decades. While the scrutiny is justified, what perhaps is needed is a nuanced lens to the relationship between the two. Particularly in a post-pandemic world, as businesses and economies navigate for survival with a shift in priorities, the spillover…
Greenwashing is conveying misleading or unproven claims about the positive environmental impact of a company’s product. A recent example is HSBC’s misleading advertisement which faced an immediate backlash. The banking giant rolled out an advertisement highlighting its $1 trillion investment in green initiatives. However, the Advertising Standards Authority noted the bank continues to make huge…
Sergei Guriev, Provost and Professor of Economics, Sciences Po, recently joined Elias Papaioannou, Professor of Economics at London Business School and Co-Academic Director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development, to discuss his latest book ‘Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century’ and the conflict in Ukraine, the political environment…
The construction of China’s first overseas military base has quickly directed the world’s attention to one of the smallest countries in the Horn of Africa – Djibouti. Currently, observers are obsessed with the military base and transit port. They have, unfortunately, overlooked the economic potential of the country with geopolitical advantage and a good natural…
The ability of credit-worthy businesses to access trade financing is essential to international trade, and in turn, the growth and development of economies around the world. However, despite its importance, experts believe there will be a trade financing gap of over $2 trillion in 2022 (Kim et al., 2021). To put this number in perspective,…
Firestone is one of the oldest and largest natural rubber plantations in the world. Founded in 1926 in Liberia by Harvey Firestone, the plantations continue to provide employment for thousands of Liberians to date. Till Trojer, a post-doctoral researcher at the Wheeler Institute, anthropologist and filmmaker, travelled to Liberia last year in May to film…
In our first two articles about the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Alexandra, we explored the typical challenges faced by microentrepreneurs and informal entrepreneurs operating in South African townships, before looking at the institutional ecosystem in which these entrepreneurs operate. Our third and final post in this 3-part series will explore the way forward: Can the disconnect…
Despite major changes in laws and norms surrounding the issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBT people around the world, public opinion on the acceptance of homosexuality in society remains sharply divided by country, region and economic development. In Kenya, for example, only 1 in 100 said homosexuality should be accepted in 2002,…
