Entrepreneurial Ethics and Trust

Part 1 Method of analysis, and theoretical orientations: distinct characteristics of the study; method and unit of analysis; cultural analyses of economic development; culture's relevance; theoretical orientations; some limitations of cultural theories; an outline of the study; the making of indigenous entrpreneurs; venture capital and new businesses; the colonial epoch and indigenous entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs and risk perception; multiple investments as safety strategy; transition to a modern economy; the Islamic influence; religious groups and socioeconomic networks; towards a conceptualization of Islamic sociology; the reconstruction of rationality; Muslim puritans and Islamic reform; Islamic reform and rationalization; the concept of trust; basic conditions for trust; the relevance of trust in economic transaction; trust via clientelistic networks. Part 2 The Nigerian plastic industry, entrepreneurial profit motive, and resource controls: the Nigerian economic enviroment; the plastic manufacturing industry; Factory A - an indigenous plastic manufacturing firm; Factory B - a Lebanese plastic firm; Factory C - a Chinese plastic firm; clientelistic relations as recruitment channels; wage bargaining in non-unionized firms; entrepreneurs and factory workers; religion and shop-floor relations; entrepreneurs and the profit motive; profit perception in business; determinants of profit; profit management among entrepreneurs; profit-sharing and trust; entrepreneurs and employee trust relations; family business in northern Nigeria; resource control methods in the plastic firms; formal controls and business performance; product-based trustworthiness; union problems and employee discontent; conflict resolution procedures; the informal sector economic activities; institutionalized migration as an economic factor; mobile labour and the business sector; expatriate investors and the socio-cultural milieu; cultural conceptions about time; entrepreneurial use of time. Part 3 General summary and conclusions: women in a Hausa society; female seclusion - a historical perspective; female industrial labour; puritanical Islam and the economic woman; female activities in a hidden economy; entrepreneurs and business success; business success - an elusive concept; why most businesses fail; demand limitations; managerial constraints; employee work habits; cultural attributes; symptoms of business failure; some effects of modern industry; economic development - a general appraisal; dependency and world systems perspectives; modernization perspectives; corruption and business fraud; conceptual problems; institutional context of corruption; implications for trust in the business sector; entrepreneurs and societal progress; cultural foundations of economic behaviour; business ethics and trust.