CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

African-Centred Teaching Cases for MBA and Postgraduate Business Education

An edited volume of the Operations Management Pedagogy, Artificial Intelligence and Research (OPAR) Project

Please note that publication is free for all authors

Editors: 

Prof. Nelda Mouton, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, North-West University Business School, North-West University, South Africa; 
Dr Mary Mwanzia, Department of Business Administration, School of Business, KCA University, Republic of Kenya;
Prof. Pfumbudzayi Robert Machera, Faculty of Business and Accounting, Botho University Faculty of Business and Accounting, Botho University, Botswana;
Dr Ronald Kwena, Graduate School, University of Kigali, Rwanda.

Introduction

Africa is not merely catching up to a global economy designed elsewhere; it is rewriting the terms on which operations are conceived and managed. Across the continent, digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), sustainability imperatives, entrepreneurial dynamism and increasingly complex supply chains are reshaping how organisations create and deliver value. Yet the operational realities that define African enterprise, intermittent infrastructure, large informal sectors, volatile input markets, and deeply relational, community-embedded ways of working, rarely resemble the resource-rich, tightly institutionalised settings that populate mainstream Operations Management textbooks. Recent evidence shows that African firms are already turning to AI and advanced manufacturing to build supply-chain resilience under precisely these constraints (Peprah et al., 2025), generating decisions and trade-offs that existing teaching materials seldom capture.

This mismatch exposes a persistent gap in postgraduate business education. Although international case libraries are extensive, they carry an implicit geography: the problems, institutions and assumptions they encode are overwhelmingly drawn from the Global North, leaving African students to reason about their own economies through borrowed lenses. Scholars have long argued that management education on the continent must be re-grounded in African realities and knowledge systems rather than transplanted wholesale (Nkomo, 2015; Naude, 2019). The case method remains one of the most effective pedagogies for cultivating managerial judgement (Becheikh et al., 2022), but its power depends on the authenticity and contextual relevance of the cases themselves, even as the evidence base for the method continues to mature (Mu & Hatch, 2024). Where credible African cases are scarce, the very instrument meant to build situated judgement instead reinforces distance from local practice.

This edited volume, a flagship output of the Operations Management Pedagogy, Artificial Intelligence and Research (OPAR) Project, responds directly to that gap. OPAR was established to strengthen Operations Management education and research across Africa through collaboration, innovation and scholarship, and this book assembles rigorous, teachable African cases that pair Operations Management theory with real organisational challenges while foregrounding the emerging role of AI in operations, supply chains, manufacturing, services and the public sector. By privileging authentic contexts, small and medium-sized enterprises, informal networks, public institutions and cross-border value chains, the volume aims to equip students and executives to solve the problems actually in front of them, and to become a durable teaching resource for universities, business schools, executives, consultants and researchers across Africa and internationally.

Aim of the Book

The book seeks to showcase high-quality African case studies that:

•     demonstrate Operations Management principles in authentic organisational settings;

•     integrate Artificial Intelligence into operational decision-making;

•     promote sustainable and ethical management practices;

•     provide practical teaching resources for undergraduate and postgraduate education;

•     encourage problem-solving, critical thinking and managerial decision-making.

Suggested Themes

Authors are invited to submit original case studies related to, but not limited to, the following themes:

•     Operations Management

•     Supply Chain Management

•     Artificial Intelligence in Operations and Supply Chain Management

•     African-context operations, including SME-related operations

Case Study Requirements

Each case should:

•     present a real organisational challenge;

•     include sufficient contextual background;

•     describe the operational problem clearly;

•     encourage analysis rather than simply describing events;

•     contain teaching questions;

•     include suggested teaching notes (submitted separately);

•     demonstrate managerial decision-making;

•     integrate Operations Management concepts;

•     where applicable, discuss the role of Artificial Intelligence.

Ethical and Research Requirements

To comply with the ethical approval governing the OPAR Case Study Book Project, submissions must adhere to the following requirements:

•     Chapters must present original scholarly work that has not been previously published in its current form.

•     Empirical evidence must be derived exclusively from secondary data sources, including published academic literature, publicly available reports, organisational documents in the public domain, government publications, industry reports, or publicly accessible datasets.

•     Chapters should synthesise, analyse and interpret existing evidence to develop an original African case study and managerial insights.

•     The collection of new primary data (e.g., interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, observations, or unpublished organisational data) is not permitted for this volume.

•     Authors are responsible for ensuring that all sources are appropriately cited and that copyright and ethical requirements are fully observed.

Who Should Submit?

Submissions are welcomed from academics, researchers, doctoral candidates, practitioners, consultants, industry experts, and postgraduate students working with supervisors. Collaborative and interdisciplinary submissions are encouraged.

Submission Process

Prospective contributors are invited to submit abstracts to the book editors at Editor@errcd.com and copy Info@errcd.com using the subject line “African-Centred Teaching”.

Abstracts for Chapters Should Include

•     A concise title;

•     Author/s name/s;

•     Author(s) institution/affiliation;

•     Contact details;

•     An abstract (250 words or less);

•     A clear outline of the focus, methodology and significance of the chapter;

•     Not more than five keywords.

Timeframe (30 July 2026 – 30 April 2027)

•     Abstract submission begins on 30 July and ends on 30 August 2026.

•     Abstracts are accepted or rejected within six days after submission. If accepted, authors will be required to submit their full chapter via the publisher’s online submission system, which will be provided alongside the abstract acceptance letter.

•     The guidelines for the full chapters will be provided alongside the abstract acceptance letter. The full chapter should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words, including references, and APA 7th Edition citation, formatting and referencing style applies.

•     A similarity index of 10% or less is required for both the abstract and the full chapter to be considered for review. Upon submission, all abstracts and chapters will be screened using Turnitin software.

Publication Timelines

•     Call for chapters start date: 30 July 2026

•     Abstract submission deadline: 30 August 2026

•     Abstract review and notification deadline: 20 September 2026

•     Full chapter submission deadline: 15 December 2026

•     Revised chapter deadline: 30 February 2027

•     Final publication date: 30 April 2027

Publication Mode

The book will be published as an open-access resource, available in both hard copy and online versions. Additionally, each chapter will have its own Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and will be accessible and linkable to the authors’ profiles online.

References

Becheikh, N., Mourad, M., & Tolba, A. (2022). Promoting case-based learning in business higher education in the Middle East and North Africa region. Journal of Management Education, 46(4), 778–808. https://doi.org/10.1177/10525629211062108

Mu, F., & Hatch, J. (2024). The efficacy of the case method in tertiary business education: A scoping review: 2000–2022. The International Journal of Management Education, 22(2), Article 100983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2024.100983

Naude, P. (2019). Decolonising knowledge: Can ubuntu ethics save us from coloniality? Journal of Business Ethics, 159(1), 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3763-4

Nkomo, S. M. (2015). Challenges for management and business education in a “developmental” state: The case of South Africa. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(2), 242–258. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2014.0323

Peprah, J. A., Amoah, J., Kwarteng, K., Jibril, A. B., & Sharif, T. (2025). Artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing for resilient supply chain in Africa: A systematic literature review. Future Business Journal, 11(1), Article 54. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-025-00477-y