‘We don’t deal with courts’: Cooperation and alternative institutions shaping exporting relationships of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ghana
研究加纳中小企业如何在缺乏正式制度的背景下，利用亲属关系、酋长制和宗教等文化特定关系解决出口纠纷，避免诉诸法院，揭示了替代制度对国际创业中信任与关系构建的作用。
Through an investigation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) exporting in contexts which lack a formalised institutional environment in a less developed country, this article shows how entrepreneurs cope with institutional deficiency. By drawing on an analysis of 12 SMEs exporting from Ghana to other West African countries, the findings reveal how entrepreneurs and their organisations avoid recourse to the courts and instead, use culturally specific relationships to settle disputes when exporting. Institutional forms operating in parallel to the formal legal system are examined. These are shown to be hybrid forms drawing on traditional cultural institutions such as chieftaincy and religion, combined with forms of corporations and cooperatives. Assumptions around the different roles of family and kinship also are explored. The study contributes to the ongoing development of a theoretical understanding on trust and relationship building in international entrepreneurship, and the importance of understanding cultural context.