Accelerating Entrepreneurship in Africa

PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship, paying special attention to the new narratives that are emerging about this phenomenon in the context of Africa.Design/methodology/approachThe paper addresses this issue, by comparing the meanings of what is called “social” in this context and in developed areas. The paper's particular interest in the use of language and narratives is grounded in the experience of how narratives and stories are genuinely constitutive and perfomative of people's actions.FindingsThis paper reveals that “social” in the social entrepreneurship narratives does not necessarily have the same meaning in different contexts. Specifically, when the phenomenon is re‐interpreted in the context of the discourses that come from a developing area such as South Africa, it adds flexibility and a more local sense to the entrepreneurs' social missions.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was affected by the limited availability of published data on social entrepreneurship in Africa. Economic challenges and failures by governments to access donor funds have resulted in militant governance thereby reducing the role of social entrepreneurship to negligible levels.Originality/valueThe study provides a narrative lens of looking at the challenges that social entrepreneurship is facing in Africa.

Limited access of entrepreneurs to credit constrains the creation and growth of private firms. In Africa, access to credit is particularly limited for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) due to unclear property rights and the lack of assets that can be used as collateral. This paper presents a model where firm creation and growth hinge on matching potential entrepreneurs with productive technologies, while firm growth depends on acquired capital. The shortage of collateral creates a binding credit constraint on borrowing by SMEs and hence private sector growth and employment, even though the banking sectors have ample liquidity, as is the case in many African countries. The model is tested using a sample of 20 African countries over the period 2005-09. The empirical results suggest that policies aimed at easing the binding credit constraints (e.g., the depth of credit information and the strength of legal rights pertaining to collateral and bankruptcy) would stimulate productive entrepreneurship and private sector employment in Africa.

Limited access of entrepreneurs to credit constrains the creation and growth of private firms. In Africa, access to credit is particularly limited for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) due to unclear property rights and the lack of assets that can be used as collateral. This paper presents a model where firm creation and growth hinge on matching potential entrepreneurs with productive technologies, while firm growth depends on acquired capital. The shortage of collateral creates a binding credit constraint on borrowing by SMEs and hence private sector growth and employment, even though the banking sectors have ample liquidity, as is the case in many African countries. The model is tested using a sample of 20 African countries over the period 2005-09. The empirical results suggest that policies aimed at easing the binding credit constraints (e.g., the depth of credit information and the strength of legal rights pertaining to collateral and bankruptcy) would stimulate productive entrepreneurship and private sector employment in Africa.

Limited access of entrepreneurs to credit constrains the creation and growth of private firms. In Africa, access to credit is particularly limited for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) due to unclear property rights and the lack of assets that can be used as collateral. This paper presents a model where firm creation and growth hinge on matching potential entrepreneurs with productive technologies, while firm growth depends on acquired capital. The shortage of collateral creates a binding credit constraint on borrowing by SMEs and hence private sector growth and employment, even though the banking sectors have ample liquidity, as is the case in many African countries. The model is tested using a sample of 20 African countries over the period 2005-09. The empirical results suggest that policies aimed at easing the binding credit constraints (e.g., the depth of credit information and the strength of legal rights pertaining to collateral and bankruptcy) would stimulate productive entrepreneurship and private sector employment in Africa.

Based on a review of the literature and analysis of the prevailing internal and external conditions in Africa, this paper identifies the factors that impact entrepreneurship in the continent and proposes a set of specific interventions that African governments may initiate to stimulate entrepreneurship in the region. The proposed policy interventions include creating a more business friendly climate, building entrepreneurial and institutional capacity, minimising bureaucratic barriers, elevating the stature of entrepreneurship, and facilitating the creation of national and global linkages and networks for African entrepreneurs. Implementing the proposals advanced in this paper, as adapted to the specific conditions in each country, could have significant implications for new business creation, employment development and economic growth in Africa. It could also provide a basis for future empirical studies that assess the relative effectiveness of specific policy interventions in promoting entrepreneurship in Africa and other developing regions.

This collection explores the varieties of entrepreneurship in Africa - rural and urban, legal and illegal, formal and informal - and considers the vital role of entrepreneurs in the economic development of the continent from Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon to Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.

Entrepreneurship is a logical consequence of the transformation of our society. From the industrial era to the information age, the north and south find themselves in an almost similar situation: the need to review their socio-economic fundamentals and the need to devise new approaches in the field of work. In the near future where our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will discover the salary by going to visit the museums! Indeed, our economy, based on industrialization and consumption, dates back to the early 19th century; This is infinitely small on the scale of human history. Other models existed. This is a major issue and a great responsibility for Africa. Our difficulties are twofold: the non-support of companies by banks and the immaturity of the working population. This leads to a high corporate mortality rate. Taxation of African countries is not a development tax. She kills them; The section is made up of editors with a wide variety of interests. They share a very strong interest, even a daily obsession, for innovation in the broadest sense, companies that move and move the African continent. Their mission is to share their thoughts on the private sector, to promote inspiring entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, and to participate in debates on the role of companies in development. Entrepreneurship in Africa is fashionable and full of virtues. Like the term innovation, to which it is often associated, the word entrepreneurship swirls in private and public managerial modes. This is why it is beneficial to step back and frame the issues and strategic approach to in Africa. Everyone is an entrepreneur, some successes are magnified in the big press, even in management training around the figures of transcendent and rich individuals. Entrepreneurs would be innovators, entrepreneurs' bosses, start-ups in the new digital economy, is all-round and financed in new forms. The interest of our article is to analyze in Africa which is a serious matter. The overall approach to is not just about starting a business, but about entrepreneurial acting. Action is broader than action. We engage in a practitioner's approach that builds his relationship to the environment as he discovers and builds it. This is the ambition of the African factory today: to act and think as an entrepreneur, in entrepreneurship.

Much has been written on the relationship of China and Africa in the past decade. However, the subject of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Africa and their articulation with African counterparts was little explored up to the early 2010s. Apparently, this research gap has been closed, as shown by four publications in recent years: three edited volumes and one monography, focusing on this subject. In view of early prejudices on the passive or even disapproving reception of Chinese migrants by Africans, the state of the art underlines the importance and scope of African agency vis a vis Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Africa. Book Review Article of: (1) Giese, Karsten, Marfaing, Laurence (eds) (2016) : Entrepreneurs Africains et Chinois. Les impacts sociaux d'une rencontre particuliere. Paris : Karthala, 2016. 384 pp. (2) Gadzala, Aleksandra W. (ed) (2015): Africa and China: how Africans and their governments are shaping relations with China. Lanham/Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, xxix + 266 pp. (3) Mohan, Giles, Lampert, Ben et al (eds) (2014): Chinese Migrants and Africa's Development : new imperialists or agents of change? London: Zed books, vi + 185 pp. (4) French, Howard W. (2015): China's Second Continent: how a million migrants are building a new empire in Africa. London: Penguin Random House / New York: Knopf, xi + 304 pp.

This paper investigates gender-related bias in equity, debt, and philanthropic contribution financing decisions for early-stage African entrepreneurial ventures. Utilizing a series of individual estimations and a two-stage Heckman Selection Model on questionnaire results from 2,812 early-stage entrepreneurs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa, I find substantial evidence of a negative effect of having a female primary founder on the probability of being selected for equity funding, but that this bias does not persist in the amount of equity funding the start-up attracts. In the case of debt and lending finance, female entrepreneurs are subject to a lower probability of being selected for funding and smaller total amounts of debt financing. Philanthropic contributions present an interesting alternative, and do not have any significant gender bias in the initial funding selection or in the amount of funding provided. These results are crucial for understanding how female African entrepreneurs are able to fund their businesses and their success in obtaining funding. This paper provides policy recommendations for encouraging female entrepreneurship in Africa, which has been shown to contribute to long-term sustainable economic growth.

Innovation and ICT entrepreneurship are slowly being recognised as important enablers of socio-economic growth and realising national strategic goals in African Member States. However, the level of practical skills capacity, indigenous entrepreneurial expertise and policy support to take full advantage of this at national level varies considerably. This research study focused on identifying factors impacting on the current level of open innovation and ICT entrepreneurship in Africa. It was informed by a semi-structured, moderated focus group which captured the perspectives of senior public and education and research stakeholders from eight African Member States. The results highlighted six main factors: (a) level of political will reflected by resource prioritisation; (b) alignment with national development plans and associated funding priorities; (c) level of understanding of strategic benefits by ministers and senior civil servants; (d) level of awareness and sensitization of the general public, (e) availability of national innovation and entrepreneurial expertise; and (f) willingness and capacity to cooperate with other stakeholders to achieve common goals. Future research will capture perspectives from the private, societal and international donor sectors, and create and validate potential models/methodologies to address the challenges and opportunities identified in this study.

Across Africa, Innovation and ICT entrepreneurship are increasingly recognised as important enablers of national and regional socio‐economic growth. However, the level of skills capacity, indigenous entrepreneurial expertise and policy support varies considerably. This research study was informed by a semi‐structured, moderated focus group involving five public and four education and research stakeholders from eight African Member States. It focused on identifying factors impacting on the current level of open innovation and ICT entrepreneurship in Africa. Organised in Lilongwe, Malawi on 08 May 2015 during IST‐Africa Week 2015, a purposive approach was applied to identify the nine informants based on intensity sampling. The results highlighted six main factors: a) level of political will reflected by resource prioritisation; b) alignment with national development plans and associated funding priorities; c) level of understanding of strategic benefits by ministers and senior civil servants; d) level of awareness and sensitization of the general public, e) availability of national innovation and entrepreneurial expertise; and f) willingness and capacity to cooperate with other stakeholders to achieve common goals. Future research will capture perspectives from the private, societal and international donor sectors, and create and validate potential models/methodologies to address the challenges and opportunities identified in this study.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a classificatory framework for mapping out entrepreneurs and small businesses with growth potentials in Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The study undertakes a review of the existing development economics and entrepreneurship literature to determine the need for the framework and how to proceed in developing it. Findings – The literature review informs that although enterprise-led growth provides a greater promise for absolute poverty reduction, policymakers lack guidelines on how to identify those with highest potentials for job creation and tax revenue generation. Furthermore, African entrepreneurs can purposefully be classified in terms of their motives and degree of innovation. The classification produces a 2×2 matrix that maps out the growth capabilities of businesses found in a given country or community. Research limitations/implications – The framework provides researchers and policymakers with descriptive categories that can guide their strategies and decisions. Originality/value – Introducing innovation-imitation dimension into the classificatory framework extends and improves previous typologies of small enterprises available in the literature.

Africa has been the location of centuries of business activity. African business displays a complex development path through early indigenous kingdoms, colonial control and post–1950 independence. The historiography on these developments is unbalanced in favour of the role performed by enterprises embedded in capitalist metropolitan economies. Complex and dynamic African entrepreneurial activity persisted but adapted to global market changes. Business historians have not systematically explored African agencies in business, the management systems and the organisational evolution of enterprise in Africa. As market liberalisation provided new business opportunities, African businesses emerged to complement and compete with foreign-owned enterprises. As market liberalisation stimulated globalisation, multi-national companies returned to African markets, fostering competition and collaboration. Changes in the political economy of many African states gave rise to more dynamic regulatory contexts and public-private partnerships in different sectors of developing African economies. These trends appear in the Business History of Africa from the perspective of African business, owned by Africans from diverse ethnic origins as proof of the complex trends and processes in African enterprise development. This contribution seeks to refine the focus on business and entrepreneurs in Africa as agents in the continent’s business landscape. The manuscript acknowledges the diversity among African entrepreneurs and the dynamically changing state-business nexus through history. Can one identify a distinct «African» nature of enterprise? This manuscript addresses aspects of conceptual clarity on what constitutes African business in an attempt to map the agenda for Business History in Africa.

Global measurement of entrepreneurial activity shows that entrepreneurship in Africa is growing. Similarly, research on African entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial behaviour appear in an increasing number of scholarly articles. However we note an obvious neglect of a context sensitive approach to both the measurement of entrepreneurial activity and researching entrepreneurship in Africa. In this theoretical paper, we use postcolonial theory, and more specifically Edward Said’s idea about the misrepresentation of the Orient by the Occident, to illustrate how existing global measures of entrepreneurial activity fail to provide a real account of entrepreneurship for Africa. We then propose postcolonial theory as a useful analytical tool for researching Africa’s case. To justify this proposal, we analyse the region’s colonial history, large informal sector, heterogeneous population of entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurship and current geopolitical changes. We then use Homi Bhabha’s concept of the ‘third space’ and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s concept of subalternity to critically analyse entrepreneurship research in Africa. To end, we propose a shift towards methodologies which are more context sensitive, recognise the postcolonial setting of Africa and allow agency to emerge during fieldwork.

Purpose This paper aims to answer the following important questions: Is public debt in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries sustainable? What are the determinants of public debt sustainability in these countries, and do these determinants exhibit heterogeneity due to regional, natural resource, and income differences among SSA countries? Design/methodology/approach This study analyzes the public debt sustainability in SSA countries using the theoretical model known as the Present Value Budget Constraint (PVBC) model developed by Hamilton and Flavin (1986), and adopts the econometric testing method proposed by Trehan and Walsh (1991). Moreover, to empirically investigate the determinants of public debt sustainability in SSA countries, the System-Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM) method is applied. Furthermore, this study conducts heterogeneity analysis by categorizing the sample based on different regions, natural resource endowments, and income levels. The data of this study are sourced from the IMF and World Bank databases for 45 SSA countries from 2005 to 2021. Findings Findings reveal that public debt in SSA countries is not sustainable in the long run, with factors such as the previous government debt, long-term debt ratio, debt repayment capacity, economic growth rate, inflation rate, export to GDP, and government fiscal deficit rate influencing sustainability. Additionally, the factors exhibit heterogeneity attributed to regional, natural resource, and income variations among SSA countries. Practical implications The findings of our study will serve as a catalyst for policymakers in the SSA countries to embrace and sustain robust fiscal consolidation and debt stabilization measures. Moreover, countries with distinct characteristics should implement tailored approaches. Additionally, policymakers in SSA countries should implement economic measures to address public debt issues. These measures include improving the macroeconomic structure, promoting economic transformation and diversification of industries, fostering sustainable economic growth, ensuring price stability, and strengthening resilience against external shocks and debt risks. Specifically, countries endowed with indigenous species, resources, and tourism potential should adopt a well-coordinated strategy that utilizes agriculture, tourism, ecotourism, and the hospitality industry as instruments for sustainable local community and rural development. Originality/value Firstly, it assesses the sustainability of public debt and its determinants for countries in SSA, which distinguishes it from previous studies that only focus on either debt sustainability or determinants of debt separately. Secondly, by including multiple SSA countries in the analysis, this study stands out from prior research that predominantly concentrates on specific nations. Thirdly, the utilization of the System-GMM method for analyzing determinants adds a novel dimension to this study, departing from earlier literature primarily focused on debt thresholds. Lastly, the heterogeneity analysis conducted in this study provides an empirical foundation for tailoring policies to different countries, addressing a facet often overlooked in earlier literature.