Examining Contemporary Emergent African Entrepreneurial Philanthropy

Abstract

According to research conducted outside the field of business, emergent entrepreneurs have long been active in large-scale humanitarian endeavours, and the world's media has awarded them celebrity-like notoriety. On the other hand, entrepreneurial philanthropy is mostly disregarded in the realm of entrepreneurship studies. This article addresses this gap both theoretically and empirically. It establishes projectivity theory as a viable theoretical lens through which to assess contemporary emergent African entrepreneurial philanthropy and presents fresh data on successful, emergent entrepreneurs engaged in significant humanitarian endeavours. The findings emphasise the active deployment of a distinctive blend of different forms of projectivity as a distinguishing characteristic of emergent African entrepreneurial philanthropy, and they contribute to emerging discourses on the nature of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship as a socioeconomic process, and the dearth of empirical research on entrepreneurial bourgeois.