Enterprises In Africa Research Articles

Entrepreneurship and socioeconomic development in Africa: a reality or myth?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the development of entrepreneurship education and training in Kenya as a strategic approach to addressing the unemployment problem among the school and university graduates in Kenya and Africa in general.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a critical review of the literature method to achieve its purpose and to answer the key research question. The literature search included a computerized search of accessible and available material on entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurship education and training programs, history of entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship models, Africa and entrepreneurship development.FindingsIt is shown that the development of entrepreneurial spirit and competencies should be a lifelong process. Addressing Africa's socioeconomic development in an entrepreneurial way requires learning successful lessons from within and without Africa. Specific examples of successful use of entrepreneurship to develop micro, small and medium‐sized enterprises in Africa and other parts of the world, especially the USA, are cited in the paper. A case study of using technology to promote entrepreneurship in Africa is provided.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is limited since it is based on a review of the literature. Quantitative and qualitative research studies focusing on entrepreneurship and socioeconomic development in Africa are recommended.Originality/valueThere are limited studies that focus on the issue of entrepreneurship and socioeconomic development in Africa. This paper and the special issue in particular have laid down pioneering ground work for research on entrepreneurship and socioeconomic development in Africa.

Knocking on a Wide-open Door: Chinese Investments in Africa

The current strong foothold of Chinese enterprises on the African continent concerns many Western observers. They fear that the West will lose leverage in Africa and simultaneously postpone development. Paradoxically, the advance of Chinese enterprises in Africa is not only the result of deliberate Chinese policies to gain access to resources and markets, but also the consequence of liberal African investment policies imposed by Western donors in the past. This article uses Zambia as a case study to challenge the often one-sided view of the local consequences of China's engagement with Africa, and it shows that we need to consider the type of policies that guide investment flows, in order to increase the local benefits of China's growing presence in the continent.

Support to the development of food processing enterprise in Africa - An entrepreneur based approach

Support to the development of food processing enterprise in Africa - An entrepreneur based approach

Adoption of information and communication technologies to the development of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Africa.

This study presents Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a phenomenon that could assist entrepreneurs in small- and medium- scale enterprises fit into globalization to overcome poverty prevalent in most African countries. The study revealed the roles that ICT has played in the lives of entrepreneurs and how ICT can assist individuals develop competitive small enterprises. The study emphasized that the potential benefits of ICT on the development of SMEs in African countries are boundless, that consumers would have all the power to choose the best prices, given the friction free flow of information, and that businesses would find it easier to stay in touch with their customers and make better informed decisions. The study showed that most African countries’ SMEs are unable to take advantage of economies of scale and capture market opportunities requiring large productive run, standard inputs and consistent standards, often lack training, market intelligence and the capacity for technological innovation. The study also provided strategic framework to enhance the competitiveness of African countries SMEs to assist them compete both in regional and global markets. The study recommended that more research be carried out to develop in depth the strategic framework of information and communication technology for the development of sustainable small- and medium- scale enterprises in Africa. The recommendation is expected to assist the policymakers plan more positively for the general good of the society.

Cities of Dreadful Naught: Privative Evil in Heart of Darkness

The figuration of evil - whether in the person of Mr Kurtz or in the two cities, Brussels and London, that embody European civilization - in Heart of Darkness is ultimately derived from the doctrine of privative evil developed by St Augustine and absorbed by Conrad from his original and never fully renounced Catholicism. Kurtz and the imperial enterprise in Africa are consistently represented in terms of emptiness, non-entity, consuming greed and hunger, and the gravitational drift toward oblivion that Augustine calls nihilation. Marlow may see his world in Darwinian terms, but he judges it in Augustinian ones, even or especially in the absence of any belief in God that might counter the pervasive presence of evil. This essay explores the effects of that division. In the process, it places Heart of Darkness in the long tradition of Augustinian religious narrative that prominently includes two of its major sources, the Inferno and Faust.

China's Private Enterprises in Africa and the Implications for African Development

This paper evaluates the growing presence of China’s private business sector in Africa. Currently, attention focuses on China’s state-owned enterprises in extractive industries. Less attention is paid to Chinese private enterprises. This study fills a knowledge-gap by evaluating characteristics and motivations of Chinese private firms in Africa, and assesses their development impacts. Key findings are that the Chinese private firms have followed their own paths to Africa, and the primary factors driving private investment are African market opportunities, competition within China and the presence of a strong entrepreneurial spirit. An effective mechanism bridging a gap between China’s African Policy and its implementation in terms of private sector engagement is lacking. To maximise development gains, a top-down and bottom-up ‘two-way street’ approach to Chinese public-private sector relations is necessary. This is a mutual learning process for the Chinese public and private sectors and also China-Africa relations. These are fluid relationships with each adapting to and shaping the other.

Managing the internationalisation process of small and medium enterprises in Africa and Asia Pacific

Managing the internationalisation process of small and medium enterprises in Africa and Asia Pacific

'ReCapricorning' the Atlantic

The lead section of this LBR volume brings together four articles on the Lusophone South Atlantic by historians of Africa and Brazil originally presented to the Michigan State University and University of Michigan’s Atlantic History workshop “ReCapricorning the Atlantic: Luso-Brazilian and Luso-African Perspectives on the Atlantic World.”  Th e workshop and this special volume’s title is a twist on Andre Gunder Frank’s Re Orient: Global Economy in the Asian Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998) in which the renowned economic historian argued that Asia had been the hub of the global economy through the early modern period and that a Johnnycome-lately Europe “used its American money to buy itself a ticket on the Asian train” aft er 1800 to “temporarily” become the new hub of global trade (p. xxv). Frank’s interest in Asia’s role in the global economy was a signifi cant departure from his earlier work which had focused on exploring Portuguese and Spanish America’s underdevelopment within the frameworks of dependency and world systems theory. “ReCapricorning the Atlantic” returns to the site of Frank’s earlier work to consider a similar reorientation based on perspectives centered around the Tropic of Capricorn within a body of scholarship that has come to be known as “Atlantic History.” Th e South Atlantic was the economic hub and arguably the most signifi cant formative matrix of the early modern European colonial enterprise in Africa and the Americas. Yet to date, most Atlantic history has focused on the British and to a somewhat lesser extent, French Empires and their remnants in the Americas and Africa. Th is “North Atlantic-centrism” is refl ected in many classic titles in Atlantic History that conceal their much more limited geographic emphases in terms of primary research (e.g., David Eltis, Th e Rise of African Slavery in the Americas; Paul Gilroy, Th e Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, or David Brion Davis, Th e Problem of Slavery in Western Culture). With these legacies in mind, workshop participants set out to “ReCapricorn the Atlantic” by assessing how new research on the Lusophone South Atlantic modifi es, challenges, or confi rms major

Pan-African Issues in Crime and Justice. Edited By Anita Kalunta-Crompton and Biko Agozino (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004, 266pp. £50 hb).

Criminology remains a resolutely Eurocentric discipline. Much of what passes for comparative criminology is limited in its perspective to the societies of (typically western) Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. One of the most celebrated recent examples of comparative work (Garland, 2001) plots a familiar course in seeking comparators separated by nothing more than the North Atlantic and can refer to Britain and the United States as ‘high crime societies’ when the former has a murder rate below two per 100,000 of the population, South Africa a rate of more than 25 times that (Altbeker, 2005). Against this background, who can blame the editors of this volume for complaining in their brief, almost vestigial, introduction that, despite the growing interest in comparative criminology, ‘Africa remains a relatively neglected territory’ and ‘pan-African concerns’ of no more than marginal interest to a discipline that has signally failed to expand from its traditional bases in the universities of the global north and is conspicuous only by its absence in African universities outside South Africa (p. 1). The marginality of the criminological enterprise in Africa is strikingly evident in the fact that, of the fourteen contributors to the book, only two are affiliated to institutions on the continent, and both of them to universities in the former settler states of the far south.

Enhancing the Competitiveness and Productivity of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Africa: An Analysis of Differential Roles of Governments

Enhancing the Competitiveness and Productivity of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Africa: An Analysis of Differential Roles of Governments

The Determinants of Employment of Affiliates of US Multinational Enterprises in Africa

Employment of foreign affiliates of multinational enterprises has been shown to promote growth by boosting wages, increasing the transfer of technology and enhancing productivity in host countries. Yet, the factors affecting such multinational employment in Africa have not been studied. Using panel data, this article indicates that – in contrast to natural resource availability – good infrastructure, higher income, openness to trade and an educated labour force have a significant positive impact on employment. In order to realise the employment benefits of FDI, therefore, sub‐Saharan Africa needs to attract investments in non‐natural resource industries, and host countries need to improve their infrastructure and educate their population.

The corporate enterprise in Africa: Governance, citizenship and social responsibility

While different societies attach different weights and priorities to these objectives, it is largely in the political and economic means adopted for achieving these ends that societies differ. The differences in means are of paramount importance because the ultimate objectives are never fully attained as a consequence of which we forever live in transition. However, it is largely agreed that good governance is a fundamental building block of a just and economically prosperous society. This is as true for public governance as it is for corporate governance.

Credit Constraints in Manufacturing Enterprises in Africa

We investigate the question whether firms in the manufacturing sector in Africa are credit constrained. The fact that few firms obtain credit is not sufficient to prove constraints, since certain firms may not have a demand for credit while others may be refused credit as part of profit maximising behaviour by banks. To investigate this question, we use direct evidence on whether firms had a demand of credit and whether their demand was satisfied in the formal credit market, based on panel data on firms in the manufacturing sector from six African countries. More than half the firms in the sample had no demand for credit. Of those firms with a demand for credit, only a quarter obtained a formal sector loan. In line with expectations, our analysis suggests that banks allocate credit on the basis of expected profits. However, controlling for credit demand, outstanding debt is positively related with obtaining further lending while micro or small firms are less likely to get a loan than large firms. The latter effect is strong and present in the regression, despite including several variables typically referred to as explaining why small or ‘informal’ firms do not get credit. The role of outstanding debt is likely to be a reflection of inefficiency in credit markets, while the fact that size matters is consistent with a bias as well, although we cannot totally exclude that they reflect transactions costs on the part of banks. Finally, we could not detect any differences between countries in the effects of these factors in the credit allocation rule, although financial deepening is found to explain most of the country-specific fixed effects, shifting the probability of obtaining credit across the firm distribution.

Educating an African Leadership: Achimota and the Teaching of African Culture in the Gold Coast

Founded by the British colonial government in the Gold Coast in the 1920s, Achimota was an elite school that signaled the colonial government's commitment to the provision of education and the concomitant belief in the role of education in managing the future of the nation. This study explores the contradictions of the school, in which African culture was used to substitute for anglicized activities, lessons, and entertainments within the school's dominant Western frame, African culture had to be transformed and reified. The school's practices were the result of interaction between the differing expectations of colonial officials, traditional experts brought in to teach customs and arts, local intelligentsia, expatriate and African teachers, and the students themselves. Achimota therefore provides a lens on the nuances and tensions within the colonial enterprise in Africa.

Employee ownership in enterprises in Africa and Asia

This paper examines wider employee share ownership in developing and newly industrializing countries with particular emphasis on Africa and Asia. The first section reviews the available evidence on the extent of wider employee share ownership. The second identifies the key issues relating to the implementation of wider employee share ownership: the objectives for employee ownership, the financing of employees' stakes, the role of trade unions, employee participation in decisions and the life-cycle of employee ownership. It is suggested that attempts to develop employee ownership face similar, but more intense, problems as in advanced industrialized nations. A wide-ranging research agenda is identified.

Introduction: New Directions in the History of Missionsin Africa

This short article introduces a selection of papers originally presented at the conference, “Africans Meeting Missionaries: Rethinking Colonial Encounters,” held at the University of Minnesota in May 1997. Until quite recently much of the scholarship on missions in Africa tended to reproduce early eighteenth‐ and nineteenth‐century images of the colossal, all‐powerful missionary. Whether celebrated as an heroic, civilizing agent in mission accounts or branded as a cultural imperialist in nationalist‐era scholarship, the European missionary remained an actor scarcely soiled by the cultural commerce of the people on whom he worked. In short, African religious or political initiatives were seldom taken seriously. The papers which make up this collection give voice to and extend current debates surrounding the contested history (and future) of the missionary enterprise in Africa.

State-Owned Enterprises in Africa

During the 1980s, many African governments attempted to diminish the size of, or to reform their state enterprises. This book analyses the evolution of public enterprise in Africa, highlighting successes and failures and drawing lessons for future policy-making.

Venture capital lending – will it work in Africa?

Reluctance on the part of many banks to lend to small enterprise in Africa has led agencies to examine the possibility of venture capital financing. In this article various conditions are set out for successful equity financing, and caution is advised concerning investment where market signals are not favourable.

Medical-social aspects of premature births

Cassava and corn milling is a growing small-scale enterprise in Africa. We aimed to determine the incidence of hand–arm musculoskeletal complaints among vibration-exposed Congolese cassava and corn millers in the previous 12 months.A cross-sectional study was conducted, prior to a follow-up study, from March to May 2013 among cassava/corn millers in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, in which 365 millers age-matched to 365 civil workers anonymously answered a questionnaire.Overall incidence of hand–arm musculoskeletal complaints was 25.8% in millers (vs. 5.2% in civil workers; p < 0.001). The risk of experiencing musculoskeletal symptoms was seven times higher in millers [vs. civil workers; odds ratio (OR) = 7.10; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.03–12.50; p < 0.0001]; 2.4 times higher in smoking millers (vs. smoking civil office workers; OR = 2.36; 95% CI: 1.42–3.88; p < 0.001); 3.6 times higher in millers with longer daily exposure (> 8 hours; vs. those working ≤ 8 hours; OR = 3.56; 95% CI: 1.93–3.61; p = 0.026); and 7.4 times higher in young millers (vs. older millers, OR = 7.39; 95% CI: 1.29–75.52; p < 0.001). Smoking, number of cigarettes, and daily exposure duration were positively correlated with musculoskeletal complaints.This study revealed a relatively high incidence of musculoskeletal complaints among African cassava and corn millers. The use of anti-vibration protective equipment and the regulation of this hazardous occupation may reduce the burden of musculoskeletal disorders in millers.

The use of computer videomicrography in the study of spermatogenesis

Cassava and corn milling is a growing small-scale enterprise in Africa. We aimed to determine the incidence of hand–arm musculoskeletal complaints among vibration-exposed Congolese cassava and corn millers in the previous 12 months.A cross-sectional study was conducted, prior to a follow-up study, from March to May 2013 among cassava/corn millers in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, in which 365 millers age-matched to 365 civil workers anonymously answered a questionnaire.Overall incidence of hand–arm musculoskeletal complaints was 25.8% in millers (vs. 5.2% in civil workers; p < 0.001). The risk of experiencing musculoskeletal symptoms was seven times higher in millers [vs. civil workers; odds ratio (OR) = 7.10; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.03–12.50; p < 0.0001]; 2.4 times higher in smoking millers (vs. smoking civil office workers; OR = 2.36; 95% CI: 1.42–3.88; p < 0.001); 3.6 times higher in millers with longer daily exposure (> 8 hours; vs. those working ≤ 8 hours; OR = 3.56; 95% CI: 1.93–3.61; p = 0.026); and 7.4 times higher in young millers (vs. older millers, OR = 7.39; 95% CI: 1.29–75.52; p < 0.001). Smoking, number of cigarettes, and daily exposure duration were positively correlated with musculoskeletal complaints.This study revealed a relatively high incidence of musculoskeletal complaints among African cassava and corn millers. The use of anti-vibration protective equipment and the regulation of this hazardous occupation may reduce the burden of musculoskeletal disorders in millers.