Middle Class In Africa Research Articles

Exploring Africa’s Heterogenous Middle Class’ Brand Behaviour in the New Digital Age: Practical Insights From a Multiple Country Study

The article’s purpose is to critically examine the heterogeneous middle class in Africa’s evolving relationships with brands in the new digital age environment identifying drivers for brand purchase decision-making that brand managers can adopt for their strategies. The new environment is conceptualized from the impact of digitalization and the emergence of more discerning consumers, informed and empowered in their interaction with brands. The article contributes significantly to responses to calls by international marketing scholars for further research in global brand building and management in the new digital age. Our article provides insights into how the heterogeneity of the middle class in Africa influences the consumers’ relationship with brands considering the impact of digital connectivity and nuances of each middle-class segment. We identify the core drivers for brand selection that the heterogeneous middle-class segments consider and how this influences their attitudes toward brands. The study also highlights the complexities of the relationship between the middle class and counterfeit brands. Practical and theoretical implications to provide guidelines for improving practice and research on managing brands in the new international marketing environment are presented.

Social Identity and Social Exclusivity: South Africa's Middle-Class Strata in a Perpetual Struggle for Integration

Social Identity and Social Exclusivity: South Africa's Middle-Class Strata in a Perpetual Struggle for Integration

Emerging “repronubs” and “repropreneurs”: Transnational surrogacy in Ghana, Kazakhstan, and Laos

In this article, we offer an analysis of the development of “repronubs”: less-known locations offering small-scale, niche cross-border gestational surrogacy or surrogacy services for a regional market. This analytical category of “repronubs” is useful to describe the formation of the industry from small local sites to those offering cross-border services. Based on our work in these locations, we compare the markets, regulatory contexts, and organization of the industry in Ghana, Kazakhstan, and Laos, focusing on the “repropreneurs” or surrogacy facilitation agents as pivotal in the emergence of these sites. These “repronubs” highlight the surrogacy trade between countries of the Global South and are established next to or instead of the more well-known North–South destinations. We document how surrogacy itself is increasingly stratified between higher cost and better-regulated environments such as in certain states of the United States or Canada and lower cost, less well regulated, and regionally focused environments in the settings we describe. These locations are characterized by poor or liberal regulations, the existence of local in vitro fertilization (IVF) expertise, and the emergence of local repropreneurs driving the trade using their social networks. The growth of demand from China and the growing affluent middle class in Africa is creating further markets for such regional “nubs.” Studying surrogacy in such locations is made difficult by the secrecy and confidentiality surrounding it.

Targeting the Floating Middle of Pyramid Consumers in Africa: Revisiting Marketing Mix Considerations

This research reports on a cross-country based investigation of the floating middle class in Africa demonstrating how their behavior and structure influences the design of marketing mix strategies used by marketers. Questionnaires were used to collect data in ten African cities. Key findings include the importance of branding and core drivers for purchase such as durability, origin, popularity, affordability, and a unique circle of quality variables. Innovative adaptations for pricing, distribution and marketing communications are outlined to assist marketers develop appropriate context relevant strategies to target the floating middle class. The discussion also outlines theoretical and practical implications.

Revisiting Middle-Class Consumers in Africa: A Cross-Country City-Based Investigation Outlining Implications for International Marketers

This article reports on a cross-country city-based investigation that profiles the middle class in Africa and distinguishes discrete segments that demonstrate the importance of heterogeneity when studying the middle class. The authors identify three distinct middle-class segments by administering both qualitative and quantitative questionnaires across ten cities. They explore consumer behavior–related factors, such as lifestyle and purchasing, to answer calls to provide more marketing insight into the African middle class. The discussion also outlines theoretical and managerial implications.

Measuring the Middle Class in Africa – Income Versus Assets Approach

Traditionally, economists measure middle class from the income perspective. Considering quality of data for many African countries, relying solely on income may, unfortunately, lead to an incorrect picture. This article compares and analyses the African middle class measured by income and by ownership of assets. Results indicate that middle class sizes differ significantly in some countries, while in others they are more or less the same. Regression analyses performed to investigate potential correlates of the African income and assets middle class sizes indicate that the African assets middle class size is positively associated with income per capita and negatively with assets inequality. To a lesser extent, it is positively affected by education and negatively by ethnic fractionalisation. The African income middle class size depends positively on income per capita and education, while negatively on income inequality.

(Middle-) Class analysis in Africa: does it work?

SUMMARYRecent interest in the growth of middle classes in Africa (and elsewhere) has been characterised by immense theoretical diversity. While this diversity indicates the complexity (and limitations) of class analysis, it remains important for the latter to be guided by the classic concerns around power, wealth and inequality which characterise radical debate.

Book Review: Middle Classes in Africa: Changing Lives and Conceptual Challenges

Review of the monograph: Lena Kroeker, David O’Keane, and Tabea Scharrer (eds) (2018), Middle Classes in Africa: Changing Lives and Conceptual Challenges , Cham: Palgrave Macmillan published by Springer Nature, ISBN 978-3-319-62147-0, xiii+376 pp

The Rise of Africa's Middle Class: Myths, Realities and Critical Engagements edited by Henning Melber London: Zed Books, 2016. Pp. 232. £24·99 (pbk).

The Rise of Africa's Middle Class: Myths, Realities and Critical Engagements edited by Henning Melber London: Zed Books, 2016. Pp. 232. £24·99 (pbk).

The Anxious and the Climbers: Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Democracy Among South Africa's Middle Class

Beyond the hopes placed in Africa’s emergent middle class as an engine of economic growth, some analysts see this group as a bastion of political stability and enduring de-mocratisation across the continent. This paper’s approach differs from that of most studies, which treat the middle class as a homogeneous group, through two key contributions. First, using cluster analysis, I propose a novel way of conceptualising social class that broadly draws on the Weberian idea of shared life chances. I apply this method to South Africa and identify five social classes characterised by their members’ living standards, overall life satisfaction, and self-perceived upward mobility. Second, the empirical analysis reveals significant discrepancies in attitudes towards democracy between the downwardly and upwardly mobile strata of the middle class, which I term the “anxious” and the “climbers,” respectively. On the one hand, the “climbers” show the highest generic support for democracy as a form of government, whereas the “anxious” middle class displays feelings of resignation. On the other hand, I find indicative evidence of a status-quo bias among the “climbers.” Rather than assuming a more demanding or critical stance in politics, they allow their political priorities to be at least partly shaped by an interest in securing and expanding attained living standards; being upwardly mobile is even associated with a higher tolerance for government attempts to constrain freedom of information, opinion, or expression.

Study of the influencing factors of the blood levels of toxic elements in Africans from 16 countries

Africa's economy is growing faster than any other continent and it has been estimated that the middle class in Africa now exceeds 350 million people. This has meant a parallel increase in the importation of consumer goods and in the implementation of communication and information technologies (ICT), but also in the generation of large quantities of e-waste. However, inadequate infrastructure development remains a major constraint to the continent's economic growth and these highly toxic residues are not always adequately managed. Few studies have been conducted to date assessing the possible association between socioeconomic development factors, including e-waste generation, and blood levels of inorganic elements in African population. To disclose the role of geographical, anthropogenic, and socioeconomic development determinants on the blood levels of Ag, Al, As, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb, and V —all of them frequently found in e-waste—, an immigrant population-based study was made including a total of 245 subjects from 16 countries recently arrived to the Canary Islands (Spain). Women presented higher levels of blood elements than men, and Northern Africans (Moroccans) were the most contaminated. People from low-income countries exhibited significantly lower blood levels of inorganic elements than those from middle-income countries. We found a significant association between the use of motor vehicles and the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the level of contamination. Immigrants from the countries with a high volume of imports of second-hand electronic equipment, telephone and internet use had higher levels of inorganic elements. In general terms, the higher level of economic development the higher the blood levels of inorganic pollutants, suggesting that the economic development of Africa, in parallel to e-waste generation and the existence of informal recycling sites, have directly affected the level of contamination of the population of the continent.

Critical factors affecting affordability of mortgage housing in Kenya

This study investigated factors affecting affordability in the mortgage housing sector in Kenya. Housing affordability is a major problem experienced by urban households in Africa. According to the African Development Bank (The middle of the pyramid: Dynamics of the middle class in Africa, market brief, 2011), only three per cent of the entire African population can afford a mortgage. In Kenya, the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa has estimated that only eleven per cent of urban households earn enough to support a mortgage. Attempts were made in this study to develop an empirical model to reveal the underlying factors affecting housing affordability in Kenya. Applying a multiple regression approach, the model identified that affordability of mortgage housing in Kenya is significantly driven by clusters of factors related to the households’ social-economic factors, property attributes, loan characteristics and the macroeconomic environment. Specifically, the interest on mortgage, number of households’ dependents, loan-to-value ratio, type of mortgage instrument, number of income earners in a household, real gross domestic product per capita and size of household are the critical factors affecting affordability with the greatest contribution to the affordability problems of households in the mortgage housing sector in Kenya.

Review of The Rise of Africa's Middle Class: Myths, Realities and Critical Engagements, Melber, Henning, ed

Review of The Rise of Africa's Middle Class: Myths, Realities and Critical Engagements, Melber, Henning, ed

Middle Class in Africa: Determinants and Consequences

ABSTRACTThis study complements the inclusive growth literature by examining the determinants and consequences of the middle class in a continent where economic growth has been relatively high. The empirical evidence is based on a sample of 33 African countries for a 2010 cross-sectional study. Ordinary least squares, two-stage-least squares, three-stage-least squares and seemingly unrelated regressions estimation techniques are employed to regress a plethora of middle class indicators, notably, the: floating, middle-class with floating, middle-class without floating, lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income categories. Results can be classified into two main strands. First, results on determinants broadly show that GDP per capita and education positively affect all middle class dependent variables. However, we establish a negative nexus for the effect of ethnic fragmentation, political stability in general and partially for economic vulnerability. Simple positive correlations have been observed for: the size of the informal sector, openness and democracy. Second, on the consequences, the middle class enables the accumulation of human and infrastructural capital, while its effect is null on political stability and democracy in the short run but positive for governance and modernisation. Policy implications are discussed.

Middle Class in Africa: Determinants and Consequences

This study complements the inclusive growth literature by examining the determinants and consequences of the middle class in a continent where economic growth has been relatively high. The empirical evidence is based on a sample of 33 African countries for a 2010 cross-sectional study. OLS, 2SLS, 3SLS and SUR estimation techniques are employed to regress a plethora of middle class indicators, notably, the: floating, middle-class with floating, middle-class without floating, lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income categories. Results can be classified into two main strands. First, results on determinants broadly show that GDP per capita and education positively affect all middle class dependent variables. However, we have seen a negative nexus for the effect of ethnic fragmentation, political stability in general and partially for economic vulnerability. Simple positive correlations have been observed for: the size of the informal sector, openness and democracy. Second, on the consequences, the middle class enables the accumulation of human and infrastructural capital, while its effect is null on political stability and democracy in the short-run but positive for governance and modernisation. Policy implications are discussed.

The asset debates: How (not) to use asset indices to measure well-being and the middle class in Africa: Table 1

Asset indices are ubiquitous in the debate about well-being in African countries, not least because of the paucity of traditional household income and expenditure data. Indeed, asset data have fuelled the creation of a new, more optimistic picture of well-being in Africa, where both income and the middle class are growing fast. This is the first review of the use of asset indices for African countries. Readers are guided through key debates over the use of asset data, including the use of assets to measure trends over time as well as socio-economic status and class. We argue that the theoretical and empirical advantages of the asset index over traditional welfare measures are clear, but that caution is needed. Most asset indices show significant improvements in private wealth and social welfare in African countries due to increases in the number of household assets and improvements in health and education. However, we argue that simplistic conclusions in the economics literature about the growth of income or of a ‘middle class’ using asset indices are poorly founded.

China’s impact on the landscape of African International Relations: implications for dependency theory

Since China began enhancing its economic relationship with key African oil exporters from the early 1990s, the effect this has had on the International Relations (IR) of Africa has remained largely unknown. This paper delves into African IR theory and finds that, rather than representing an alternative pole for African states to bandwagon with, China’s limited interest in Africa and its international socialisation, along with a possible growth of the middle class in Africa, is likely to give many African states few alternatives than those which have existed thus far in the postcolonial period. More development options are found to lie in sub-regional integration.

Step-Change: Micro-Entrepreneurs’ Entry into the Middle-Class Market

ABSTRACTWith upcoming middle classes in Africa, micro-entrepreneurs witness new opportunities that can potentially lift them out of poverty. Exploiting these opportunities requires entrepreneurs to make a ‘step-change’ away from the bottom of the pyramid to middle-class markets. This process hosts potential conflicts between informal-sector and formal-sector stakeholders as it requires both new resources and continued access to existing resources. By taking a strategic marketing perspective, this study labels and defines the phenomenon of step-change and offers an explanatory conceptual framework for it. The article draws implications for business development, the gender debate, as well as academic research.

The New Black Middle Class in South Africa by Roger Southall

Reviewed by: The New Black Middle Class in South Africa by Roger Southall Kwaku Nti Southall, Roger. The New Black Middle Class in South Africa. Suffolk: United Kingdom: James Currey, 2016. Social Scientist Roger Southall veers from contemporary tangents in The New Black Middle Class in South Africa. In his estimation, doing so constitutes a much needed new focal point from which to discuss South Africa's black middle class, correcting previous one-dimensional approaches and ensuring a complex and comprehensive picture of a powerful and significant segment of this post-Apartheid nation. Southall grounds his work in that of Leo Kuper's An African Bourgeoisie: Race, Class and Politics in South Africa, but applies an entirely different mode of analysis in viewing the drastically altered history of the nation, which, once in an overwhelmingly pathetic situation of systematic racial discrimination under an Apartheid regime, presently boasts limitless opportunities amidst power and access to resources. This discussion of the entrenched category of South African Africans within "the middle range of hierarchies of income, wealth, property ownership, and occupation" is set against a backdrop of a wider body of theories including, but not limited to, Marxist and Weberian, in order to enhance the understanding of its origins, motivations, and dynamics as well as relations with other strata in the country (p. 1). The book's nine well-written chapters are amply supported with statistical tables. [End Page 91] Southall avers that the origins of South Africa's African middle class is traceable to the very limited educational opportunities provided by the Western Christian missionaries "of a variety of nationalities and denominations which became increasingly active from the nineteenth century onwards" (p. 25). Unfortunately, its growth suffered inhibition by a predominant settler capitalism "save in so far as the white minority regime required … subaltern black allies, and from the 1970s, began to address shortage of white skilled labor by increasing the provision of black education and housing" (p. 24). Although educated Africans were left in no doubt regarding their subordinate status in the colonial social hierarchy, among their own people their education accorded them significant material rewards and social prestige. Their homogeneity as a visibly privileged social group was fostered by bonds of friendship, marriage, and formation of professional associations. The 1980s saw the emergence of a small but growing number of African managers referred to as the "new black middle class" that often suffered racial obstacles in the work place. Much as the middle class were instrumental in the formation of the SAANC or later ANC, they pushed for systematic development of a distinct African political culture with the creation of a constituency that included workers and propertied strata, and succeeded in etching that organization within the gaze and memory of Africans in South Africa. Although the ANC developed formidable relations with the black trade union movement, it was by and large the sprawling township support as well as elements of the middle class that provided the main source of strength, [End Page 92] thus establishing the latter's political hegemony as the "ANC party vanguard" (p. 40). With the fall of the Apartheid regime, the new African middle class expanded rapidly. Southall highlights the intriguing paradox of the contemporary interest in the extent and consequences of the upward bound black segment, and the simultaneous disinterest in the middle class in general across the spectrum of the South African population. Southall argues that although there are contending facts regarding size, shape, and structure against a background of diverse definitional, conceptual, and methodological frameworks, scholarly research is unanimous on the significant growth of the post-Apartheid middle class since the democratic transition, especially because the ANC carefully supervised the scrapping of the hitherto official racial barriers that inhibited black upward social mobility. Among other things, legally improved educational options, deployment, affirmative action, as well as the Black Economic Empowerment have ensured increased job opportunities for Africans at middle and managerial levels mainly within the public sector. In essence, and as everywhere in Africa, South Africa's middle class is presented as medially young, highly educated, urbanized, some self-employed, with salaried jobs, high aspirations and expectations regarding standard of living for...

South Africa's Emerging Black Middle Class: A Harbinger of Political Change?

AbstractWhile South Africa has seen a significant increase in the post‐apartheid period in the size of the Black middle class, the attitudinal consequences of indicators of the middle class, as of 2011, are inconsistent and modest in size. While they are no more likely to hold democratic values than other Black South Africans, they are more likely to want the government to secure ‘higher‐order’ rather than basic survival needs. They are less likely to identify with the governing African National Congress and to turn out to vote. They are also less likely to ‘voice’ their concerns by contacting officials or joining in conventional or unconventional forms of collective action. Yet while intra‐racial class differences amongst Black people remain muted, intra‐class racial differences amongst South Africa's middle class are still substantial. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.