Africa rising: Opportunities for advancing theory on people, institutions, and the nation state in international business

Abstract

Africa is rising, but IB scholars have largely failed to take notice. We argue that this is a missed opportunity. Not only is Africa a dynamic and distinctive region, but its rise presents a number of puzzles for international business (IB) research, with phenomena that seem to challenge fundamental assumptions underlying IB theories. In order to unravel these puzzles and better explain business dynamics on the continent, we contend that there is a need for IB theorizing to place greater emphasis on the role of people , to balance IB’s traditional emphasis on institutions, location-specific assets, and other macro-level attributes. We explore how this conceptual shift presents new avenues for inquiry into issues that are of importance for IB but have received limited attention to date. Such issues include entrepreneurial human capital, social networks, institutional co-evolution, and the informal economy. As such, we argue that, while extant theories in IB inform explanations and predictions regarding business activity across the continent, Africa’s diverse and distinctive characteristics offer the potential to serve as a context for testing and developing generalizable, cutting-edge IB theory. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41267-022-00581-z.

The Role, Nature and Contribution of Indian Emerging Market Multinational Companies in African Countries

“…These are key to the effective development, growth and sustainability of EMNCs in emerging markets. This combination of both flexibility and resilience, and an ability to improvise in turbulent, institutionally ambiguous—even dysfunctional and weak—regulatory environments in Africa, is supported by the work of Cooke et al (2015), Kamoche and Wood (2022), Munene (1991) and Nachum et al (2022), and has been identified as a fruitful avenue for further research (Cunha et al, 2022).…”

“…It is estimated that there are some 3 million individuals in the African Indian diaspora living mainly in East and Southeast Africa. Although a relatively small number, it is a community which has had an outsized economic and political influence both domestically and in building ties between African countries and India (Nachum et al, 2022). Some of this diaspora arrived in the nineteenth century from colonial British India as indentured labourers, working on the Kenya-Uganda railway and sugar industry in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.…”

“…With 54 countries, Africa is culturally and ethnically diverse, socio-economically heterogenous and a politically complex continent, offering significant opportunities for foreign direct investment increasingly from Asia as well as research in international business and management. Whilst some observers argue that Africa has been relatively neglected particularly in international business (e.g., Nachum et al, 2022; Zoogah et al, 2015), others point to significant developments in related management fields (Kamoche & Wood, 2022). Traditionally, the dominant interest has been Western MNCs and the suitability of western management practices.…”

“…These seek better coordination of socio-economic and trade policy coherence between countries on common socio-economic policy, trade and taxation approaches. Nachum et al (2022, op cit. 2–4) argue that certain African countries have had high GDP growth between 2010 and 2020.…”

Partnering for impact: unveiling the dynamics of collaboration between social enterprises and impact investors in emerging economies

“…While IB researchers have been adding to our knowledge of emerging markets, their focus has primarily been on China and India. Africa represents many developing and emerging markets and can provide new insights for the IB field (see, for example, Nachum et al , 2022). Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa, with a population of over 200 million people.…”