Diasporic Synergies: Conceptualizing African Entrepreneurship Based Upon Trans-Local Networks

Griffin-El, Eliada; Olabisi, Jayeola

doi:10.1080/15228916.2018.1469877

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Africans abroad help to overcome information asymmetries between Africa and non-African investors and offer an understanding of how to combine western and African approaches, facilitating investment in both directions (Galeto, 2011 ; Leblang, 2011 ). In addition, the African diaspora, which forms a substantial part of the continent’s entrepreneurial class, is a major source of inward investment, playing a pivotal role in the formation of trans-local networks to pursue business opportunities on the continent (Griffin-El & Olabisi, 2018 ).…”

Section: Africa As An Opportunity For Advancing Ib Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2022

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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.

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Section: Africa As An Opportunity For Advancing Ib Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2022

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“…Breakout, as used in this context, is associated with the (in)ability of immigrant businesses to move beyond the constraints associated with serving an often small, localised ethnic market within the host country location and operate successfully in wider and more competitive regional, national and global markets (Basu, 2011;Parzer, 2016;Ram and Hillin, 1994). Achieving breakout is a decisive moment in terms of the social and economic integration of immigrants (Griffen-El and Olabisi, 2019). The breakout process demonstrates how immigrant entrepreneurs transform, leverage and overcome immigrant disadvantages and pursue diverse pathways of entrepreneurial evolution through business transformation, scaling up and failure (Brzozowski, 2017;Curci and Mackoy, 2010;Evansluong et al, 2019;Gur au et al, 2020;Vershinina et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The increasing diversity of immigrant entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial pathways has challenged static understandings of immigrant embeddedness to emphasise a dynamic view of embeddedness and breakout (Beckers and Blumberg, 2013;Chen and Tan, 2009;Yamamura and Lassalle, 2022). Recent studies identify the existence of immigrant entrepreneurs that respond to opportunities across multiple locations, assume diverse identities, use heterogeneous social networks and appear unrestrained by nationality or ethnic resources (Griffen-El and Olabisi, 2019;Sandoz et al, 2021;Vershinina et al, 2019). For many immigrant entrepreneurs, an evolving action space is presented through their embeddedness in a diverse, transnational context characterised by new, accessible transportation and telecommunication technologies and increasing flows of resources and people across ethnic and national boundaries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Immigrant business in transnational contexts: a multifocal understanding of the breakout process

Onyima,

Syrett,

Sepulveda

2023

IJEBR

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PurposeThis paper contributes to the development of an enhanced understanding of the breakout strategies of immigrant entrepreneurs within a transnational context. It develops a dynamic notion of breakout by placing it within a wider understanding of immigrant entrepreneurial strategy characterised by multifocal embeddedness within transnational space.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative research methodological approach. In-depth interviews were completed with 30 first- and second-generation UK-based Nigerian entrepreneurs and key informants, to provide data on business growth strategies of individual immigrant entrepreneurs in the context of opportunity structures across host, home and third countries.FindingsNigerian immigrant entrepreneurs adopted distinctive entrepreneurial strategies related to the complex and diverse transnational context within which they were embedded. Findings demonstrated how the realisation of diversification and differentiation strategies was particularly influenced by locational and spatial strategies, the specific contextual embeddedness of the entrepreneur and generational differences across entrepreneurs.Originality/valueConceptualising immigrant entrepreneurship from a standpoint of transnational, multifocal embeddedness produces a complex and multi-layered understanding of business breakout as a dynamic process. Drawing together the unifocal, bifocal and multifocal dimensions of embeddedness with findings on the breakout strategies being pursued by immigrant entrepreneurs, an original typology is presented which identifies different approaches to breakout across varied contexts. This has significant policy and practice implications for the content, targeting and access of business support and wider social issues, relating to the identities, social mobility and integration of immigrant entrepreneurs.

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“…While these groups are well recognized in the literature on African business, another group of businesses is emerging that seems to be rooted considerably more deeply in African systems (hereafter referred to as endogenous African businesses). Such firms increasingly emerge in the African business literature and include ethnic food producers from Cameroon (Mefoute Badiang, 2018), firms targeting diaspora consumers (Griffin-El & Olabisi, 2018), Ethiopian leather footwear companies adding value to the country's immense production of raw hides (Gebrewahid & Wald, 2017), and smallholders that transform into value-creating businesses (Teklehaimanot, Ingenbleek, & van Trijp, 2017). The commonalities between such firms are not yet fully recognized, despite their potential for African development.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Endogenous African Business: Why and How It Is Different, Why It Is Emerging Now and Why It Matters

Ingenbleek

2019

Journal of African Business

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Africa is currently undergoing a transition that is unprecedented in its history. For the first time, the demand of urban populations pulls business development, thus creating economies with higher levels of specialization than before. This essay highlights the phenomenon of the endogenous African businesses that are arising in this process. These businesses tap into the natural resources and the social, economic, and cultural systems that build upon them. These resources and systems make the African business environment different from business environments in other parts of the world. Furthermore, the endogenous businesses have access to knowledge on how to manage modern businesses in the formal sector of the economy. In combination with African resources and systems, such knowledge enables them to create and sustain and competitive advantage in modern dynamic marketplaces. Endogenous African businesses are important because they have the potential to fuel economic growth, to revitalize rural areas, to contribute to food security and healthy diets, and to provide role models of which Africans can be proud. Hence, these businesses deserve our attention in the next two decades of scholarly research and education on African business.

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Diasporic Synergies: Conceptualizing African Entrepreneurship Based Upon Trans-Local Networks

Cited by 9 publications

References 51 publications

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

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

Immigrant business in transnational contexts: a multifocal understanding of the breakout process

The Endogenous African Business: Why and How It Is Different, Why It Is Emerging Now and Why It Matters

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