Small business and entrepreneurship in Africa: the nexus of entrepreneurial ecosystems and productive entrepreneurship

Abstract

The impact of entrepreneurship and small business activities in Africa has habitually been lower and receives less attention in research. This study aims at investigating the mediation role of innovations on the relationship between entrepreneurial ecosystem approach and productive entrepreneurship. Using panel dataset of 35 African countries, the study contributes to the existing literature in two ways. First, the panel regression findings contribute to the theoretical debate and fill the empirical gap, recent research has been dominated by conceptual works. The findings reveal mixed (positive and negative) and weak insignificant direct influence of eco-factors such as finance, government support and programmes, knowledge, market and culture on productive entrepreneurship. However, their influence is more pronounced when innovations mediate the relationship. Second, it provides new insight to policymakers and practitioners in developing policies and programmes that foster entrepreneurial ecosystems and improved innovation performance for better entrepreneurship development. It concludes with suggestions for future research.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems: a systematic literature review and research agenda

“…The agricultural sector is among the key economic sectors that drives economies in most of developing countries. It contributes to economic development through supply of food, raw materials for industries, source of foreign income through exports as well as wide pool of job creation (Kansheba, 2020). Despite its vital role on economy, agricultural entrepreneurship still receives less attention in research (Dias et al , 2019).…”

Moderating effects of networks on the relationship between acculturation and entrepreneurial skills development: Evidence from Africans trained in China

“…Even if the African continent is recognized as showing promising economic trends in recent years, people’s standard of living does not reflect such economic prosperity. Entrepreneurship is the solution to close the economic gap and encourage the participation of companies in global value chains (Kansheban, 2020). Entrepreneurship is also widely seen as essential for reducing extreme poverty (Hajro et al, 2019; Sutter et al, 2019).…”

“…This study is among the few to examine the influx of African students to China in recent years, their coping strategies with the Chinese environment, and factors that influence the entrepreneurial skills of Africans during their stay in China. This study broadens and deepens understanding on the impact of cultural adaptation that influences entrepreneurial activity, and provides additional research avenues to illustrate and develop new theories of management and entrepreneurship (Abodohoui et al, 2018;Kansheba, 2020;Ratten, 2020) from a Sino-African perspective.…”

Institutional quality and resource-based economic sustainability: the mediation effects of resource governance

“…The multicollinearity problem was tested using the variance inflation factor (VIF). The VIF results for explanatory variables were less than the cutoff points of 5, suggesting the absence of serious multicollinearity problem (Kansheba 2020 ). We also tested for normality problem using the Shapiro–Wilk W normality test.…”