An Overview of African Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research

Abstract

Given the potential importance of self-employment for African economic development, the present paper provides an overview of the current state of entrepreneurship research in Africa. This is based on the compilation of a bibliography of African entrepreneurship research. To our best knowledge, this is the first time that such a bibliography has been attempted for Africa. We analyze the frequency and topics of research outputs since 1963 and provide an overview of the main themes and topics in African entrepreneurship research. It is shown that in Africa, the government impacts on entrepreneurship both directly (through for instance taxation, education and training policies as well as privatization) and indirectly through, for example, contributing to an uncertain policy environment, damaging social capital and creating institutional features that keep African firms small. The smallness of African firms, and the role of social network capital in overcoming the negative features limiting African firm growth and survival, are important topics for future research on African entrepreneurship.

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