Lessons to Learn from Informal and Home-Based Business in Africa

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how African smallholder farmers and women working from the home can benefit from bringing together different institutional sectors to leverage technologically simple, highly sustainable qualities in the domestic and global marketplace. For practitioners, policymakers, and international business (IB) scholars, it is necessary to consider the degree of localization their recommendations require. Entrepreneurial practices that have proved successful in one locale may require significant adaptation in another. Community leaders may not be immediately obvious to the outside advisor. The influence of women and “wise elders” may be overlooked. Much recent research about what works in Africa, particularly in rural Africa, differs significantly from what IB scholars are accustomed to seeing in established academic journals, and authors may have little incentive to publish dissertation research given the prestige of simply having obtained a Ph.D. and the competing opportunities available for African scholars. Special journal issues on Africa and volumes where current research on Africa are collected and made readily available may help to fill this gap.

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