Entrepreneurial Opportunities and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review & Agenda for the Future

Abstract

Entrepreneurship, with its focus on opportunities, is often seen as one of the cornerstones of poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, evidence for the positive impact of entrepreneurship programs on poverty is mixed and now widely debated. Therefore, scholars have called for a better theoretical understanding of opportunities in SSA in the face of severe resource constraints that characterize the region. In this paper, we aim to shed further light on this issue and outline an agenda for future research. To this end, we first review the current literature on opportunities (discovered and created) and poverty (income-based and capabilities-based). We next employ four case examples of poor entrepreneurs in SSA that challenge assumptions from Western entrepreneurship theories and illustrate what could be fruitful avenues for future research on entrepreneurial opportunities and poverty in SSA.

Keywords:

• entrepreneurship
• opportunity
• poverty
• sub-Saharan Africa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the Intercollegiate Center for Management Science and Vlerick Business School. We thank the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF) for facilitating the data collection among their clients, the clients who participated in this study, Mathobela Shai for all research assistance, and Miguel Meuleman for his overall support of the entrepreneurship research in SSA.

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Jacob A. L. Vermeire is a doctoral researcher at Vlerick Business School in Belgium. He holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Psychology and Personnel Management from Ghent University. Jacob’s research area is entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on micro-businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. He has presented his work at various international conferences such as the Academy of Management Annual Meeting and the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference. Recently, Jacob also published some of his earlier work in the Journal of Management Studies.

Garry D. Bruton is a professor at Texas Christian University. He has published (or has forthcoming) over 100 academic articles in leading journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. In addition, Garry has co-authored three textbooks: small business management (McGraw-Hill), technology and innovation management (Cengage), and international management (Cengage). In 2005 Professor Bruton was the first holder of the Hall Chair in Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets offered by the Fulbright Foundation. He is currently associate editor of the Strategic Management Journal. Previously he was president of the Asia Academy of Management, and former editor of the Academy of Management Perspectives.

Notes

1. The list of journals that were scrutinized here include (in alphabetical order): Academy of Management Journal; Academy of Management Review; Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice; Administrative Science Quarterly; Journal of Applied Psychology; Journal of Business Venturing; Journal of Management Studies; Journal of Management; Journal of Organizational Behavior; Management Science; Organization Science; Organization Studies, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes; Personnel Psychology; Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal; and Strategic Management Journal

2. We searched for articles with opportunit* in the title, keywords or abstract (“opportunit” followed by the truncation “*” broadened our search to both opportunity and opportunities). Both authors of this article then examined independently each publication to ensure its eligibility for this review (e.g. publications that were excluded included those that referred to research opportunities, learning opportunities, etc.).

3. Scholars should question whether taking another perspective (discovery or creation) may have affected the results found or assumptions made.