Entrepreneurship and Sme Management Across Africa: Context, Challenges, Cases

This book focuses on issues related to entrepreneurship and SME management on the African continent by providing insights from different conceptual, empirical and case studies. In doing so, it focuses on context-specific challenges for conducting entrepreneurial activities or business endeavors in smaller firms in the African continent. The book responds to calls for more research about African businesses given the acknowledgement of scholars, students and policy makers around the world who realize the increasing and growing economic importance of the African continent. In addition to serving as a source book for more in-depth studies by assisting the reader in gaining increased understanding of the topics covered, complementing the different parts with reviews, the book also elaborates on issues such political unrest, corruption, untrained personnel and environmental concerns. Entrepreneurship and SME Management Across Africa: Context, Challenges, Cases will be useful to academics with an interest in different entrepreneurial contexts in general, and Africa in particular, and for students interested in regional business practices, as well as for practitioners and policy makers.

Dr. Leona Achtenhagen is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Business Development at Jönköping International Business School in Sweden. She has conducted a number of different research projects on aspects of entrepreneurship and SME management in underprivileged contexts. Her research results on those topics have been published as numerous book chapters and articles in leading journals such as Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice and Long Range Planning.
Ethel Brundin is Ph.D. and Professor in Entrepreneurship and Business Development at Jönköping International Business School, Sweden. She has been the project manager of three longitudinal research projects in South Africa, targeted towards previously disadvantaged groups, such as Blacks and Coloureds. Her research has been well received by policy makers on BBBEE (Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment) and is published in journals such as Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business and The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability. She has also published book chapters and journal articles, e.g. in Journal of Business Venturing. She has brought the world wide STEP (Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices) to Africa with its base in South Africa.