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    Digital Entrepreneurship in Africa

    How a Continent Is Escaping Silicon Valley's Long Shadow

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    Author(s)
    Friederici, Nicolas
    Wahome, Michel
    Graham, Mark
    Collection
    Knowledge Unlatched (KU)
    Number
    104351
    Language
    English
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    Abstract
    The hope and hype about African digital entrepreneurship, contrasted with the reality on the ground in local ecosystems. In recent years, Africa has seen a digital entrepreneurship boom, with hundreds of millions of dollars poured into tech cities, entrepreneurship trainings, coworking spaces, innovation prizes, and investment funds. Politicians and technologists have offered Silicon Valley–influenced narratives of boundless opportunity and exponential growth, in which internet-enabled entrepreneurship allows Africa to “leapfrog” developmental stages to take a leading role in the digital revolution. This book contrasts these aspirations with empirical research about what is actually happening on the ground. The authors find that although the digital revolution has empowered local entrepreneurs, it does not untether local economies from the continent’s structural legacies. Drawing on a five-year research project, the authors show how entrepreneurs creatively and productively adapt digital technologies to local markets rather than dreaming of global dominance, achieving sustainable businesses by scaling based on relationships and customizing digital platform business models for African infrastructure challenges. The authors examine African entrepreneurial ecosystems; show that African digital entrepreneurs have begun to form a new professional class, becoming part of a relatively exclusive cultural and economic elite; and discuss the impact of Silicon Valley’s mythologies and expectations. Finally, they consider the implications of their findings and offer recommendations to policymakers and others.
    URI
    https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/43517
    Keywords
    Business & Economics; Entrepreneurship; Business & Economics; E-commerce; Digital Marketing; History; Africa; General
    ISBN
    9780262538183
    Publisher
    The MIT Press
    Publisher website
    https://mitpress.mit.edu/
    Publication date and place
    2020
    Grantor
    • Knowledge Unlatched
    Imprint
    The MIT Press
    Classification
    Entrepreneurship / Start-ups
    E-commerce: business aspects
    African history
    Rights
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
    • Harvested from KU

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    License

    • If not noted otherwise all contents are available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

    Credits

    • logo EU
    • This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 683680, 810640, 871069 and 964352.

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