PurposeThis study focuses on the use of guanxi by African returnees from China in Africa. It explains how returnees understood and leveraged guanxi to collaborate with Chinese ...partners.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses semi-structured interviews to document how guanxi is increasingly extending beyond Chinese borders. It focuses on Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania and analyzes the returnees' mobilization of guanxi in Sino–African business contexts.FindingsAfrican returnees play an increasingly important role in guanxi internationalization in Africa. Returnees' understanding of guanxi is shaped by their African traditions and their Chinese experiences, creating their new cultural capital and a dynamic Sino–African business mindset.Originality/valueThis paper reveals an emerging shift in the business mindset among African returnees once initiated in guanxi. In addition, guanxi is increasingly practiced by African organizations.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to critically assesses the major contributions to the academic literature on China’s increased focus on Africa, from 2001 to 2011. It discusses the key trends ...concerning China’s presence in Africa and draws conclusions on the significance of the studies by emphasizing and contrasting the prevailing positions.
Design/methodology/approach
– Based on a qualitative approach using an integrative and comprehensive literature review, the authors performed a content analysis of high-impact, peer-reviewed papers.
Findings
– The paper questions and repositions some of the existing controversies. The results from existing studies remain questionable, requiring further clarification and more theoretical backing. It, moreover, highlights the notion that behind the explicit neutrality views of China’s presence in Africa, implicit assumptions may exist. These are often the differences in narratives conveyed by Western and Southern stakeholders.
Research limitations/implications
– Most of the conclusions drawn from this paper need to be re-explored and supported by additional research. This could be done by widening the scope of the analysis. Studies need to provide more empirical support for their assertions through quantitative data and evidence-based qualitative analyses
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all within a framework that considers more cultural, social and historical dimensions. The paper also suggests that an institutionally based view appears most relevant in better explaining China in Africa.
Originality/value
– This paper reviews a decade of research on China in Africa and presents a snapshot of the current state of knowledge. It also raises concerns to be analyzed by future research and proposes new avenues for better understanding China’s presence in Africa.
PurposeThe study explores African partners' experiences regarding Chinese expatriates' knowledge control practices in 29 Sino-African joint ventures in 12 countries. It provides insights into power ...dynamics and knowledge transfer (KT) from African partners' perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative paper mobilized semi-structured interviews with Africans who worked with Chinese expatriates across Africa. The study focused on understanding the experiences of African partners when collaborating with their Chinese expatriate colleagues on assignments in joint ventures (JVs) in Africa.FindingsChinese expatriates employed five tactics, as described by African partners, to control knowledge based on power, behaviors and knowledge type. Particularly, through the lens of unofficial power, this study explains knowledge hiding tactics between knowledge-holding Chinese expatriates and host country knowledge-seeking locals. A new dimension of authority-based knowledge hiding is discovered.Originality/valueThe paper brings new insights into the analysis of power (official and unofficial) boundaries regarding knowledge control mechanisms in joint venture collaborations between employees from China and Africa. Unofficial power appeared as a major leverage for expatriates in monopolizing their strategic knowledge. The study recommends mobilizing African diaspora and repatriates from China to improve KT for Africa.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the challenges researchers in/on Africa face when conducting research on the continent. It examines the reasons behind Africans’ relatively limited contribution to ...the business literature in the global sphere and why not culturally sensitive and nuanced research on Africa is spreading unchallenged.
Design/methodology/approach
The study combines knowledge creation and institutional theories to explain why African business scholars struggle in researching the continent and in contributing significantly to global knowledge creation. It also explores the debate about why Africa’s narratives in business seem dominated by not culturally sensitive and nuanced voices and approaches. It uses a participant observation method.
Findings
The study found that African scholars have not yet contributed significantly to global knowledge creation because of Africa’s institutional weaknesses and lack of government support for research, coupled with challenges at the interviewing, organizational and scholars’ levels. The study points to the specificities of the continent as well as to African interviewees’ particularities and the type of interactions with the researchers. The paper proposes new avenues to address those multilevel challenges and offers key lessons for future studies.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically investigate the fundamental reasons behind business research challenges in/on Africa from knowledge creation and institutional standpoints. This study also contributes to the growing debate on Africans’ meager contribution to business literature as well as the controversy regarding culturally sensitive vs not culturally sensitive knowledge creation on Africa. Finally, it proposes avenues to understanding and overcoming those challenges.
This paper examines how sub-Saharan Africans do business in China, particularly in the province of Guangdong. Through a qualitative approach, the paper analyzes data obtained from twenty interviews ...with sub-Saharan Africans. It’s a descriptive study that explores the strategies, tactics and attitudes adopted by those sub-Saharan Africans to cope with a particularly difficult Chinese business environment. Using the concepts of foreignness and adaptation, the study identified four categories of immigrant entrepreneurs: the assimilators, the conservatives, the adventurers and the cautious. Concomitantly, this research identified factors and skills that contributed significantly to immigrants’ success in China. The paper also underlines challenges sub-Saharan Africans still face in China and the unconventional tactics they use. The study represents an insightful exploration of an increasingly important subject but still under-studied. It calls for a thorough research toward the understanding of African businesses in China.
China has become one of Africa's top financiers through significant foreign direct investments (FDI). While Chinese investments vary across sectors and countries, this article proceeds to a ...comparative analysis of major receiving sectors of Chinese FDI in the top ten African destinations. It elaborates on why some African countries that are labeled risky by major institutional rankings still receive significant Chinese investments. One finding is that China invested often and successfully in risky African countries. The article thereby underlines the importance of informal institutions for Chinese investors in successfully navigating the African environment. It uses secondary data from various national and international organizations to categorize receiving countries through an informal institutional analysis perspective of Chinese investments in Africa. The aim is to understand how Chinese FDI deviates from mainstream institutional theory's argument that stable and formal institutional settings are fundamental to attracting significant investments. Findings indicate substantial Chinese investments in places often labeled as risky based on international ranking standards. Some of the important FDI destinations are now considered strategic for China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Hence, Chinese businesses appear prosperous in those destinations, not only gaining more contracts but also successfully navigating the local environment. To understand such Chinese risk-taking approach and success in Africa, this article offers an alternative explanation based on informal institutions, China's long-term agenda, and the goals behind BRI. Finally, this article suggests avenues whereby African countries can better redefine their partnerships with China.
This study examines 29 Africa-China JVs from 12 African countries to explore the ways in which African partners gain knowledge and learn from their Chinese counterparts. Based on the perspectives of ...social capital, cultural difference, and informalities, we analyze the strategies, behaviors, and tactics employed by Africans both at the individual and at the organizational levels to gain knowledge within JVs. By using a multiple case study method with semi-structured interviews, we find that African partners actively take advantage of multiple cultural and social capital-related factors to support learning. Africans often use informal, even clandestine, mechanisms to manage cultural differences and build trust in order to gain knowledge. Theoretically, the structural, relational, and cognitive aspects of social capital are found to be important in exploiting opportunities through informal actions and the creation of informal contexts more conducive to learning and knowledge transfer. The presented findings provide new insights into knowledge-seeking JVs, particularly in the Africa-China context, because they propose a not-yet-explored perspective that explains learning through the exploitation of informalities.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the challenges researchers in/on Africa face when conducting research on the continent. It examines the reasons behind Africans’ relatively limited contribution to ...the business literature in the global sphere and why not culturally sensitive and nuanced research on Africa is spreading unchallenged.
Design/methodology/approach
The study combines knowledge creation and institutional theories to explain why African business scholars struggle in researching the continent and in contributing significantly to global knowledge creation. It also explores the debate about why Africa’s narratives in business seem dominated by not culturally sensitive and nuanced voices and approaches. It uses a participant observation method.
Findings
The study found that African scholars have not yet contributed significantly to global knowledge creation because of Africa’s institutional weaknesses and lack of government support for research, coupled with challenges at the interviewing, organizational and scholars’ levels. The study points to the specificities of the continent as well as to African interviewees’ particularities and the type of interactions with the researchers. The paper proposes new avenues to address those multilevel challenges and offers key lessons for future studies.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically investigate the fundamental reasons behind business research challenges in/on Africa from knowledge creation and institutional standpoints. This study also contributes to the growing debate on Africans’ meager contribution to business literature as well as the controversy regarding culturally sensitive vs not culturally sensitive knowledge creation on Africa. Finally, it proposes avenues to understanding and overcoming those challenges.
Le management international préoccupe beaucoup dans la recherche en Afrique. Ce numéro spécial examine l’impact de la recherche en management international sur les pratiques de gestion en Afrique et ...les contributions de l’Afrique à la recherche existante. Le continent est engagé dans la création de connaissances en management, notamment à l’international. Ce numéro débat quatre perspectives : Spécificités des pratiques managériales internationales dans les contextes africains; stratégies des acteurs et styles de gestion d’entreprises internationales en Afrique; management en Afrique comme opportunité de renouveler le champ du management international; management international et défis de développement en Afrique.
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