Doctor Aubin MWANSA MUSEKA (Digital DBA)
Business Science Institute
(DBA Thesis supervised by Prof. Emmanuel Kamdem)
Introduction
Africa is abundant in business opportunities, but its entrepreneurial ecosystem faces multiple crises -economic, political, health-related, climate, and energy, among others- that heavily impact the success of both local and, especially, multinational companies. This reality prompts a closer examination of the key factors for achieving business success in Africa’s crisis-prone and challenging environments.
Research Impact(s) and Principal Findings
The primary managerial impact of this Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) thesis is demonstrated by the findings, which reveal four key factors contributing to the business success of multinational firms operating in Africa amid multidimensional crises.
Firstly, the resilience of the local African entrepreneur, who serves as a partner to the multinational firm and is constantly facing various challenges. This resilience is mutually beneficial, as the multinational firm leverages the local entrepreneur's resilience to achieve business success. In return, the local entrepreneur benefits from the investment and innovation brought by the multinational. In other words, entrepreneurial resilience presents an opportunity for both the local African entrepreneur and the foreign multinational firm.
Secondly, this shared and inclusive resilience empowers the local African population to engage more deeply in the development and implementation of social and environmental responsibility (SER) projects initiated by the multinational firm. In this way, resilience acts as a lever for strengthening community solidarity and promoting CSR initiatives within the local community.
Thirdly, the investments made by the multinational firm positively impact the development of managerial skills among local operators and contribute to job creation within the community. These jobs contribute to local wealth creation, which helps reduce poverty and promote social stability.
Fourthly, the mutually beneficial collaboration between the multinational firm and the local population influences the transformation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the host country. This is evidenced by a shift in the entrepreneurial model among local entrepreneurs, evolving from necessity-driven entrepreneurship (to ensure daily survival) to opportunity-driven entrepreneurship (focused on innovative and sustainable projects).
The results of this thesis also have theoretical implications, challenging dominant entrepreneurial models in international literature and offering practical proposals for renewing managerial and entrepreneurial research in crisis contexts in Africa.
Theoretical Foundations
This research is conducted within the field of strategic management, aiming to identify solutions to the challenges faced by subsidiaries of multinational firms operating in crisis-prone and hostile African environments. Three main concepts are employed: crisis-prone environment, hostile environment, and business success. The theoretical framework is constructed around two primary axes tailored to the research theme and context. The first is the conciliatory mechanism theory (Biwolé Fouda, 2020), which analyzes how the objectives of multinational firms can be reconciled with the expectations of local populations affected by foreign investments. The second is the CSR-BOP theory (Prahalad, 2005), as elaborated by Martinet (2022), which seeks to understand the strategies and practices of social and environmental responsibility (SER) in the operations of multinational firms. These major theoretical axes are further complemented and enriched by two minor theoretical frameworks: one in industrial economics (Porter, 1990) and the other in the Resource-Based View (Wernerfelt, 1985).
Research Methodology
The qualitative methodology employed is particularly well-suited to the subject and context of this research, which encompasses four case studies across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea. The PHESTEL analysis framework is used to decode the entrepreneurial ecosystems of these cases. A pragmatist epistemological paradigm is adopted to avoid the pitfalls of “off-the-ground” research, ensuring a robust grounding in the crisis contexts of Africa. The Sphinx software was employed to analyse textual data, conducting statistical, lexical, and semantic analyses, and to interpret the results (Moscarola, Laval & Mothe, 2022).
Further reading
Biwolé Fouda, J. (2020). Pour une recherche enracinée dans le contexte entrepreneurial africain : quels concepts et quelle théorie de management stratégique ? Dans Kamdem, E., Chevalier, F., & Payaud, M. A. (2020). La recherche enracinée en management : contextes nouveaux et perspectives nouvelles en Afrique (chap. 2, p. 39-59). Caen, Éditions EMS, collection Business Science Institute.
Martinet, A. C. (2022). Homo Strategicus : capitalisme liquide, destruction créatrice et mondes habitables. Caen, Éditions EMS.
Moscarola, J. Laval, F. & Mothe, C. (2022). Recherche Qualitative : Analyse lexicale et sémantique de grands corpus d’entretiens ou de documents. ACTE Jadt 2014.
Porter, M. (1990). The competitive advantage of nations. Harvard Business Review, 68(2), 73-93.
Prahalad, C. K. (2005). The Fortune at The Bottom of the Pyramid. Wharton School Publishing.
Wernerfelt, B. (1985). A Resource-Based View of the Firm 10 Years After. Strategic Management Journal, 180.
Keywords: business success, crisis-prone and hostile environment, entrepreneurship, multinational companies, local communities.
Discover the defence of the thesis: Factors of Success in Business in a Critical and Hostile Environment by Doctor Aubin Mwansa Museka, DBA. Watch it here: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxzCB7UGkBQ)