Advancing scholarship where Africa-based scholars dominate : a systematic review of migrant entrepreneurship in Africa

Abstract

Migrant entrepreneurs are generally assumed to come from rather than settle in Africa. This paper systematically reviews scholarship on immigrant entrepreneurs operating on the continent, a topic of interest to Africans more than the general scholarly community. Using Scopus and two Africa-focused databases, Africa Journals Online and Sabinet, we identified 123 relevant papers. Papers cross various disciplines are generally descriptive, theory-poor, from unranked journals, and with South Africa strongly overrepresented. Currently, papers mostly mirror themes from work in high-income contexts, with resourcing an important exception. We highlight opportunities to further advance research on the challenges of and diverse types of resources in a resource-poor context. The need to include Africans into scholarly endeavors is often expressed, but in this case African scholars dominate. We discuss how African scholars can improve the quality and impact of their work, both by facilitating the emergence of a community around the topic and thematically.