African Entrepreneurship Ecosystems: A Comparative Study of The Top Five

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, entrepreneurship has become an important field for research and monitoring globally. We have seen the emergence of many success stories of people starting with an idea and then building billion-dollar organizations that make a global impact. These entrepreneurs and their activities do not happen in a vacuum. If a society would like to produce more of them, it has to understand how they came about.

Researchers identified key success factors for entrepreneurship ecosystems, and although there are slight differences based on the researcher, they do have some basic measures in common. Mainly, Entrepreneurship Ecosystems research points to the need for governmental policies that support entrepreneurship, the existence of institutions to support entrepreneurship activities, and a culture that encourages entrepreneurship.

This thesis aims to look at the ecosystems emerging on the African continent and identify the different strategies or key success factors working for the top ecosystems through the application of MIT'S Stakeholder Framework for Building & Accelerating Innovation Ecosystems.