Conference Theme: Going Africa-Centric! African Paradigms in International Business

Background

Despite promising social economic development in Africa and foreign marketers' enthusiasm toward its future
growth, there remains limited firm or consumer research for marketing practitioners. Extant literature shows
knowledge/application on African firm strategy and consumer behavior is fragmented. We set the following three
goals for the conference:
1. Reviewing current knowledge on African consumers, marketing, firm strategy, and societal policies -
highlighting gaps in our knowledge and understanding of international business with an African focus.
2. Bringing to light contributions/paradigms originating from Africa, and developing an agenda for future
research
3. Fostering collaborations among firm strategy, consumer marketing and public policy researchers with similar
interests.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic (starting 2020), African consumer and business spending was expected to
grow beyond $4 trillion, with a striking demographic dividend indicated by a massive expected working-age
population larger than either China or India by 2034, abundant resources, and fast-paced growth. While the recent
pandemic caused a recessionary environment across the continent, it also created opportunities (and challenges) for
entrepreneurship and small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovative solutions including products/services
have been introduced in various countries across the continent - which may have far-reaching implications, in the
long run, in Africa and across the globe.
Additionally, in 2015, the United Nations developed 17 sustainable development goals (UN SDGs) to solve
“grand challenges”. These UN Grand Challenges represent common issues faced worldwide, including ending
poverty and hunger, promoting good health and well-being, ensuring inclusion and equity, gender inequality, among
many others (United Nations, n.d.). There have been multiple calls for individuals, communities, organizations, and
institutions to actively work on developing solutions and achieving the 17 UN SDGs across Africa. One example of
a trend in Africa is brain drain, which is the migration of employees from one country into another. Brain drain has
become a trend among professionals, such as medical practitioners, within the continent of Africa, migrating into
non-African continents and leaving organizations short-staffed and clients (or patients) lacking the care they need
(Ebeye & Lee, 2023). Such a trend negatively affects the African continent and highlights the need to work on UN
SDGs.
The past decade has witnessed cross-fertilization of African-born entrepreneurship and innovation into
other parts of the world, along with growth opportunities for MNCs and SMEs into Africa. Indeed, there have been
important calls from academia for making a serious effort to “bringing Africa in” (George, at al. 2016).

The time is ripe for an updated showcase of scholarly insights regarding international business in this still under-
studied continent - including, and especially, insights and strategy/tactics that originated from Africa. Lutz (2009),

for example, utilized Ubuntu philosophy in understanding a theory of global management. Indeed, with the
demographic explosion coming from developing countries, it is imperative to examine more non-Western contexts
in depth (Wickert, et al, 2024). Thus, our theme this year is Going Africa-Centric. This conference series marks a
significant step toward creating a sustained effort among HBCUs - with Morgan leadership - to connect with Africa
in business-related research at both the micro and macro level.
The interests of Africa, Africans and the entrepreneurial processes/innovations/paradigms created in Africa
are at the very core of our 2025 conference. How businesses communicate entrepreneurial opportunities and
significance of nonmarket strategies for SMEs (see Oriaifo, Oliveira, and Ellis, 2019), for example, are well worth
our investigation. We encourage all researchers to go Africa-Centric with us and submit their related research and
ideas, particularly with societal drivers (like religion) more prominent and significant in Africa (Barnard &
Momabolo, 2022). Research themes that could be particularly relevant to this conference include the following
given below, AS PERTAINING TO businesses & strategy in Africa, African marketing, and interplay with
society and institutions:
1. African Consumers and Markets
2. African firms, corporations, co-ops, and organizations
3. Returning to Africa: Starting New African Businesses
4. Technical and Vocational Training in Africa
5. Technology, Innovation, and Marketing within Africa
6. Higher education in Africa and Global Partnerships
7. Africans and the Triadic Relationship
8. Study Abroad and Study-Differentiated Experiential Paradigms
9. African Leaders Contextualized: Biographical Discourse
10. Internal Migrations in Africa and Their Implications
11. African non-profits and NGOs: impact on business development
12. Africa and Global Politics
13. Philosophy and Theories of Afrocentrism
14. Afro-Politanism and Global Africa; Africa’s Global Footprint
15. Theorists and Idealists