8.0 The Entrepreneurial Firm: Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in Africa

(Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, Oct 2002 by Kiggundu, Moses N)

In addition to competencies of the entrepreneur, entrepreneurship requires effective and dynamic organizational arrangements in order to remain successful. Such arrangements are needed for mobilizing, organizing, utilizing, protecting and developing resources, keeping in place strategic corporate governance, and sustaining beneficial networks and clusters. African entrepreneurs experience serious difficulties in developing and sustaining effective organizational arrangements, especially as the business moves from the informal to the formal, (Mead, 1999), when it faces external threats such as new technology and fluctuations in the political or macroeconomic environment (Kiggundu, 1989), during succession (Sam, 1998), or when facing regional or global competition (Buame, 1996). These constraints constitute a serious obstacle to entrepreneurial development and the scaling up needed for survival, growth and competitiveness. Below is a discussion about organization form, networking, capital resources, and corporate governance.



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