Market growth strategies of African early-stage entrepreneurs

Published January 7, 2022
By Tianjiao Qiu

Market growth strategies of African early-stage entrepreneurs

The purpose of this paper is to examine how early-stage entrepreneurs’ opportunity motivation impacts their choice of market growth strategies as well as the contingent roles of institutional environments and product-market conditions in Africa. As the first study to explore multilevel influences on early-stage market growth strategies in Africa, the study sheds new insights into early-stage entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial marketing process in Africa. Due to the historical, economic, and social constraints, market development in Africa is a progressive process and requires government support through effective policies. This study brings the market, the core of the business activities, to the limelight of entrepreneurial marketing research in Africa and call for academicians’ and practitioners’ attention to study market growth paths of early-stage entrepreneurs in Africa. Policymakers need to understand the different challenges and opportunities in growing the market through either market penetration or market exploration strategies since market growth is the binding force that leads to the fulfillment of the existing Africa market needs and contributes to identifying new market opportunities. Instead of rigid and prohibitive market-related policies, policymakers in developing economies need to develop flexible, supportive market-related policies based on early-stage entrepreneurs’ growth paths, institutional environments, and product-market conditions. Market-related policies that provide resources and training for effective marketing practices, such as social media promotion and dynamic pricing, can help early-stage entrepreneurs who adopt market penetration strategies compete against rival firms in the existing market. Likewise, for early-stage entrepreneurs who adopt market exploration strategies, market-related policies that protect intellectual properties and foster the market’s creativity can boost the vitality of the market exploration process. Therefore, flexible market-related policies are needed to channel the necessary resources to the early-stage entrepreneurs who face different market growth challenges.