22828: Catalyzing Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Africa: Pathways to Impact and Growth

Africa faces the most substantial sustainable development challenges of any continent. Entrepreneurship can be a powerful force in advancing progress for sustainable development and funding for African start-ups has been growing steadily over the past decade to address energy access and related challenges, including poverty reduction and climate adaptation. And yet, if funding and the efforts of ventures are not guided in ways that can support sustainable development, entrepreneurship may exacerbate existing inequalities and environmental degradation on the continent. What is clear, however, is that contexts are key in shaping the types of entrepreneurial approaches that emerge and their ability to address sustainable development challenges. Nonetheless, when it comes to the African continent, there has been a tendency to apply existing Western theories rather than to use the heterogeneity of African contexts to challenge and expand understandings of entrepreneurship. This panel will bring together experts who focus on different geographic regions in Africa. This will help us to unpack the diversity of contexts on the continent, adding a much-needed, nuanced foundation to discussing sustainable entrepreneurship. Further, we foster a discussion on the key factors necessary to accelerate sustainable entrepreneurship in Africa. This includes emerging as well as overlooked models of entrepreneurship and innovative business models, and key interdependencies between actors to foster local entrepreneurial ecosystems. Lastly, we encourage our panel and audience to reflect on ways in which sustainable entrepreneurship in Africa can help us to challenge existing theories in management research and practice.