Abstract
Improving Africa’s competitiveness has taken on a heightened importance as the region experiences subdued growth following a decade of commodity-fuelled expansion. Meanwhile, efforts to industrialize and diversify beyond the extractive economy are being hampered by their weak competitiveness, a prevalent and persistent problem across the region. On a somewhat positive note, several countries are now making progress with increasing their competitiveness, and there appears to be grounds for cautious optimism about future improvements. This introductory chapter of Africa’s Competitiveness in the Global Economy provides an overview of the historical, current and projected competitiveness of African firms, sectors, cities and nations. The chapter provides an overview of five thematic issues covered by the 13 contributions in this volume: the global competitiveness of African nations and cities, competitiveness measurement and evaluation, sectoral competitiveness of declining and emerging industries, human capital and talent competitiveness, and the threat of the “Dutch Disease” and protectionism to competitiveness.
References
Adeleye, I., & Anibaba, Y. (2015). Strategic Human Resources Management, Labour Market Efficiency and Competitiveness in Africa: Contemporary Issues and Prospects for the Future. In S. Nwankwo & K. Ibeh (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Business in Africa (pp. 404–420). London and New York: Routledge.
Amankwah-Amoah, J. (2015). Explaining Declining Industries in Developing Countries: The Case of Textiles and Apparel in Ghana. Competition & Change, 19(1), 19–35.
Amankwah-Amoah, J. (2011). Learning from the Failures of Others: The Effects of Post-Exit Knowledge Spillovers on Recipient Firms. Journal of Workplace Learning, 23(6), 358–375.
Amankwah-Amoah, J., & Debrah, Y. A. (2010). The Protracted Collapse of Ghana Airways: Lessons in Organizational Failure. Group and Organization Management, 35(5), 636–665.
Amankwah-Amoah, J., & Debrah, Y. A. (2014). Air Afrique: The Demise of a Continental Icon. Business History, 56(4), 517–546.
Asamoah-Gyadu, J. K. (2005). “Christ Is the Answer”: What Is the Question? A Ghana Airways Prayer Vigil and Its Implications for Religion, Evil and Public Space. Journal of Religion in Africa, 35(1), 93–117.
Asamoah-Gyadu, J. K. (2008). Conquering Satan, Demons, Principalities, and Powers. Ghanaian Traditional and Christian Perspectives on Religion, Evil, and Deliverance. In N. van Doorn-Harder & L. Minnema (Eds.), Coping with Evil in Religion and Culture. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.
A.T. Kearney. (2016). Global Cities 2016. Chicago, IL: AT Kearney.
Barney, J. B., & Clark, D. N. (2007). Resource-Based Theory: Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
BCG. (2010). The African Challengers: Global Competitors Emerge from the Overlooked Continent. Johannesburg: BCG.
Benjamin, N., and Mbaye, A. (2012). The Informal Sector in Francophone Africa: Firm Size, Productivity, and Institutions. Africa Development Forum, Washington, DC: World Bank and Agence Française de Développement.
Boso, N., Adeleye, I., & White, L. (2016). Africa-to-Africa Internationalization: Emerging Trends and Key Issues. In I. Adeleye, L. White, & N. Boso (Eds.), Africa-to-Africa Internationalization: Key Issues and Outcomes (pp. 3–34). Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cannon, M. D., & Edmondson, A. C. (2005). Failing to Learn and Learning to Fail (Intelligently): How Great Organizations Put Failure to Work to Improve and Innovate. Long Range Planning, 38, 299–319.
Carmody, P. (2017). Assembling Effective Industrial Policy in Africa: An Agenda for Action. Review of African Political Economy, 44(152), 336–345.
Carmody, P. (2001). Tearing the Social Fabric: Neoliberalism, Deindustrialization, and the Crisis of Governance in Zimbabwe. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Cole, O., Tse, T., & Esposito, M. (2015). Did Nigeria and Angola Manage Their Oil Windfalls Well Between 1970 and 2000: What Lessons Can Be Learned for New Oil Producers? International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, 8(1), 1–19.
Deloitte. (2016). The 2016 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index. London: Deloitte.
Desai, V. (2011). Mass Media and Massive Failures: Determining Organizational Efforts to Defend the Field’s Legitimacy Following Crises. Academy of Management Journal, 54, 263–278.
Dhir, S., & Sushil. (2016). Global Competitiveness of Informal Economy Organizations. In J. C. Sushil & J. Burgess (Eds.), Flexible Work Organizations: The Challenges of Capacity Building in Asia (pp. 209–224). India: Springer.
Edmondson, A. C. (2011). Strategies for Learning from Failure. Harvard Business Review, 89(4), 48–55.
Ghani, E., Kerr, W., & O’Connell, S. D. (2014). What Makes Cities More Competitive? Lessons from India. Economic Premise, 132, 1–4.
INSEAD. (2017). The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2017. Fontainebleau: INSEAD.
Kleynhans, E. (2009). Size Matters: Comparing the Competitiveness of Manufacturers of Various Sizes in South Africa. Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences, 3(1), 31–48.
Kiggundu, M. N. (1996). Integrating Strategic Management Tasks into Implementing Agencies: From Fire Fighting to Prevention. World Development, 24, 1417–1430.
Kouty, M., & Ongono, P. M. (2017). Upgrading in Value Chain: The Case of Sub-Saharan African Countries. In D. Seck (Ed.), Investment and Competitiveness in Africa (pp. 177–190). Switzerland: Springer.
Lall, S. (2001). Competitiveness Indices and Developing Countries: An Economic Evaluation of the Global Competitiveness Report. World Development, 29(9), 1501–1525.
Li, G., & Rajagopalan, S. (1997). The Impact of Quality on Learning: An Empirical Study. Journal of Operations Management, 15(3), 181–191.
McKinsey. (2016). Lions on the Move II: Realizing the Potential of Africa’s Economies. Chicago: McKinsey Global Institute.
Mellahi, K., & Wilkinson, A. (2004). Organizational Failure: A Critique of Recent Research and a Proposed Integrative Framework. International Journal of Management Reviews, 5, 21–41.
Modisane, K. T. (2017). Finding the Niche to Reposition Leadership in Africa’s Developing Economies for the Global Highway: Review of Literature on Leadership Development Programmes—Methods and Techniques. Human Resource Development International. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2017.1326220.
Newman, C., Page, J., Rand, J., Shimeles, A., Söderbom, M., & Tarp, F. (2016). Made in Africa: Learning to Compete in Industry. Washington, DC: Brookings.
Oqubay, A. (2015). Made in Africa: Industrial Policy in Ethiopia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sheng, J., Amankwah-Amoah, J., & Wang, X. (2017). A Multidisciplinary Perspective of Big Data in Management Research. International Journal of Production Economics, 191, 97–112.
The Economist. (2016, April 16). The 1.2 Billion Opportunity. 418(8985), 3–5.
The Economist. (2013, March 2). Aspiring Africa. 406(8825), 12.
Ucbasaran, D., Shepherd, D., Lockett, A., & Lyon, S. J. (2013). Life After Business Failure: The Process and Consequences of Business Failure for Entrepreneurs. Journal of Management, 39(1), 163–202.
Ulrich, L., & Thomas, R. S. (2014). Building National Competitive Advantage: Rwanda’s Lessons from Singapore. Thunderbird International Business Review, 56(3), 227–242.
Winter, S. G. (1987). Knowledge and Competence as Strategic Assets. In D. J. Teece (Ed.), The Competitive Challenge: Strategies for Industrial Innovation and Renewal (pp. 159–184). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
World Economic Forum (2000). Global Competitiveness Report. Geneva, Switzerland.
World Economic Forum (2005). Global Competitiveness Report. Geneva, Switzerland.
World Economic Forum (2010). Global Competitiveness Report. Geneva, Switzerland.
World Economic Forum (2016). An Action Agenda for Africa’s Competitiveness. Geneva, Switzerland.
Yang, H., Phelps, C., & Steensma, H. K. (2010). Learning from What Others Have Learned from You: The Effects of Knowledge Spillovers on Originating Firms. Academy of Management Journal, 53(2), 371–389.
Yoshino, Y. (2011). Industrial Clusters and Micro and Small Enterprises in Africa: From Survival to Growth. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Zhang, H. (2017). Small Businesses Failure in Emerging Economies: Insights from Failed Chinese Entrepreneurs. Bristol: University of Bristol.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adeleye, I., Amankwah-Amoah, J., Boso, N., Esposito, M. (2018). Africa’s Competitiveness in the Global Economy: Past, Present and Future. In: Adeleye, I., Esposito, M. (eds) Africa’s Competitiveness in the Global Economy. AIB Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67014-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67014-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67013-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67014-0
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)