Dana, Leo Paul, Vanessa Ratten, and Ben Q Honyenuga. African Entrepreneurship: Challenges and Opportunities for Doing Business. 1st ed. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73700-3.

Outlining the unique challenges and opportunities of doing business in Africa, this book analyses how varying degrees of development across its countries affects entrepreneurship. Taking into account historical and cultural contexts, the authors approach the topic by evaluating the different possibilities of business opportunity in Africa. Insightful contributions explore an extensive range of African countries, discussing both formal and informal entrepreneurship, as well as the different factors that influence the growing economy of Africa.

Source: Book description (cited from Amazon.ca)

Kristiansen, Stein, and Anne Ryen. “Enacting Their Business Environments: Asian Entrepreneurs in East Africa.” African and Asian Studies 1, no. 3 (2002): 165–86. https://doi.org/10.1163/15692090260234001.

The main objective of this paper is to contribute to explaining the outstanding business success among the Asian diaspora in East Africa as compared to the native African population. Taking an actor's point of view, the business context is analysed against a theoretical background of alien entrepreneurship and a presentation of the history of Asians in the region. A main argument is that the alien entrepreneurs are in a better position to enact their business context in a manner favourable for success, based on ethnic resources such as kinship, education and pride, mobility and communication and social networking. The main policy recommendations include mechanisms to improve information flows and networking capabilities of indigenous businesspeople.

Source: Article's abstract

Mehta, Makrand. “Gujarati Business Communities in East African Diaspora: Major Historical Trends.” Economic and Political Weekly 36, no. 20 (2001): 1738–47.

Gujarati emigrants to East Africa were central to the economic development of that region both before and during European colonial rule. Not the undifferentiated mass of' Indians' or 'Asians' recorded by the colonial powers, the Gujaratis were both internally divided by caste, community, and religion, and bound together by common ties of language an orientation towards business. It was those ties, and the carefully maintained kinship and community networks, which the various communities utilised to build their economic fortunes in their new lands. Thus it is to those networks that attention must be turned to understand both the foundations of Gujarati success in East Africa as well as their continuing links back to Gujarat.

Source: Article's abstract

DiCaprio, Alisa., James A. Robinson, and Alice H. (Alice Hoffenberg) Amsden. The Role of Elites in Economic Development. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Elites have a disproportionate impact on development outcomes. While a country's endowments constitute the deep determinates of growth, the trajectory they follow is shaped by the actions of elites. But what factors affect whether elites use their influence for individual gain or national welfare? To what extent do they see poverty as a problem? And are their actions today constrained by institutions and norms established in the past? This volume looks at case studies from South Africa to China to seek a better understanding of the dynamics behind how elites decide to engage with economic development. Approaches include economic modelling, social surveys, theoretical analysis, and program evaluation. These different methods explore the relationship between elites and development outcomes from five angles: the participation and reaction of elites to institutional creation and change, how economic changes affect elite formation and circulation, elite perceptions of national welfare, the extent to which state capacity is part of elite self-identity, and how elites interact with non-elites.

Source: Book description by publisher

Hugo, Katja, and Maggie Carter. (2022).Between Fault Lines and Front Lines: Shifting Power in an Unequal World. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Inequality is one of today's greatest challenges, obstructing poverty reduction and sustainable development. As the power of elites grows and societal gaps widen, institutions representing the public good and universal values are increasingly disempowered or co-opted, and visions of social justice and equity side-lined.  

This book explores the roles of elites and institutions of power in the deepening of social and economic cleavages across the globe, by asking how inequalities have reshaped structures from the local to the transnational level, and what consequences they have wrought. In addition, the contributors present examples of peaceful processes of policy change that have made societies greener and more socially just, levelled out social stratification, and devolved power and resources from elites to non-elites, or towards marginalized or discriminated groups. Based on cutting-edge empirical research, the chapters in this volume bring together conceptual thinking and a number of case studies from the Global North and South, combining different levels of analysis and a range of qualitative research methods to present solutions for closing the inequality gap.

Source: Book description by publisher

Alders, Wolfgang. “Clientage, Debt, and the Integrative Orientation of Non-Elites on the East African Swahili Coast.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 73 (2024): 101553-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2023.101553.

Ceramic trends on Unguja Island in Zanzibar, Tanzania provide insights into non-elite political strategies on the East African Swahili Coast. Synthesizing imported ceramic data from two seasons of systematic field survey across rural Unguja with historical, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence from coastal East Africa, this paper argues that an integrative orientation toward power characterized bottom-up action on the Swahili Coast over the second millennium CE. While theories of bottom-up action have emphasized commoner autonomy and resistance to clientage, debt, and social inequality, evidence from the Swahili Coast attests to efforts by non-elites to seek entrance into cycles of reciprocal obligation as a means for recognition and social mobility—a specifically non-egalitarian orientation toward power. In response, elites competed with one another to accumulate wealth-in-people, resulting in a competitive patron-client system that prevented political consolidation. Elucidating these dynamics contributes to an understanding of how non-elite political strategies have shaped sociopolitical systems globally.

Source: Article's abstract