Favoriser un développement durable en Afrique subsaharienne par l’entrepreneuriat innovant : quelles conditions institutionnelles et sociétales?

Abstract

There seems to be some skepticism over entrepreneurship capacity to stimulate a virtuous and sustainable growth in developing economies, particularly in French-speaking Africa, where the spirit of enterprise is said to be less lively. One explanation may be the relative lack of knowledge of entrepreneurship specificity in French-speaking Africa. The objective of this article is to study the relevance of support systems based on insufficiently detailed characteristics of these ecosystems. Thus, improving knowledge of the conditions under which successful African VSEs/SMEs operate and the types of challenges, opportunities, resources and networks within their contexts is necessary to advance entrepreneurship support. Through experiments already carried out, the comparative analysis of two contrasting cases sheds light on the relevant practices to circumvent the obstacles and on strengthening resilience capacities, without increasing vulnerability. The results highlight the dynamics of innovation of business models based on local resources that are complementary to financial and technological resources, and the importance of a territorial approach that is more focused on concerns of resilience than growth.