African Business Research: A Review of Studies Published in the Journal of African Business and a Framework for Enhancing Future Studies

The development of Africa depends on productivity and effectiveness of businesses. One objective of the Journal of African Business (JAB) is to facilitate business effectiveness through dissemination of research and practitioner knowledge. Reviewing 96 articles published over a seven year period (2000–2006) published in JAB, the study looked for patterns in the research described (i.e., disciplinary focus, geographic coverage, characteristics of authors, etc). The study also focused on the degree of correspondence (or fit) between Western theory and data provided. Four important findings are: (1) JAB published research from diverse disciplines; (2) there seems to be a bias toward Business rather than Management disciplines, (3) a majority of the research is empirical; and (4) there seems to be a lack of context-specific theories. A proposed framework and implications for future research are discussed.