Publications

April 2015
Teaching Note

Yara International: Africa Strategy

By: Michael Porter and Jorge Ramirez-Vallejo

Leading fertilizer producer Yara International demonstrates the concept of creating shared value through the Southern Agricultural Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) initiative, which brought together multiple organizations to enhance agricultural development in rural... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Tanzania; Agriculture Reform; Africa; Tanzania

September 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

QED Invests in Africa

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui and James Barnett

In March 2022, investors at venture capital firm QED consider strategy for establishing business in Africa. View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Investment; Geography; Markets; Operations; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Africa; Nigeria; North America; Canada; Europe; Asia; Latin America

June 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

South Africa – a 'Just Energy Transition'

By: Richard Vietor

South Africa, like most other countries, is in the process of reducing its carbon emissions to comply with COP26 and, hopefully, reach net zero emissions by 2050. However, because South Africa relies almost wholly on coal (93%) for electricity, and on coal for... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Economic Development; Climate Change; Coal Mining; Emission Reduction; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Law; Labor and Management Relations; Labor Unions; Natural Resources; Energy Policy; Energy Sources; South Africa

September 2021 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Harambe: Mobilizing Capital in Africa

By: Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Francesco Tronci

Harambe was a non-profit organization whose mission was to build an ecosystem to identify promising young African entrepreneurs and provide them access to training, markets, capital, and support networks. From 2007 to 2021, Harambe had grown to a network of 367... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Model; Strategy; Organizational Structure; Business Startups; Capital; Venture Capital; Social and Collaborative Networks; Networks; Developing Countries and Economies; Emerging Markets; Africa; South Africa

April 2012
Case

Bharti Airtel in Africa

By: Krishna Palepu and Tanya Bijlani

February 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Remaking the Rainbow Nation: South Africa 2002

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Debora L. Spar and Katherine E. Cousins

In April 1994, the world witnessed a political milestone in South Africa. After decades of repression and racial segregation, South Africa's black majority came to power at last, as the African National Congress (ANC), led by the celebrated Nelson Mandela, rode into... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Race; Political Elections; Economic Growth; Business and Government Relations; South Africa

October 2018
Article

Africa Rising? A Historical Perspective

By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg

Sub-Saharan Africa’s recent economic boom has raised hopes and expectations to lift the regions’ ‘bottom millions’ out of poverty by 2030. How realistic is that goal? We approach this question by comparing the experiences of three front-runners of region-specific... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Economy; Transformation; Poverty; History; Africa

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April 2011 (Revised May 2013)
Case

South Africa (A): Stuck in the Middle?

By: Richard H. K. Vietor and Diego Comin

Fifteen years after ending apartheid, formal unemployment in South Africa was still at 24%. While the country had grown at 4 to 5% annually during the 2000s, the financial crisis set it back by 1 million more unemployed. Moreover, it seemed as if the nation were stuck... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Inflation and Deflation; Policy; Employment; Wages; Competition; South Africa

February 2025
Supplement

eBee: Affordable Mobility for Africa

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Gamze Yucaoglu and Jordan Mitchell

June 2021
Case

Selassie Atadika: Entrepreneurship in Africa

By: Boris Groysberg, Susan Seligson and Katherine Connolly Baden

This case profiles the career of Ghana-based chef and entrepreneur, Selassie Atadika. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, she faced many questions about the future, such as: How could she convince Ghanaian consumers to view their native cuisine in a fresh,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Women And Leadership; Women-owned Businesses; Food; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; South Africa

September 2012
Case

SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa

By: Ananth Raman, Noel Watson, Santiago Kraiselburd and Emmanuel Akili

In 2005, USAID and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), created the Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) to procure and distribute essential medicines and supplies; provide technical assistance to transform existing supply chains; and... View Details

September 2012 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Doing Business in South Africa

By: Rawi Abdelal, Catherine S. M. Duggan and Ian McKown Cornell

Keywords: South Africa

28 May 2015
Interview

Building Infrastructure in Southern Africa

By: Chris Bishop, Mohan Vivekanandan, Euvin Naidoo, Olivier Fortuin and Linda Olagunju

2016
Case

Africa Strategy of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao, Dayong Yang and Shanshan Cao

Founded in 1983, China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. ("CNMC") is one of the earliest and largest global Chinese nonferrous metal industrial enterprises. It has investments and projects in 27 countries and trade networks in nearly 100 countries with a... View Details

Keywords: Cross-cultural Management; Global Strategy; Globalization; International Business; Strategy Management; Africa; China

February 2023
Teaching Note

Harambe: Mobilizing Capital in Africa

By: Anywhere Sikochi

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 122-021. View Details

25 Sep 2017 - 27 Sep 2017
Lecture

Three-Day Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Africa

By: Euvin Naidoo

Africa and the 4th Industrial Revolution: Innovation, leapfrogging and the promise and challenges of the Demographic Dividend Optional pre-seminar viewing: 2017 MasterClass on Digital Innovation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution Monday, September 25, ... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Africa

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June 1982
Case

Polaroid in South Africa (A), Supplement

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; South Africa

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February 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

InstaDeep: AI Innovation Born in Africa (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Esel Çekin

Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim were the co-founders of InstaDeep, a deep tech startup focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Instadeep was one of the few companies globally that were partnering with DeepMind, an AI subsidiary of Google [Alphabet Inc.].... View Details

Keywords: AI; Artificial Intelligence; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Business Subsidiaries; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; Africa

January 2023
Article

Inequality Regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa from Precolonial Times to the Present

By: Ewout Frankema, Michiel de Haas and Marlous van Waijenburg

While current levels of economic inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa receive ample attention from academics and policymakers, we know little about the long-run evolution of inequality in the region. Even the new and influential ‘global inequality literature’ that is... View Details

Keywords: Economic Inequalty; Equality and Inequality; History; Africa