Fourth Out of (and Into) Africa Conference

Online delivery of the last two conferences generated greater (and more impactful) scholarly participation from the African continent and other parts of the world, and we will continue with this format. The multi-HBCU scope and international scope in conference organization further enhances reach and attractiveness of this conference.

To be clear, submissions are invited from ALL academic institutions across the world, provided the scholarship has a clear African focus. This international business conference series is Africa-centric.

Despite promising social economic development in Africa and foreign marketers' enthusiasm toward its future growth, there remains limited firm or consumer research for marketing practitioners. Extant literature shows knowledge/application on African firm strategy and consumer behavior is fragmented. We set the following three goals for the conference:

1. Reviewing current knowledge on African consumers, marketing, firm strategy, and societal policies - highlighting gaps in our knowledge and understanding of international business with an African focus.
2. Bringing to light contributions/paradigms originating from Africa, and developing an agenda for future research
3. Fostering collaborations among firm strategy, consumer marketing and public policy researchers with similar interests.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic (starting 2020), African consumer and business spending was expected to grow beyond $4 trillion, with a striking demographic dividend indicated by a massive expected working-age population larger than either China or India by 2034, abundant resources, and fast-paced growth. While the recent pandemic caused a recessionary environment across the continent, it also created opportunities (and challenges) for entrepreneurship and small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovative solutions including products/services have been introduced in various countries across the continent - which may have far-reaching implications, in the long run, in Africa and across the globe.

Additionally, in 2015, the United Nations developed 17 sustainable development goals (UN SDGs) to solve “grand challenges”. These UN Grand Challenges represent common issues faced worldwide, including ending poverty and hunger, promoting good health and well-being, ensuring inclusion and equity, gender inequality, among many others (United Nations, n.d.). There have been multiple calls for individuals, communities, organizations, and institutions to actively work on developing solutions and achieving the 17 UN SDGs across Africa. One example of a trend in Africa is brain drain, which is the migration of employees from one country into another. Brain drain has become a trend among professionals, such as medical practitioners, within the continent of Africa, migrating into non-African continents and leaving organizations short-staffed and clients (or patients) lacking the care they need (Ebeye & Lee, 2023). Such a trend negatively affects the African continent and highlights the need to work on UN SDGs.

The past decade has witnessed cross-fertilization of African-born entrepreneurship and innovation into other parts of the world, along with growth opportunities for MNCs and SMEs into Africa. Indeed, there have been important calls from academia for making a serious effort to “bringing Africa in” (George, at al. 2016).

The time is ripe for an updated showcase of scholarly insights regarding international business in this still under-studied continent - including, and especially, insights and strategy/tactics that originated from Africa. Lutz (2009), for example, utilized Ubuntu philosophy in understanding a theory of global management. Indeed, with the demographic explosion coming from developing countries, it is imperative to examine more non-Western contexts in depth (Wickert, et al, 2024). Thus, our theme this year is Going Africa-Centric. This conference series marks a significant step toward creating a sustained effort among HBCUs - with Morgan leadership - to connect with Africa in business-related research at both the micro and macro level.

The interests of Africa, Africans and the entrepreneurial processes/innovations/paradigms created in Africa are at the very core of our 2025 conference. How businesses communicate entrepreneurial opportunities and significance of nonmarket strategies for SMEs (see Oriaifo, Oliveira, and Ellis, 2019), for example, are well worth our investigation. We encourage all researchers to go Africa-Centric with us and submit their related research and ideas, particularly with societal drivers (like religion) more prominent and significant in Africa (Barnard & Momabolo, 2022). Research themes that could be particularly relevant to this conference include the following, as they pertain to firm strategy, businesses in Africa, African marketing, and interplay with society and institutions:

1. African Consumers and Markets
    
2. African firms, corporations, co-ops, and organizations
    
3. Returning to Africa: Starting New African Businesses
    
4. Technical and Vocational Training in Africa
    
5. Technology, Innovation, and Marketing within Africa
    
6. Higher education in Africa and Global Partnerships
    
7. Africans and the Triadic Relationship
    
8. Study Abroad and Study-Differentiated Experiential Paradigms
    
9. African Leaders Contextualized: Biographical Discourse
    
10. Internal Migrations in Africa and Their Implications
     
11. African non-profits and NGOs: impact on business development
     
12. Africa and Global Politics
     
13. Philosophy and Theories of Afrocentrism
     
14. Afro-Politanism and Global Africa; Africa’s Global Footprint
     
15. Theorists and Idealists

 Conference Chair:

Dr. Omar J. Khan   |   omar.khan@morgan.edu   |   Graves School of Business and Management, Morgan State University

Program Chairs:

Program Chair for Firm Strategies and Tactics:
Dr. Omar J. Khan   |   omar.khan@morgan.edu   |   Graves School of Business and Management, Morgan State University

Program Co-Chairs for African Consumer Marketing:
Dr. Penelope Muzanenhamo   |   penelope.muzanenhamo@ucd.ie   |   Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin, Ireland 
Dr. Juliet Osuji   |   joosuji@ncat.edu   |   illie A. Deese College of Business and Economics, North Carolina A & T

Program Co-Chairs for Society and Institutions:
Dr. Hakeem Tijani   |   hakeem.tijani@morgan.edu   |   Office of Global Partnerships-Africa, Morgan State University 
Mr. Rodney Smith   |   rodney.smith@bison.howard.edu   |   Center for African Studies, Howard University

COMING SOON