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African Innovation and Entrepreneurship (AfrIE) Research Hub

Director: Prof. Dr. Amon Simba

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AfrIE Hub Events, Conferences, Workshops and Webinars

Past events 2025

2 April 2025: Bibliometric - Systematic  Literature Review  (B-SLR)  Methodology

This research event, sponsored by the AFRIE hub and the Department of Management, NTU, was led by guest speaker Prof. Andrea Caputo, Professor in Strategy and Negotiation at the University of Trento, Italy.  This advanced workshop built on the success of the African Research for the Mainstream international workshop that took place in February and introduced participants to the Bibliometric-Systematic Literature Review Methodology (B-SLR), co-developed by Marzi, Balzano, Caputo and Pellegrini and published in the International Journal of Management Reviews 2024.

11-12 March 2025: 2nd Annual Eastern Africa Centre Symposium

25-26 February 2025: International Workshop: African Research for the Mainstream: entrepreneurship, innovation and sub-Saharan Africa

On 25th - 26th February 2025 an international workshop dedicated to Entrepreneurship and Innovation in sub-Saharan Africa took place at Nottingham Trent University. The workshop was jointly organized by the AfrIE Research Hub, the Inseec Research Center and the NTU Eastern Africa Centre. It aimed to provide academics, policymakers, and practitioners with a valuable forum for discussion and critical analysis of major issues and challenges interrelating with entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa across all fields of Management Science.

As part of the conference, 2 calls for papers were made via Emerald Publishing:

Please contact Dr Amon Simba for more information: Amon.Simba@ntu.ac.uk

Past events 2024

  • 6 September 2024: Webinar: Women Research Network. 'Meet the Editors'. Dr Amon Simba - Guest Speaker.
  • 9 September 2024: Webinar. Durban University of Technology (DUT) - Business School. 'Contextualising for Inclusivity: Integrating African Scholarship into Mainstream Research'. Dr Amon Simba - Guest Speaker.
  • 8 November 2024: PRME UK and Ireland Business and Society Research Development Workshop Series, Nottingham University Business School. Dr Amon Simba - Guest Speaker.

Special issues

Current manuscript calls for special journal editions

Call for manuscript submissions to the Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship for a special issue on Informal Entrepreneurship: A sub-Saharan African Perspective -  Manuscript deadline 31 October 2025

Call for manuscript submissions to Technovation, The Journal for Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Management for a special issue on: Information technology and people: Creating a better society for the aging population: Extended abstract deadline: 1 November 2025

Call for manuscript submissions to the journal Human Resource Development International for a special issue on Human Resources Development: Focusing on SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa:

  • Abstract deadline 22 June 2025
  • Manuscript deadline  30 November 2025

Rationale & motivation: the AfrIE Hub story

Recent scholarly work identifies a deep divide between the Northern and Southern hemispheres (Bruton et al., 2021; Hamann et al., 2020; Muñoz & Kimmitt, 2018). It highlights theoretical perspectives developed based on the Western context as dominant within the economic and social transactions discourse. Such Western views are universally applied in research, with little sensitivity to contextual differences. The tendency in existing scholarly research is to make cosmetic changes, force–fitting theory to phenomena.

Starting from the theory rather than the phenomenon also runs the risk of overlooking important aspects of structural problems that are simply not on the radar of social scientists brought up in Western societies and trained in Western research institutions. One of the reasons for the predominance of Western theories is that high–level research is driven mainly by researchers from the West, while African voices (with the exception of Egypt and South Africa) are largely absent. A fact that, in turn, can be attributed to the lack of support for graduate students or appropriate doctoral programs and supervisor training leading to poor quality education and inequality. AfrIE Hub aims to change this situation with the following objectives.

Objectives

AfrIE Hub’s overarching goal is to make research on innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa more inclusive and impactful. In collaboration with NTU’s Eastern Africa Centre (EAC) and NTU’s Eastern Africa PhD Hub, AfrIE brings scholars, students, and higher education institutions (HEIs) from Africa, Europe, and USA onto the same arena to enable reverse learning and genuine cross–fertilisation of ideas between scholars, students and commentators in a way that advances African innovation and entrepreneurship research.

AfrIE Hub endeavours to foster an environment for enabling capacity and capability development in innovation and entrepreneurship research. The goal is to build a critical mass of skilled supervisors, and establish benchmarks for doctoral supervision/research to ensure consistency and quality of African innovation and entrepreneurship research. The AfrIE Hub is committed to enabling knowledge sharing and exchange in a way that facilitates ground–breaking research underpinned by strong PhD programmes for students and supervisors in Africa. Its goals align with NTU’s Eastern Africa Centre (EAC), NTU’s Eastern Africa PhD Hub and NTU’s ‘Connecting Globally’ agenda.

Collaborators & researchers

To achieve AfrIE Hub’s research and societal impact goals and contribute to NTU’s ‘Connecting Globally’ strategy, the hub is working with both internal and external collaborators. AfrIE Hub is collaborating with NTU’s Eastern Africa Centre (EAC), NTU’s Eastern Africa PhD Hub, Nottingham Business Schools’ 'Responsible and Sustainable Business Lab' and NTU’s Africa Middle East Network (AMEnetwork) to expand their global reach. Externally, AfrIE Hub is working with top international institutions, including The University of Notre Dame, Indiana, United States, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Switzerland, ‘NTU’s International Institutional Partner’ Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, HEC Montreal, Montreal, Canada and St Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada.

Research Themes

  • Entrepreneurship & Poverty
  • Entrepreneurship & Well Being
  • Women Entrepreneurship
  • Informal Financing
  • Informal Entrepreneurship
  • Immigrant Entrepreneurship
  • Indigenous Entrepreneurship
  • Frugal Innovation
  • Family Business
  • Technological Innovation
  • Bricolage

Countries we are working in in Africa

  • Egypt
  • Ghana
  • Morocco
  • Nigeria
  • Tanzania
  • South Africa
  • Uganda
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

Team members

Funded Projects

2025

  • PI: Victor Udeozor: NBS Seedcorn Scheme: Project title: Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial Resilience

2023

  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant Total $72000. Project Title: Small–scale holder farmers’ entrepreneurial ecosystems in Tanzania (SFET). File number: 430-2023-01183.
  • PI: Seedcorn Funds NBS Total £1500. Financing and Women in Entrepreneurship in Guyana

2021

  • PI: Seedcorn Funds NBS Total £2500. Project Title: Women entrepreneurs and informal financing in sub–Saharan African region

Publications 2024

Publications 2023

  • Simba, A., & Tajeddin, M. (2023). Enabling economic and social change in sub-Saharan Africa: An informal economy perspective. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, p2350022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S108494672350022X.
  • Simba, A., Ojong, N. & Dana, L–P., (2023). Informal entrepreneurship: A review and prioritization of research opportunities, Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 28(2), 1–24. Article No. 2350013. DOI: 10.1142/S1084946723500139.
  • Simba, A., Tajeddin, M., Dana, L–P., &  Soriano, D. R. (2023). Deconstructing involuntary financial exclusion of firms: A cross–country study of African SMEs, Small Business Economics, DOI: 10.1007/s11187-023-00767-1. (ABS3).
  • Simba, A., Wang, A., & del Olmo García, F. (2023). Deconstructing self–organisation in micro–entrepreneurship: A social embeddedness perspective, Journal of Business Research, 162(2023), 113916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113916 (ABS3)
  • Simba, A., Oyedele, O., BRAUNE, E., & Dana, L–P. (2023). Community financing in entrepreneurship: A focus on women entrepreneurs in the developing world, Journal of Business Research, 163(2023), 113962. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113962 (ABS3)

External Collaborators

Grassroots Economics -  Sarafu Network

Ending poverty lies in building communities

Grassroots Economics is building and supporting systems that empower communities to create their own financial systems based on local goods and services in regional markets that are built from the ground up.

Sarafu.Network is an open source decentralized application that connects people to the Celo distributed ledger in order to develop Economic Commons.

Through Commitment Pooling people have a way to exchange Community Asset Vouchers representing commitments for goods and services while incubating projects and businesses, without relying on scarce national currency and volatile markets.

Prof. Bitange Ndemo

Bitange Ndemo’s career spans academia, government service, advisory roles, and entrepreneurship. He is Kenya's Ambassador to Belgium and is also responsible for representing the country's interests at the Mission to the European Union.

Before assuming his current diplomatic assignment, Ndemo served as a distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences at the University of Nairobi. During this tenure, his research focused on exploring the critical connection between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the growth of small and medium enterprises. His work highlighted the significant role of ICTs in influencing economic development in Africa.

Additionally, he served as the Chairman of the Kenya Distributed Ledgers and Artificial Intelligence Taskforce. This taskforce played a vital role in developing a comprehensive digital transformation roadmap, charting the course for Kenya's technological advancement. Throughout his career, Ndemo has been actively involved as an advisor and board member for various organizations.

Notably, he is a panel member of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Policy Forum (MIT AIPF) and an expert panel member for the OECD on Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. Prior to his academic role, Ndemo held the esteemed position of Permanent Secretary at Kenya's Ministry of Information and Communication. In this capacity, he facilitated several groundbreaking ICT projects that have had a transformative impact on Kenya's technological landscape. Some of these projects include the establishment of undersea cables, open data initiatives, and the development of Silicon Savannah, a technology city aimed at fostering innovation and technological advancement within the country. Ndemo's influence extends globally as he has served as a Senior Advisor to the UN's Global Pulse, focusing on Big Data initiatives.

He has also contributed his expertise to the UNCDF's Better than Cash Alliance and UNESCO's Innovation Council. An ardent advocate of Open Data and Big Data, Ndemo is dedicated to making complex data accessible and understandable to ordinary citizens through data visualization. He actively shares his insights and expertise through two weekly columns in Business Daily and Nation online.

Prof. Michael H. Morris

Michael H. Morris is Professor of Entrepreneurship & Social Innovation at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Development. He previously served as the George and Lisa Etheridge Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Florida. The entrepreneurship programs he has built at three universities have been ranked in the top ten nationally. Dr. Morris is a pioneer in curricular innovation and experiential learning, and annually coordinates the Experiential Classroom, the premier clinic on teaching entrepreneurship. His outreach efforts have facilitated development of thousands of ventures, and he has started three ventures of his own. Professor Morris works to bring entrepreneurship empowerment to those operating under conditions of adversity, and coordinates the Urban Poverty and Business Initiative (UPBI). He has authored 14 books and published over 140 scholarly journal articles. Dr. Morris is a Past President of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He has been awarded the Edwin & Gloria Appel Prize for contributions to entrepreneurship, the Academy of Management’s Dedication to Entrepreneurship Award, the Leavey Award from the Freedoms Foundation for impacting private enterprise education, and the Legacy Award from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centres.

Mr William O Ruddick (Founder 'Grassroots Economics')

'Grassroots Economics', based in Kenya, is a non-profit foundation dedicated to nurturing prospering economies built by thriving communities across diverse settings, including urban, rural, peri-urban, and refugee areas. Since its inception in 2014, the foundation has been instrumental in fostering community well-being through innovative economic protocols that enhance group resource coordination.

One such pioneering initiative is the Sarafu Network platform, which introduces the concept of Commitment Pooling and Community Asset Voucher systems. Inspired by ancestral wisdom, these systems are designed to leverage traditional mutual service practices, where communities support each other through non-monetary exchanges and reciprocal commitments.

Community Asset Vouchers, a component of the Sarafu.Network, act as formalized commitments made by community members. These vouchers are denominated in local currency units and represent a promise by the issuer to deliver goods or services. They help in circulating value within the community, thereby enhancing local trade and economic resilience.

The Commitment Pooling protocol, developed by Grassroots Economics, aggregates commitments (such as services or resources) into economic commons, facilitating their management and fair exchange. This protocol is aimed at creating a more equitable and collaborative economic system that aligns with the ethos of mutual service and collective agency. It supports the implementation of polycentric, autonomous, decentralized economic systems, which are crucial for sustainable community development.

The introduction of these systems not only revives traditional communal practices but also integrates them with modern technology, allowing for greater scale and impact. Through Sarafu.Network, Grassroots Economics demonstrates how communities can harness their collective capacities to foster economic self-sufficiency and resilience, paving the way for a more inclusive and sustainable economic future.

Prof. Paul Jones

Paul Jones is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Head of the School of Management at Swansea University, UK. Previously, he held academic posts at Coventry University, Plymouth University and the University of South Wales.  Professor Jones undertakes research in entrepreneurship behaviour, innovation, small business management and information technology. Prof Jones has written extensively on developing entrepreneurial activity in an African context and has undertaken several international projects with the British Council. Prof Jones is widely published with over 120 peer reviewed journal articles and 14 edited books published in his career to date. Professor Jones is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Senior Editor of the journal Information Technology and People, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Management Education and Series Editor of the Emerald book series Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship Research.

Prof. Domingo Ribeiro-Soriano

Domingo Ribeiro-Soriano is a Professor of Business Administration at the Universitat de València, Spain. He is also the director of the “Entrepreneurship: from student to entrepreneur” Chair. As a researcher, he has published more than 150  papers in SSCI-ranked journals. Throughout his career, he has edited, co-edited special issues, and contributed to books, journals, and conferences and has delivered keynote  speeches at international conferences. He has also led several EU-funded projects, and contracts with private companies. Before starting his career in academia, he worked as a consultant at EY (formerly Ernst & Young).

Dr. Diana Nandagire Ntamu

Dr. Diana Nandagire Ntamu is an entrepreneurship development specialist and the director of the Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Incubation Centre at Makerere University Business School (MUBS). She is a senior lecturer in the Department of Entrepreneurship and holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an MBA (Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management) and a B.A Education (Economics major) from Makerere University.

Dr. Ntamu has spent the last 20 years collaborating with national and international organizations to advance entrepreneurship through training and research. She has created and implemented training programs for micro, small, and medium-sized firms in her capacity as the director of the Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Incubation Centre, and she has provided leadership to different projects at the MUBS Entrepreneurship Centre. She has researched entrepreneurship in family businesses, entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation in markets, marginalization and women's entrepreneurship, youth employment, financial resilience, business models, entrepreneurial resilience and social entrepreneurship. She has also conducted research on small and growing businesses in Uganda and Nigeria. She has supported organizations as a consultant in creating roadmaps for transformation.

Dr. Ntamu believes  in promoting microfinance and entrepreneurship as a vehicle for poverty reduction. Dr. Ntamu continues to promote social and economic change, building entrepreneurial skills of youth and women groups around the country.

Prof. Mai Thanh Thai

Mai Thi Thai is Associate Professor at HEC Montreal and the founder and director of Social Business Creation (SBC). Using gamification methods, the SBC program teaches social entrepreneurship and social business models that use market mechanisms to solve social issues. At HEC Montreal, she teaches social entrepreneurship, new venture creation, strategies in transitional markets, and qualitative methods. Her research focuses on the link between entrepreneurship and its socioeconomic, cultural, and political contexts. She was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship from 2015 to 2020, during which she led the journal to unprecedented growth in terms of full-text downloads, manuscript submissions, and journal rankings. Besides two impactful books, she has published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings. She is a lifetime member of the Beta Gamma Sigma AACSB-Honor Society. Mai Thai has won many local and international awards for her performance and commitment in her different roles as a researcher, teacher, and entrepreneur throughout her career.

Dr Mahdi Tajeddin

Mahdi Tajeddin is an Assistant Professor at Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary University, Strategy & Entrepreneurship. As a scholar in strategy and entrepreneurship, my expertise lies in the intricate dynamics of firms in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). My multi-faceted research spans three key areas: the unique internationalisation challenges and strategies of SMEs in SSA, the interplay of technology evolution and innovation on global firms, and the adoption of non-market strategies by companies in emerging economies. My investigations have yielded insights into SME affiliations in ethnically diverse regions, the role of technology in SME internationalisation, and the nuances of the informal economy. With a track record of securing significant research grants and collaborations with African universities, my findings have been showcased in premier journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Small Business Economics, Journal of International Management and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

Prof. Peter Quartey

Peter Quartey is a Professor in Development Economics and the immediate past Head, Department of Economics and Director (Economic Management Programme), University of Ghana. He served as the Deputy Director, Centre for Migration Studies (University of Ghana). Prof. Peter Quartey served as the Head, Economics Division, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana and currently the Director, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana. Peter Quartey was the Management Board Chairman, University of Ghana Cooperative Credit Union (2012-2015) and Vice Management Board Chairman (2009-2012). He is currently the Vice National Advisory Board Chairman, the Hunger Project (Ghana) and a Board Member, Agricultural Development Bank Ltd and the Executive Chairman of Startrite Montessori School Ltd. He has published extensively and his research interests are: Financial and Monetary Sector, Private Sector Development including SMEs, Development Finance, Migration and Remittances and Poverty Analysis. He has consulted for both local and international institutions including the World Bank, African Development Bank, OECD, USAID, Overseas Development Institute, DFID and many others. He is a member of the African Economic Research Consortium and the Global Development Network. He is also the executive director of Retail Finance Distribution research initiative funded by Bill & Melinda Foundation.

Research projects