Special issue editorial: Social innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa

Africa is at a crossroads. On the one hand, it faces numerous intractable sustainable development challenges, including widespread and persistent poverty (Schoch & Lakner, 2020), increasing competition for resources (Economist, 2020), and the intensifying effects of global climate change (United Nations, 2020). These challenges are exacerbated by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (Paci, 2021). On the other hand, many African economies are growing rapidly (EY, 2021), whilst over the last decade significant progress has been made in governance and sustainable development across the continent (Signe & Gurib- Fakim, 2019). Many African cities have become centers of (social) innovation and entrepreneurship (FT, 2019), with Africans shaping their own destinies and developing local solutions to the challenges they face. Perceptions outside Africa are also changing, with the opportunities and potential of the continent and its peoples increasingly recognized. This special issue of the Africa Journal of Management aims to reflect on and speak to these transformations. The papers in it present novel empirical and theoretical insights on social innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, adding to this emerging field and showcasing the contributions that research from Africa and utilizing African data can make to wider social innovation and entrepreneurship scholarship (George, 2015; George et al., 2016; Rivera-Santos et al., 2015). Social innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa are the subject of growing academic attention (Bitzer et al., 2015; Ciambotti & Pedrini, 2021; Holt & Littlewood, 2017; Littlewood & Holt, 2018a, 2018b; Mirvis & Googins, 2018; Rivera-Santos et al., 2015; Sottini et al., 2021; Steinfield & Holt, 2019; etc.). Nevertheless, research has struggled to keep pace with rapid developments on the ground and in practice. Scholarship on social innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa also remains fragmented, with many research questions unanswered. For this reason, this special issue of the Africa Journal of Management was convened. The papers in this special issue all contribute to advancing the field of research on social innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, and to wider social innovation and entrepreneurship scholarship. In the next section, we review the state of the field. We then introduce each of the papers and discuss their contributions. Finally, we explore areas for further enquiry, building on the perspectives and insights offered by this special issue.