IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/v47y2010is1p791-813.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Postcolonial Transitions in Africa: Decolonization in West Africa and Present Day South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Decker

Abstract

Black Economic Empowerment is a highly debated issue in contemporary South Africa. Yet few South Africans realize that they are following a postcolonial trajectory already experienced by other countries. This paper presents a case study of British firms during decolonization in Ghana and Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s, which saw a parallel development in business and society to that which occurred in South Africa in the 1990s and 2000s. Despite fundamental differences between these states, all have had to empower a majority of black citizens who had previously suffered discrimination on the basis of race. The paper employs concepts from social capital theory to show that the process of postcolonial transition in African economies has been more politically and socially disruptive than empowerment in Western countries. Historical research contributes to our understanding of the nature of institutional shocks in emerging economies. Copyright (c) 2010 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Decker, 2010. "Postcolonial Transitions in Africa: Decolonization in West Africa and Present Day South Africa," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(s1), pages 791-813, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s1:p:791-813
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fieldhouse, D. K., 1994. "Merchant Capital and Economic Decolonization: The United Africa Company 1929-1987," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198226253, Decembrie.
    2. Decker, Stephanie, 2008. "Building Up Goodwill: British Business, Development and Economic Nationalism in Ghana and Nigeria, 1945–1977," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 602-613, December.
    3. Austin, Gareth & Uche, Chibuike Ugochukwu, 2007. "Collusion and Competition in Colonial Economies: Banking in British West Africa, 1916–1960," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(1), pages 1-26, April.
    4. Anne Kelk Mager, 2008. "Apartheid and business: Competition, monopoly and the growth of the malted beer industry in South Africa," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 272-290.
    5. Mike Wright & Robert E. Hoskisson & Mike W. Peng, 2005. "Strategy Research in Emerging Economies: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 1-33, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ishva Minefee & Marcelo Bucheli, 2021. "MNC responses to international NGO activist campaigns: Evidence from Royal Dutch/Shell in apartheid South Africa," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(5), pages 971-998, July.
    2. Jerven, Morten & Austin, Gareth & Green, Erik & Uche, Chibuike & Frankema, Ewout & Fourie, Johan & Inikori, Joseph & Moradi, Alexander & Hillbom, Ellen, 2012. "Moving Forward in African Economic History. Bridging the Gap Between Methods and Sources," Lund Papers in Economic History 124, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    3. Mary O'Sullivan & Margaret B. W. Graham, 2010. "Guest Editors' Introduction," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(s1), pages 775-790, July.
    4. Decker, Stephanie, 2012. "The silence of the archive: post-colonialism and the practice of historical reconstruction from archival evidence," MPRA Paper 37280, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Uche, Chinyere & Khalid, Sharif, 2022. "Corporate reporting on conflict: A struggle over land," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. Vanessa Scholes, 2014. "You Are Not Worth the Risk: Lawful Discrimination in Hiring," Rationality, Markets and Morals, Frankfurt School Verlag, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, vol. 5(82), February.
    7. OMISORE, Segun & Ho, Manh-Toan, 2019. "Corporate Entrepreneurship, Strategy Formulation, and the Performance of the Nigerian Manufacturing Sector," Thesis Commons u39nc, Center for Open Science.
    8. Liou, Ru-Shiun & Rao-Nicholson, Rekha, 2017. "Out of Africa: The role of institutional distance and host-home colonial tie in South African Firms’ post-acquisition performance in developed economies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1184-1195.
    9. Decker, Stephanie & Estrin, Saul & Mickiewicz, Tomasz, 2020. "The tangled historical roots of entrepreneurial growth aspirations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102989, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Koddenbrock, Kai & Kvangraven, Ingrid Harvold & Sylla, Ndongo Samba, 2020. "Beyond Financialisation: The Need for a Longue Durée Understanding of Finance in Imperialism," OSF Preprints pjt7x, Center for Open Science.
    2. Paeivi Karhunen, 2008. "Toward convergence in the St. Petersburg hotel industry through the lens of institutional theory," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 13(2), pages 106-128.
    3. Ilhan-Nas, Tulay & Okan, Tarhan & Tatoglu, Ekrem & Demirbag, Mehmet & Wood, Geoffrey & Glaister, Keith W., 2018. "Board composition, family ownership, institutional distance and the foreign equity ownership strategies of Turkish MNEs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 862-879.
    4. Sang-Heui Lee & Jay Wyk, 2015. "National institutions and logistic performance: a path analysis," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 9(4), pages 733-747, December.
    5. Zhang, Hongjuan & Young, Michael N. & Tan, Justin & Sun, Weizheng, 2018. "How Chinese companies deal with a legitimacy imbalance when acquiring firms from developed economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 752-767.
    6. Mei, Maggie Qiuzhu & Wang, Le & Yan, Jie, 2023. "Maintaining product quality consistency when offshoring to emerging markets: The role of subsidiary control," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(1).
    7. Jayanti, Rama K. & Raghunath, S., 2018. "Institutional entrepreneur strategies in emerging economies: Creating market exclusivity for the rising affluent," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 87-98.
    8. Conti, Claudio Ramos & Parente, Ronaldo & de Vasconcelos, Flávio C., 2016. "When distance does not matter: Implications for Latin American multinationals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1980-1992.
    9. Lipeng Gary Ge & Cuili Qian & Jiatao Li, 2019. "Mimicry, Knowledge Spillover and Expatriate Assignment Strategy in Overseas Subsidiaries," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 981-1007, December.
    10. Clegg, Jeremy & Lin, Hsin Mei & Voss, Hinrich & Yen, I-Fan & Shih, Yi Tien, 2016. "The OFDI patterns and firm performance of Chinese firms: The moderating effects of multinationality strategy and external factors," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 971-985.
    11. Chari, Murali D.R. & Banalieva, Elitsa R., 2015. "How do pro-market reforms impact firm profitability? The case of India under reform," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 357-367.
    12. Jianghua Zhou & Rui Wu & Jizhen Li, 2019. "More ties the merrier? Different social ties and firm innovation performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 445-471, June.
    13. Saul Estrin & Julia Korosteleva & Tomasz Mickiewicz, 2022. "Schumpeterian Entry: Innovation, Exporting, and Growth Aspirations of Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(2), pages 269-296, March.
    14. Lin Cui & Fuming Jiang, 2010. "Behind ownership decision of Chinese outward FDI: Resources and institutions," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 751-774, December.
    15. Shih-Chang Hung & Yung-Ching Tseng, 2017. "Extending the LLL framework through an institution-based view: Acer as a dragon multinational," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 799-821, December.
    16. Päivi Karhunen & Svetlana Ledyaeva, 2021. "Is Chain Affiliation a Strategic Asset or Constraint in Emerging Economies? Competitive Strategies and Performance in the Russian Hotel Industry," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 403-427, June.
    17. Xiaojing Lu & Sebastian Jacques Manuel Boo & Xiaming Liu, 2024. "Is the relationship between institutional distance and subsidiary performance moderated by top management team? Evidence from Chinese multinational enterprises," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Tirta Mursitama, 2006. "Creating relational rents: The effect of business groups on affiliated firms’ performance in Indonesia," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 537-557, December.
    19. Khanindra Ch. Das, 2013. "Home Country Determinants of Outward FDI from Developing Countries," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 7(1), pages 93-116, February.
    20. Wang, Chengqi & Hong, Junjie & Kafouros, Mario & Boateng, Agyenim, 2012. "What drives outward FDI of Chinese firms? Testing the explanatory power of three theoretical frameworks," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 425-438.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s1:p:791-813. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2380 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.