Entrepreneurship in Côte d'Ivoire: Exploring Colonial, Cultural, and Religious Influences on Entrepreneurial Engagement

This paper critically examines how colonial history, cultural values, and religious influences intersect to shape entrepreneurship in Côte d'Ivoire. Adopting a decolonial perspective, it explores how the legacies of colonial extraction and postcolonial governance continue to structure entrepreneurial opportunities, while local cultural and spiritual traditions generate alternative logics of value creation. Design/methodology/approach : Using qualitative storytelling and six narrative vignettes of Ivorian entrepreneurs from diverse sectors, the study demonstrates how decolonial analysis can illuminate situated forms of agency. Storytelling is used not simply as a means of illustrating practice but as a decolonial methodology that reclaims local voice, recognises plural epistemologies, and privileges moral, cultural, and historical depth. Findings : The analysis identifies three interconnected mechanisms through which coloniality is reinterpreted and contested in everyday entrepreneurial life: the reclamation of colonial infrastructures for local production; the moralisation of governance through faith-based ethics; and the mobilisation of collective finance traditions rooted in reciprocity and social trust. Entrepreneurs rework inherited systems by embedding cultural meaning, stewardship, and communal responsibility into their ventures.