The emergence of GVCs for frontier markets: Insights from the African mobile telecommunications industry

IF 1.2 Q4 MANAGEMENT

Africa Journal of Management Pub Date : 2021-08-20 DOI:10.1080/23322373.2021.2001287

M. Jahanbakht, Romel Mostafa

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT An important gap in the literature on global value chains (GVCs) and bottom-of-the-pyramid markets concerns how GVCs develop to serve frontier markets and what role multinational and local firms play in that process. This paper takes a first step in filling this gap by studying the evolution of Africa’s mobile telecommunications industry. Applying a historical analysis, we find that the emergence of GVCs for African frontier markets followed a three-step process: initially, multinational corporations (MNCs) linked host countries to the MNCs’ existing value chains; subsequently, local MNC spin-offs experimented in altering key downstream value chains to mitigate the frontier markets’ demand- and supply-side challenges, and replicated those value chains in multiple African countries; and finally, other incumbents reoriented their downstream value chains for frontier markets, aided by the development of experienced local labor markets and specialized contractors. A key implication of our findings is the need for sufficient competitive incentives and industry knowledge to stimulate firms to invest in transforming existing GVCs for frontier markets. This process is highly uncertain; however, successful GVC transformation can lead firms to expand in multiple frontier markets, thereby propelling a growth phase across an entire developing region.

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前沿市场全球价值链的出现:来自非洲移动通信行业的见解

关于全球价值链(GVCs)和金字塔底层市场的文献中有一个重要的空白，涉及到全球价值链如何发展以服务前沿市场，以及跨国公司和本地公司在这一过程中扮演什么角色。本文通过研究非洲移动通信行业的发展，迈出了填补这一空白的第一步。通过历史分析，我们发现全球价值链在非洲前沿市场的出现经历了一个三步走的过程:最初，跨国公司将东道国与跨国公司现有的价值链联系起来;随后，当地的跨国公司附属公司尝试改变关键的下游价值链，以减轻前沿市场的需求和供应方面的挑战，并在多个非洲国家复制了这些价值链;最后，在经验丰富的当地劳动力市场和专业承包商的帮助下，其他老牌企业重新调整了下游价值链，转向前沿市场。我们的研究结果的一个关键含义是，需要足够的竞争激励和行业知识来刺激企业投资于改造现有的全球价值链，以适应前沿市场。这个过程是高度不确定的;然而，成功的全球价值链转型可以引导企业在多个前沿市场扩张，从而推动整个发展中地区的增长阶段。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Africa Journal of Management Business, Management and Accounting-Business and International Management

CiteScore

2.80

自引率

15.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： The beginning of the Twenty First Century has witnessed Africa’s rise and progress as one of the fastest growing and most promising regions of the world. At the same time, serious challenges remain. To sustain and speed up momentum, avoid reversal, and deal effectively with emerging challenges and opportunities, Africa needs better management scholarship, education and practice. The purpose of the Africa Journal of Management (AJOM) is to advance management theory, research, education, practice and service in Africa by promoting the production and dissemination of high quality and relevant manuscripts. AJOM is committed to publishing original, rigorous, scholarly empirical and theoretical research papers, which demonstrate clear understanding of the management literature and draw on Africa’s local indigenous knowledge, wisdom and current realities. As the first scholarly journal of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM), AJOM gives voice to all those who are committed to advancing management scholarship, education and practice in or about Africa, for the benefit of all of Africa. AJOM welcomes manuscripts that develop, test, replicate or validate management theories, tools and methods with Africa as the starting point. The journal is open to a wide range of quality, evidence-based methodological approaches and methods that “link” “Western” management theories with Africa’s indigenous knowledge systems, methods and practice. We are particularly interested in manuscripts which address Africa’s most important development needs, challenges and opportunities as well as the big management questions of the day. We are interested in research papers which address issues of ethical conduct in different African settings.