Title: Entrepreneurship and economic wealth in Africa: does FDI provide new insight in a threshold model?

Authors: Daniel Ofori-Sasu; Smile Dzisi; Joshua Yindenaba Abor

Addresses: University of Ghana Business School, P.O. Box LG, 78, Legon-Accra, Ghana ' Koforidua Technical University, P.O. Box KF 981, Koforidua, Ghana ' University of Ghana Business School, P.O. Box LG, 78, Legon-Accra, Ghana

Abstract: In this paper, we seek to examine the impact of FDI inflows on the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic wealth. It employs a dynamic system GMM for a panel dataset of 54 African economies across the period, 2004-2020. The study finds an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship between entrepreneurship and economic wealth. We confirm that countries in the region benefit from both entrepreneurship and FDI only in the short run. The study finds that the initial levels of entrepreneurship increases economic wealth, but beyond an entrepreneurial threshold point of 68.57, the positive effect of entrepreneurship on economic wealth is reducing. We provide evidence to support that the positive impact of entrepreneurship is enhanced at higher levels of FDIs. In addition, entrepreneurship complements FDI to promote economic wealth. The implication is that countries should continue to provide strategies that promote economic wealth through prudent entrepreneurial framework and conducive investment climate.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; FDI inflows; economic wealth; Africa.

DOI: 10.1504/GBER.2024.142007

Global Business and Economics Review, 2024 Vol.31 No.4, pp.505 - 535

Received: 26 Oct 2022
Accepted: 05 Mar 2023
Published online: 07 Oct 2024 *

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