Entrepreneurial Mindset and Cultures: The African context through the lens of an insider perspective

Many scholars have written on the significant impact an entrepreneurial mindset has on entrepreneurship in general. Most of these scholars agree that these mindsets are, however, heavily influenced by the local culture of the people. Adopting a multiple case study approach with an underlying emic perspective involving five indigenous businesses in South Africa, this paper seeks to provide information about how the Ubuntu philosophy influences the mindsets of entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa. An insider’s perspective is used to describe a particular culture in its terms, designed as an emic perspective, and build five case studies of African businesses. The preliminary results highlighted that the entrepreneurial mindset is culture-bound and that some variations between them are due to specific conditions that act as facilitating factors.