Advancing technological hub collaborations to promote transnational African communities

Michelle Montague-Mfuni, Frances Fabian and Caren Brenda Scheepers

Chapter 4 in Technological Leapfrogging and Innovation in Africa, 2023, pp 71-88 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: African technological hub collaborations provide opportunities for creating pan-African innovation platforms. Using leading-edge technology capabilities, these platforms advance African imperatives for greater intra-continental cooperation and targeted alleviation of poverty. This chapter suggests a categorization of African tech hubs that can help promote more effective structures for designing hub collaborations. Specifically, this chapter proposes that technology hub collaborations are the ideal form for evolving technology innovation by providing “ambidexterity” in managing exploration and exploitation capacities, as well as investing in springboarding opportunities. Technology hub collaborations develop synergistic value from shared identity and network relationships that promote Ubuntu ethics. As a result, members of tech hub collaboratives benefit from drawing on expertise from firms devoted to explorative learning from advanced technology centers as well as those focused on exploitation sensitive to African contexts. We follow our conceptual framework for advancing and advocating for the advancement of African tech hub collaborations. Finally, we offer practical examples of hub collaborations that helped provide effective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Business and Management; Development Studies; Economics and Finance; Innovations and Technology; Politics and Public Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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