31.10.2022

DBA Goes Ethiopia

DBA Goes Ethiopia: Exciting research trip to Ethiopia

From October 16-22, 2022, Prof. Philipp von Carlowitz, head of the Doing Business in Africa research group at ESB Business School, was in Ethiopia for research purposes. The schedule included a variety of interesting appointments.

For a research paper on German-African sales partnerships, expert interviews were conducted on site. It is always interesting to see how entrepreneurial local traders think and act. It is also amazing how open these companies are and talk about their challenges.  It is often surprising how small such local traders are who represent well-known international companies locally, often their annual sales do not even reach one million USD.

Some discussions were also held with German companies to find out their current assessment of the business environment. It was also possible to visit the local production of glue of Krones AG and to talk about the special challenges of a production in Ethiopia.

To expand the network of experts, talks were also held with the Secretary General of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations and the Executive Director of the European Union Business Forum Ethiopia (EUBFE). In these talks, the business environment from the point of view of local companies and European companies was also discussed. Both the effects of the fighting in the province of Tigray and the disastrous effects of the shortage of foreign currency for business activities were discussed. Good contacts to experts for future research projects could be established.

Finally, lecturers and the Dean of Studies of the Management Department of Addis Ababa University discussed a teaching and research cooperation within the DAAD funds recently acquired by the DBA team. A strong interest exists on both sides and it is expected that the cooperation will be able to start in 2023.

It was a successful and stimulating research trip that improved the understanding of the country and business issues in the Ethiopian context and raised many new applied issues.