15.12.2022

Backing for Africa Research

The research group looks back on an eventful autumn.

With several research visits, attending conferences and funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the “Doing Business in Africa” (DBA) research group at ESB Business School looks back on exciting weeks. Professor Dr Philipp von Carlowitz and Dr Simon Züfle represented the initiative in Africa and Europe and were very successful in the process.  

DBA in East Africa

At the beginning of October, Dr Simon Züfle travelled to Uganda and Rwanda to conduct expert interviews and expand the university and business network. There, among other things, he spoke with local German companies, exchanged ideas with young entrepreneurs and addressed China’s growing role on the continent in the lecture “Jumping on the Bandwagon: Business implications of China’s activities in Africa” in cooperation with the Kampala-based company Gauff Engineering.

Discussions at the University of Rwanda focused on joint research cooperation and teaching exchanges between ESB Business School and the College of Business and Economics.

During expert interviews during his visit, Dr Züfle gathered information on the success factors of sales partnerships between German companies and their local distributors in African markets.

Dr Züfle was a virtual speaker at the PEGNet Conference in September, which was organised by the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Kampala (Uganda). He presented current findings from DBA’s work on the search for sales partners in African markets and the success factors of these sales partnerships.  

DBA goes Ethiopia

Expert interviews were also conducted by Professor Dr Philipp von Carlowitz during his visit to Ethiopia in mid-October. “It is amazing how frankly local traders talk about their challenges and how entrepreneurial they are in overcoming them”, says the DBA director.

The programme in Ethiopia also included talks with German companies and a meeting with the Secretary General of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce as well as sectoral associations and the executive director of the European Union Business Forum Ethiopia (EUBFE). Good expert contacts for future research projects have been established here.

Finally, Professor Dr Philipp Carlowitz met with the Dean and lecturers of the Management department of Addis Ababa University to discuss future teaching and research cooperation. This is expected to start next year.

Activities in Germany

The “Doing Business in Africa“ team has also been active in Germany in recent weeks.

At the conference “Universities, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in Africa” (UEED), organised by Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University, Dr Simon Züfle and his Ghanaian colleague Dr Phanuel Wunu presented a paper at the beginning of September on business relations between companies in Africa and the global North.

Professor Dr Philipp von Carlowitz travelled to Berlin at the end of September to present initial results of the Economic Africa Research Cluster together with colleagues from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy to representatives of the Federal Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and Finance as well as other political stakeholders.

In mid-November, Professor Dr von Carlowitz was a guest at the 3rd Africa Summit at the Global Connect Forum in Stuttgart where he held one of the keynote speeches. This time he focused on China’s growing interest in African markets and its importance for German companies.

Funded commitment

The work of the Doing Business in Africa team is paying off: The research group has received a three-year grant from the German Academic Exchange Service, which focuses on teaching and research cooperation with universities in Ethiopia, Ghana and Rwanda. African academics will come to ESB Business School as part of the cooperation to teach and expand their research network. In return, the DBA team will be increasingly active in teaching in African countries.

“We are very pleased to be among the German universities that can increase the visibility of African research and expertise and we are very excited about the impulses from our African colleagues”, thus the DBA team, welcoming the decision.