July 2010

Are the Chinese in Africa More Innovative than the Africans?

Comparing Chinese and Nigerian Entrepreneurial Migrants’ Cultures of Innovation

GIGA Working Papers cover

This comparative exploratory study of Chinese and Nigerian entrepreneurial migrants in Ghana and Benin provides initial answers to the questions of whether Chinese migrants have a competitive edge over Africans. Apparently, the cultural stimuli for migrant drivers of change are not restricted to inherited value systems or religions, such as a Protestant ethic or Confucianism; rather, they are continually adapted and invented anew by transnational migration networks in a globalized world. There is no evidence of the supposed superiority of the innovative culture of Chinese entrepreneurial migrants versus that of African entrepreneurial migrants.

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