Are the Chinese in Africa More Innovative than the Africans? : Comparing Chinese and Nigerian Entrepreneurial Migrants’ Cultures of Innovation

摘要

The remarkable influx of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in West Africa has been met withgrowing resistance from established African entrepreneurs. Whether the former have acompetitive edge over the latter because of distinctive sociocultural traits or whether theChineseʹs supposed effectiveness is just a characteristic feature of any trading diaspora isopen to question. This comparative exploratory study of Chinese and Nigerian entrepreneurialmigrants in Ghana and Benin provides initial answers to these questions. Apparently,the cultural stimuli for migrant drivers of change are not restricted to inherited valuesystems or religions, such as a Protestant ethic or Confucianism; rather, they are continuallyadapted and invented anew by transnational migration networks in a globalizedworld. There is no evidence of the supposed superiority of the innovative culture of Chineseentrepreneurial migrants versus that of African entrepreneurial migrants. Rather,there exist trading diasporas which have a generally enhanced innovative capacity vis‐àvislocal entrepreneurs, regardless of the national culture in which they are embedded. Inaddition, the rivalry of Chinese and Nigerian migrant entrepreneurs in African marketsdoes not necessarily lead to the often suspected cut‐throat competition. Often the actionsof each group are complementary to those of the other. Under certain conditions they evencontribute to poverty alleviation in the host country.