Institutional Entrepreneurship in African Fintech explores how technology ventures build legitimacy, navigate institutional voids, and sustain growth in Africa's fast-evolving financial landscape.

Blending scholarly insight with practical application, it introduces the Change Readiness Framework, which highlights three essential entrepreneurial capabilitiesCustomer Orientation, Collectivism, and Commitment to Impactand seven corresponding pillars of institutional entrepreneurship. Together, these elements offer a grounded model for understanding how African innovators transform fragmented systems into functional markets.

Drawing on original fieldwork and case studies across the continent, the book bridges academic rigor and practical relevance, offering scholars, entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers a blueprint for studying, building and funding trustworthy, scalable, and socially grounded innovation ecosystems.

Chapter 19 is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). For further details see license information in the chapter.

Contributes to the Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.1: 'Sustainable economic growth' Bridges academic and practical perspectives, providing actionable insights for stakeholders across Africa Addresses financial inclusion and economic resilience, offering tools to foster sustainable fintech development

Autorentext

Glory Enyinnaya is a Nigerian scholar and strategy consultant whose work bridges theory and action in social change, institutional entrepreneurship, and technology-enabled economic growth. She is a faculty member at Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria, where she teaches innovation, platform strategy, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, and business ethics. A former consultant with Accenture and Ernst & Young, she is the founder of Kleos Advisory Africa, a strategy consulting firm focused on entrepreneurial ecosystems. Her research, published in the Harvard Business Review, examines the role of entrepreneurs as agents of institutional change and proposes strategies for achieving legitimacy, innovation adoption, and sustained growth in complex institutional environments.

Klappentext

"Why do so many promising African startups falter before realizing their potential? With deep knowledge of the continent's business environment and rich case studies of fintech ventures, Glory Enyinnaya sheds light on the institutional strains that derail even the most investor-ready firms."

Vishal K. Gupta , The University of Alabama, USA

Institutional Entrepreneurship in African Fintech explores how technology ventures build legitimacy, navigate institutional voids, and sustain growth in Africa's fast-evolving financial landscape.

Blending scholarly insight with practical application, it introduces the Change Readiness Framework, which highlights three essential entrepreneurial capabilitiesCustomer Orientation, Collectivism, and Commitment to Impactand seven corresponding pillars of institutional entrepreneurship. Together, these elements offer a grounded model for understanding how African innovators transform fragmented systems into functional markets.

Drawing on original fieldwork and case studies across the continent, the book bridges academic rigor and practical relevance, offering scholars, entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers a blueprint for studying, building and funding trustworthy, scalable, and socially grounded innovation ecosystems.

Glory Enyinnaya is a Nigerian scholar and strategy consultant whose work bridges theory and action in social change, institutional entrepreneurship, and technology-enabled economic growth. She is a faculty member at Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria, where she teaches innovation, platform strategy, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, and business ethics. A former consultant with Accenture and Ernst & Young, she is the founder of Kleos Advisory Africa, a strategy consulting firm focused on entrepreneurial ecosystems. Her research, published in the Harvard Business Review, examines the role of entrepreneurs as agents of institutional change and proposes strategies for achieving legitimacy, innovation adoption, and sustained growth in complex institutional environments.

Chapter 19 is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). For further details see license information in the chapter.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- PART I: THE CHALLENGES.- 2. The fintech revolution in Africa - a crisis of survival. 3. The legitimacy gap - barriers to fintech adoption in Africa.- 4. How change readiness enables institutional entrepreneurship.- PART II: THE PRACTICES.- 5. From TAM to TAV - The theory of values-based opportunity recognition.- 6. From MVP to MTP - Trust-centred product development in low-trust markets.- 7. From Message to Proof - Why brand is not what you say, but what you do.- 8. From performance marketing to trust channels - Outcome-verified marketing in African fintech.- 9. From delight to due process - Process-backed customer experience in African fintech.- 10. From fit to posture - Culture-grounded team building in African fintech.- 11. From Value to Values - Legitimacy-led strategic partnerships in African fintech.- 12. From blitzscaling to belonging - Conscientious growth strategy in African fintech.- 13. Access is architecture, not accident - institutional access as justice in African fintech.- 14. From scale to skill - Capacity development and talent in African fintech.- PART III: THE HORIZONS.- 15. From speed to strategic readiness - Forecasting the future of African fintech.- 16. From compliance burden to strategic asset - Policy foresight in African fintech.- 17. From black box to glass box - Ethics-anchored AI in African fintech.- 18. From global playbook to local compass - Authentic global adaptation in African fintech.- 19. From investor readiness to change readiness: Institutional Entrepreneurship in African fintech.