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Article
The Biogeographical Foundations
of African Marketing Systems
Paul T. M. Ingenbleek
1
Abstract
The marketing literature is showing an increasing interest in Africa. This article addresses the contextual macro-level character-
istics that such studies have in common, and traces the typical characteristics of African marketing systems back to their ultimately
biogeographical foundations. These foundations include the north-south orientation of the main continental axis, the low
presence of geological boundaries such as mountains and rivers, and Africa as the “cradle of mankind.” Through their evolutionary
consequences, these factors evolved into the aggregate marketing system traits typical to Africa, which include the existence of
multi-level markets connected by traders, a sharp distinction between the formal and informal sectors, and an overwhelming
presence of micro-entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers. This analysis generates new insights into, among others, the role of
biogeographical factors in marketing systems theory and the potential sources of competitive advantage and disadvantage for the
endogenous African firms inherent to the system.
Keywords
Africa, marketing systems, African geography, indigenous firms, human evolution
Introduction
Over the past two decades, Africa has witnessed an economic
upswing that constitutes a structural break with its past and has
led to the emergence of new companies, foreign direct invest-
ment, and new opportunities for poverty eradication (e.g., Fran-
kema and van Waijenburg 2018; Mahajan 2008).
Unsurprisingly, these dynamics have also resulted in increased
attention from marketing scholars (e.g., Adekambi, Ingenbleek,
and van Trijp 2015, 2018; Allo 2014; Amankwah-Amoah,
Boso, and Debrah 2018; Babah Daouda, Ingenbleek, and Van
Trijp 2019; Dadzie et al. 2013; Ingenbleek, Tessema, and van
Trijp 2013). These studies generally perceive African contexts
as fitting with the common institutional and market character-
istics of emerging markets, rather than as a distinct category in
its own right (cf. Burgess and Steenkamp 2006; Roberts,
Kayande, and Srivastava 2015; Sheth 2011).
To some extent, Africa deviates from other developing and
emerging regions because many African countries are still
among the poorest in the world, and the continent faces enor-
mous challenges to create jobs and provide food, healthcare,
education, and infrastructure for the rapidly growing popula-
tion (World Bank 2018). At a macro level, African marketing
systems are traditionally characterized by the relatively large
size of the informal sector, the dominance of agricultural prod-
ucts over processed products and services, and the limited
presence of substantial indigenous businesses (cf., Arnould and
Mohr 2005; Hounhouigan et al. 2014). Consistent with the
general state of economic development, other authors have
used Africa as a typical base of the pyramid context (Ade-
kambi, Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2015; Arnould and Mohr
2005; London et al. 2010) or to investigate the functioning of
marketplaces for those living in poverty (Babah Daouda,
Ingenbleek, and Van Trijp 2019; Chikweche and Fletcher
2010). While these approaches pay respect to the weaker sec-
tions of African economies, they do so, similarly to the litera-
ture on emerging markets, from a set of general contextual
characteristics. The emerging body of knowledge has not
explained the typical characteristics of the African marketing
system nor, therefore, what could potentially be learned from
these characteristics for the strategies and functioning of Afri-
can businesses and their contributions to African societies in
terms of achieving sustainable development goals. A deeper
understanding of the African marketing system may help to
gain more from the current market growth for long-run
development.
In this article, I investigate the essential characteristics of
African marketing systems and their underlying causes as out-
comes of an evolution-development process based on Africa’s
fundamental biogeographical factors. The macromarketing
1
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Wageningen University,
Wageningen, the Netherlands
Corresponding Author:
Paul T. M. Ingenbleek, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Wagenin-
gen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706KN Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Email: paul.ingenbleek@wur.nl
Journal of Macromarketing
1-15
ªThe Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0276146719896393
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literature has for decades acknowledged that marketing sys-
tems might vary considerably around the world (cf. Cundiff
1982). More recent contributions assign these differences to
global differences in climatic and geographic factors, which
are at the basis of cultural development and consumption
(Sheth 2017). In response to these local differences, marketing
systems then evolve through an evolutionary, path-dependent
process of adaptation and selection (Layton and Duffy 2018),
creating system traits that typically fit the local circumstances.
The complexity and specialization of marketing systems are
associated with economic growth and consumer welfare, which
explains why biogeographical foundations are linked to differ-
ences in economic development (Layton 2009; Wilkie and
Moore 1999). In economics, the correlation between biogeo-
graphical factors and development is seen as definitive. Some
economists claim that these effects are caused by current
adverse effects, such as low agricultural production (Sachs
2005); however, consistent with recent ideas from macromar-
keting and drawing on the groundbreaking work of Diamond
(1997), others have argued that the roots of the current states of
economic development can be traced way back in human his-
tory (e.g., Easterly and Levine 2016; Olsson and Hibbs 2005;
Spolaore and Wacziarg 2013). These authors draw heavily on
the work of Diamond (1997), who argued that differences in
development are grounded in biological conditions, such as the
numbers of plants and animals that could potentially be domes-
ticated, and geographical conditions, such as the size and rug-
gedness of the continent to which humans had to adapt.
In short, while there is enough evidence to expect that mar-
keting systems connect to biogeographical conditions, this con-
nection has not yet been established in the macromarketing
literature. This article fills this gap by making two contribu-
tions. First, taking Africa as a case study, this article connects
the marketing systems approach to the macro-level biogeogra-
phical conditions on which marketing systems are ultimately
founded, thereby providing a more solid grounding for the
typical traits of African marketing systems than has previously
been recognized in the literature (e.g., Fafchamps 2004; Houn-
houigan et al. 2014; Kambewa, Ingenbleek, and van Tilburg
2008). This article recognizes the commonalities between Afri-
can research contexts, and develops a more coherent body of
knowledge on African marketing, or, more generally, on Afri-
can business. I relate the typical characteristics of African mar-
keting systems to fundamental biogeographical conditions
using ideas from human evolution (e.g., Johnson and Earle
2000; Wilson 2019). Second, these insights may assist African
companies in recognizing the potential advantages and disad-
vantages inherent to the systems that they are a part of (Ingen-
bleek 2019). As such, this article responds to the calls of
scholars studying African business who regard research into
African indigenous business as a top priority (Lituchi et al.
2013; Zoogah 2008). The insights provided in this review may
further assist policymakers in designing effective policies that
support African businesses and societies at large.
The remainder of this review is structured as follows. First, I
discuss the background of marketing systems, typical
characteristics of African marketing systems, and existing
explanations of these characteristics. Next, I introduce biogeo-
graphical and evolutionary approaches, followed by a discus-
sion that connects Africa’s biogeographical foundations to the
typical characteristics of its marketing systems. This article
finishes with a discussion of the implications of these insights.
Background
Marketing Systems
Layton (2011, p. 259) defines a marketing system as “a net-
work of individuals, groups, and/or entities; embedded in a
social matrix; linked directly or indirectly through sequential
or shared participation in economic exchange; which jointly
and/or collectively creates economic value with and for cus-
tomers, through the offer of assortments of products, services,
experiences, and ideas and that emerge in response to or antic-
ipation of customer demand.” Marketing systems can be iden-
tified at different levels, varying from two transaction partners
in a micro-system to aggregate systems that span entire sectors
in a country or beyond (Layton 2007). The African marketing
system discussed in this article, clearly is an example of the
latter. Marketing systems are the result of evolutionary pro-
cesses that explain their formation, growth, adaptation, and,
potentially, their collapse (Layton and Duffy 2018).
To concretize the concept of marketing systems, Layton
(2009, 2011) identified the main conceptual dimensions. Mar-
keting systems can be described by the distinctive features of
the customer groups whose needs are served by the operations
or the nature of the assortments generated in response to these
needs (Layton 2009, 2011). The systems can further be
described in terms of their structural and functional elements,
which include the exchange logic and context, flows and roles,
networks (including their dynamics), and governance (Layton
2009, 2011).
African Marketing Systems
Many studies in marketing and related disciplines, such as
economics and economic history, have contributed to our
understanding of the characteristics of African marketing sys-
tems. These studies may take the form of specific cases
(Arnould 2001; Arnould and Mohr 2005; Bohannan and Dalton
1962; Kambewa et al. 2008) or more general descriptions and
analyses at macro levels (e.g. Fafchamps 2004; Hopkins 1973).
The present review uses Layton’s (2011) dimensions to
describe the marketing systems from the perspective of indi-
genous African exchange partners (see Table 1).
To summarize the content of Table 1, the literature suggests
that African marketing systems typically trade basic products,
such as agricultural outputs, food, textiles, body ornaments,
and body care products. Many of the exchanges take place
within communities or with nearby communities. Buyers from
further afield may also participate, either to aggregate products
in larger quantities for buyers from the formal sector or to
obtain products that have a differential value elsewhere in
2Journal of Macromarketing XX(X)
Africa. Trade, therefore, takes place in a network of market-
places at different levels varying from local (small) to central
(large) markets, often established in capitals or at important
road crossings (multi-level markets). The transportation of
products is risky, and products travel from marketplace to mar-
ketplace essentially as far as the transaction costs can bear.
Competition between traders often takes the form of finding
and maintaining structural holes (Burt 1992), meaning that
traders maintain unique connections between buyers and sell-
ers. The information asymmetry in these relationships can
make both buyers and sellers vulnerable because, in the
resource-scarce environment, many transactions take place on
a credit basis. Buyers and sellers protect themselves through
social relationships based on kinship or cooperative forms of
organization. The system is connected to buyers and sellers
outside of Africa through cities at the border of the Sahara,
facilitating the trans-Saharan trade with North Africa and sea-
ports at the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
The system has a clear distinction between formal and infor-
mal sectors, with the informal sector being particularly large
and dominated by microbusinesses of a single, or at most a few,
person/s. The formal companies can be large, and often have
strong connections with governments. Despite their size, they
often depend on informal-sector traders to purchase products
from communities or to reach consumers in these communities.
To strengthen the consistency with the literature on African
markets and marketing systems, this article uses the terms
indicated above in italics as the typical characteristics that are
then connected to biogeographical foundations. Table 1
explains how these characteristics connect to the marketing
system dimensions.
Explanations for Differences between
Marketing Systems
The literature offers several explanations for how marketing
systems have developed into their current forms. Early research
into marketing systems recognized that lower levels of
economic development were associated with less advanced
marketing systems (Cundiff 1982). These studies followed a
so-called deterministic approach, in that they saw marketing as
passively following economic development and seizing oppor-
tunities in markets where wealth had already increased (Hosley
and Wee 1988). Additionally, researchers in history and other
disciplines initially used deterministic approaches, albeit with-
out much success, to determine convincing explanations for
the differences that they observed. European explorers in
the Middle Ages noticed differences in technology and the
political, social, and economic organization between the
people that they encountered and what they were accus-
tomed to. These explorers assumed that the differences
stemmed from innate ability (Diamond 1997). Darwin’s the-
ory of evolution and later the discovery of genetics gave
rise to social Darwinism as another frame to interpret these
Table 1. Typical Characteristics of African Marketing Systems.
Marketing system
dimensions Typical characteristics References
1
Buyer
characteristics
Exchange is mostly community-based. Producing
communities can sell to either local buyers or traders who
are connected to marketplaces elsewhere.
Adekambi, Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2015; Adekambi,
Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2018; Kambewa et al. 2008.
Assortments
offered to
buyer groups
Buyers can choose from assortments of locally produced
basic products and products brought in from outside with
a differential value.
Bohannan and Dalton 1962; Hopkins 1973; Fafchamps 2004;
Arnould 2001; Arnould and Mohr 2005; Chikweche and
Fletcher 2010.
Networks and
network
dynamics
Local networks are mostly survival-oriented, while longer-
distance trade networks seek profits. Competition is
typically based on structural holes. Most actors operate in
small units as microbusinesses that are embedded in
communities of people conducting similar businesses.
Bohannan and Dalton 1962; Hopkins 1973; Fafchamps 2004;
Arnould and Mohr 2005.
Flows and roles Mostly physical products (agricultural products, textiles).
Traders aggregate products from multiple communities
and sell them in more central markets. Products are traded
up to distances that can cover the transaction costs.
Hopkins 1973; Fafchamps 2004; Arnould 2001; Arnould and
Mohr 2005; Adekambi, Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2015;
Adekambi, Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2018.
Exchange logic
and context
Because transport is risky and expensive, many transactions
depend on credit. Sellers protect themselves against
opportunistic behaviors through social networks (but not
always successfully).
Hopkins 1973; Fafchamps 2004; Arnould 2001; Arnould and
Mohr 2005; Adekambi, Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2015;
Adekambi, Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2018. Kambewa et al.
2008.
Governance Social groups are based on communities often defined by
ethnic backgrounds and may take the form of extended
families and tribes, with local rulers having a strong
influence on business. Sellers may also organize themselves
in cooperatives based on the type of product that they sell.
Bohannan and Dalton 1962; Hopkins 1973; Fafchamps 2004;
Arnould and Mohr 2005; Adekambi, Ingenbleek, and van
Trijp 2015; Adekambi, Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2018.
1
Inevitably, describing system characteristics at the level of a continent comes at the risk of oversimplification and incompleteness. For richer descriptions that do
much more justice to the contextual variation, refer to the specific sources cited here.
Ingenbleek 3
differences as forms of evolutionary origins and natural
selection. Therefore, it was previously erroneously assumed
that evolutionary processes would always lead to only one
possible outcome (Wilson 2019).
During the 1970s, the formalist or activist approach sug-
gested that marketing can make active contributions to devel-
opment by making changes in marketing systems (Cundiff
1982). For example, Slater (1974) emphasized macro-level
interventions in marketing institutions, such as cooperatives
and marketing boards, the latter of which was widely imple-
mented in Africa in the 1970s and 80 s in an attempt to mod-
ernize the smallholder-based agricultural systems (Van der
Laan 1986). Others emphasized the importance of individual
entrepreneurs or companies that, through their innovations at
the micro level, collectively shape more complex and specia-
lized marketing systems (see Wood and Vittell 1986 for a
review of the older literature and Wilkie and Moore 1999 and
Layton 2009 for more recent contributions).
While the formalist view emphasized the abilities of humans
to build their own economic systems, attention paid towards the
specific conditions that may constrain these abilities, which is
central to deterministic thinking, faded. In this respect, the two
different views complement one another. While African entre-
preneurs, as with all entrepreneurs, integrate resources to create
value and make changes to marketing systems, it is undeniable
that these resources depend on what the African environment
can offer. This context may eventually, perhaps not determine,
but create the foundational basis to which humans should adapt
their behaviors to survive and thrive. This is where the biogeo-
graphic and evolutionary approaches come in.
Theoretical Approach
Biogeographic Foundations
Diamond’s (1997) popular contribution, Guns, Germs and
Steel, combines a biogeographical approach with ideas from
evolutionary theory and the social sciences to explain the glo-
bal differences in development resulting from the biogeogra-
phical advantages and disadvantages that stem from the relative
positions of continents on the Earth’s surface. More specifi-
cally, Diamond compared the biogeographical differences
between the east-west-oriented landmass of Eurasia and the
north-south-oriented continents of the Americas, Africa, and
South Asia/Australia. He argued that complex social orders
emerged predominantly in Eurasia because the spread of agri-
culture across this landmass was fostered by the substantially
larger availability of domesticable plants and animals (which
could be adapted to human needs through selection and breed-
ing). Plants, animals, and farming practices could spread along
the east-west-oriented landmass because of its limited variation
in climate and few barriers, such as oceans, dense rainforests,
and deserts, which could hinder their dissemination. Diamond
further argued that farm animals and their associated germs
helped people in Eurasia to develop a higher tolerance for
infectious diseases than, for example, the native American
people, who were profoundly affected by these diseases after
the Europeans arrived in 1492. The agricultural advantages
stimulated food production and, in turn, population growth,
followed by the development of more complex societies and
states and their advances in script, armies, centralized power,
technologies (such as seafaring, metallurgy, and the develop-
ment of guns), and (though not mentioned by Diamond specif-
ically), marketing systems.
Subsequently, researchers have added to Diamond’s ideas,
tested them, and provided critiques. Frankema (2015) com-
pared two north-south axis continents, Africa and the Ameri-
cas, and as a result, added several new factors to Diamond’s
(1997) ideas, such as Africa’s disease environment and geolo-
gical structure, including the presence of mountain ranges. In
economics, a growing literature emerged that quantitively tests
the hypotheses posed by Diamond and seeks explanations for
them (see Spolaore and Wacziarg 2013 for a more extensive
review of these studies). Olsson and Hibbs (2005) found strong
support for Diamond’s hypotheses regarding the geographic
conditions of the continents, including their size, major axis,
and climatic factors, which they conclude explain more of the
variance of the contemporary development levels than the bio-
logical conditions (the number of animals and plants suitable
for domestication at the location 12,000 years ago). Ashraff and
Galor (2011) show that the biogeographical variables caused an
early switch to agriculture which in turn spurred development.
A critique of Diamond’s work came from Acemoglu, John-
son, and Robinson (2001, 2002), who argued that European
colonists introduced inclusive institutions (supporting the par-
ticipation of all citizens) in regions where they encountered
favorable biogeographical conditions (low mortality rates), low
population densities, and low urbanization. In contrast, the
colonists introduced extractive institutions (supporting the
power and enrichment of rulers or a small elite) where they
met unfavorable biogeographical conditions and/or entered
regions with higher development levels that were difficult to
control by a small number of colonists without repressing mea-
sures. As such, the authors argued that colonialism would have
reversed the fortunes created by geography, and concluded that
instead of biogeographical factors, the decisions of the colo-
nists regarding whether to confront a society with inclusive or
extractive institutions determined development (Acemoglu and
Robinson 2012).
Because the effects of institutions cannot be empirically
disentangled from other variables, their findings are open to
other interpretations. Glaeser et al. (2004) suggested that,
rather than the institutions implemented by the colonists, the
effects may have been caused by the human capital that arrived
during colonization: the knowledge, practices, and traditions
that were transmitted from one generation to another. Other
studies provide support for this idea, finding that historical
legacies of populations matter more for current development
levels than location (Putterman and Weil 2010). It was also
foundthattechnologyadoptionin1500CE,andevenin
1000 BCE, can help to explain current development levels
(Comin, Easterly, and Gong 2010). Finally, Easterly and
4Journal of Macromarketing XX(X)
Levine (2016) examined the effect of the European proportion
of the population during colonization on income per capita,
concluding that if any adverse effects of institutions existed,
they must have been compensated for by other positives that
Europeans brought with them, such as human capital and tech-
nology. In short, the evidence of why biogeographical factors
influence development (and the associated marketing systems)
moves towards an explanation based on human evolution.
Human Evolution
Evolutionary processes are based on individual differences and
selection, so that the selected traits that enable an individual to
perform better in their environment than others become the
traits of larger groups (Wilson 2019). Over the past two
decades, several important works have been published, in
which evolution theories are central to the explanation of
human development. These works cover fields such as cultural
anthropology (Johnson and Earle 2000), history (Harari 2014),
biology (Wilson 2019), and economics (Seabright 2004).
To understand how marketing systems evolved from bio-
geographical conditions, multiple interacting evolutionary pro-
cesses should be taken into consideration. First, humans are the
result of evolution in which the innate traits that made them
successful in their environment were passed on through gen-
erations. Two of these traits that help to explain why humans
would create marketing systems, include reciprocity and cal-
culation (cf. Seabright 2004). Through calculation, humans can
assess and trade-off the costs and benefits of their actions
(Wilson 2019). Reciprocity is the ability to repay favors with
favors and betrayal with revenge (I will help you, if you helped
me in the past; if you do not help me, I will stop helping you).
People that have both traits can see the benefits of exchange
and eventually of enduring, trust-based relationships in which
they collaborate with (exchange) partners. People who are only
calculative will not be trusted, and those who are only recipro-
cal will be exploited by others (Seabright 2004).
Humans’ innate abilities may explain why humans are capa-
ble of building marketing systems, but not why these systems
may differ. Differences between marketing systems stem from
the differences in the environments from which they evolve. In
this respect, evolution is also an individual learning process in
which different practices compete, and the most successful
practice “survives” (Wilson 2019). Anthropologists use the
term adaptation to coin the process through which people make
changes to their behavior so they perform better in their envi-
ronment (Johnson and Earle 2000). Because groups living in
different biogeographical conditions follow different develop-
ment paths, human evolution is multilinear: it will logically
evolve in different directions depending on the circumstances
thus leading to different marketing systems. The geographical
conditions are to this respect relatively stable over time, but
biological aspects go through evolutionary processes them-
selves; for example, immune systems adapt to rapid microbial
evolution in what is experienced by humans as the disease
environment. If such an adaptation is successful, individuals
may live longer and/or with greater energy (Wilson 2019).
The importance of the latter argument cannot be underesti-
mated, because if people live longer and more energetically,
they are more capable of transmitting the lessons learned to the
next generation (for example, on which plants are edible and
which are poisonous, or how to send a rocket to the moon). This
process of so called cumulative cultural evolution distinguishes
human adaptation from the adaptation of other species, as it
enables us to change the values,norms,andpracticesofa
group. Cumulative cultural evolution is the basic explanation
for why humans were able to spread to and survive in almost all
possible geographic and climatic conditions on Earth without
evolving into different species (Wilson 2019).
Groups of humans should however not only adapt to the
biogeographic conditions that they encounter. Each cultural
group must adapt not only to their geography but also to the
political and economic conditions created by other groups who
are adapting to their own biogeographical conditions and may
develop faster, slower, or simply in a different direction. They
may, therefore, develop advantages over other groups that they
force into their institutional system, or perhaps enslave or even
kill (Johnson and Earle 2000). Diamond (1997) refers to this
process as “engulfment”.
Most people lived in small groups, such as families, for the
greater part of human history. Cumulative cultural evolution
was relatively easy in these groups, because decision-making
processes, incentives, punishments and norms could be imple-
mented relatively efficiently and to everybody’s liking in sup-
port of group cohesion (Wilson 2019). Well-functioning groups
would likely produce enough food to increase the size of their
population and they would adapt to their increased size until
they reach a resource threshold (Johnson and Earle 2000; Har-
ari 2014). After reaching the threshold they must expand their
resource base, for example through warfare or by inventing or
adopting new technologies to intensify food production. Both
solutions bring risks that can be managed by a leader or ruling
elite that establishes institutions, makes political arrangements
with other groups, organizes and distributes control over the
storage of food, materials and capital, as well as trade relation-
ships. Groups that keep growing may not only build more
complex marketing systems, but also evolve into states. States
incorporate large, ethically and economically diverse popula-
tions, have a system of property rights, institutions, bureau-
cracy, an army, law enforcement, and ceremonies and
symbols that may legitimize the distribution of resources that
facilitate the growing complexity and specialization in the
economy (Johnson and Earle 2000).
The evolutionary path towards larger, more complex soci-
eties is however full of hurdles. When groups grow larger, the
mechanisms that were designed to support group living may no
longer function, because they were never designed to secure the
internal functioning of large groups or even states. In this
respect, the learning process at a societal level would first lead
to failures, because leaders are first likely to develop extractive
institutions that benefit the elite at the expense of the rest of the
Ingenbleek 5
group (Acemoglu and Robinson 2012), and in the dynamic
process of increasing group sizes always new fractions may
come up that seize control merely for self-interest (Wilson
2019). When different marketing systems therefore start to
connect, conflicts and issues may evolve before people learn
how to integrate the systems in a way that fosters their mutual
development. Understanding the origins of the systems can
perhaps speed up the process.
African Biogeography and Its Consequences
To portray the evolutionary chains of causation that trace prox-
imate factors back to the ultimate biogeographical “factors
underlying the broadest patterns of history,” Diamond (1997,
p. 83) used a causal flow model showing the key factors in the
line of argumentation. In the same fashion, Figure 1 shows the
causal chains that connect the ultimate biophysical factors of
Africa to the more proximate marketing system characteristics
discussed earlier.
To understand the ultimate biogeographical factors, con-
sider the situation 250 to 210 million years ago. At this time,
approximately at the location where Africa is currently situ-
ated, the Earth’s single supercontinent Pangea was located,
surrounded by a single ocean. During the Jura era, 201 to
145 million years ago, Pangea began to disintegrate under the
pressure of tectonic forces in the Earth’s crust (Rogers and
Santosh 2004). The supercontinent first split into two, with
North America and Eurasia becoming the northern part, and
Africa, South America, Antarctica, India, and Australia com-
prising the southern part. Around 160 million years ago, the
southern group of continents were located at the position of
modern-day Antarctica, after which Africa, India, Australia,
and South America split from this mega-continent and began
moving towards their current positions (Merali and Skinner
2009). Before India collided with Asia, it lost an area of land
that was retained on the African tectonic plate, now known as
Madagascar.
The breakup of Pangea created the continents as they are
known today. This event determined the size, orientation
(north-south or east-west), climate, amount of sunlight, and
rainfall of the different continents. The event also had a sub-
stantial impact on the evolution of plant and animal species, the
time at which the continent would become populated by
humans, and the growth speed of that human population. It
therefore helps to understand the developments that covers
about one-fifth of the Earth’s land surface (30,365,000 square
kilometers) that we know as Africa.
Comprising a distance of about 8,000 kilometers from the
most northern point of Tunisia to the most southern point of
South Africa, the main orientation of Africa is north-south.
Africa is centered around the equator, with the major part of
the continent being tropical (situated between the tropics of
Cancer and Capricorn). Consequently, the continent covers
multiple climatic zones that symmetrically fade into each other
from a central point around the equator and extend to the
northern and southern temperate zones. In the wet equatorial
Dissemination
barriers for
domesticated plants
and animals
Ultimate
biogeographic
factors
Marketing
system
characteristics:
North-south
axis
Plant species
suitable for
domestication
Disease
environme nt
Development of agriculture
Diversity in
basic livelihood
strategies
Food surpluses
Populati on
density
Geographical
structure
State development
“Cradle of
mankin d”
State relia nce on
external sources
of income
Natural
infrastru cture
“Engulfment” of
colonial powers
Geographical
boundaries
High risks
and
transaction
costs
Mobile
lifestyles
Exchange
within or with
nearby
communities
Dispersion in
distinct
communities
Division between
formal and
informal sectors
Competition
based on
structural holes
Dominance
of micro-
businesses
Multi-level
markets
Protection
through social
relationships
Emphasis on
basic products
“Indigenous”
“Endogenous”
Figure 1. Factors underlying the typical characteristics of African marketing systems.
6Journal of Macromarketing XX(X)
climate in the center of Africa, tropical rainforests emerged,
while in the north and south, the forests give way to savannah
grasslands, semiarid lands, and hot desert climates in the
Sahara and Kalahari deserts. The Sahara dried to approxi-
mately its current size at around 4200 BCE when the monsoons
retreated to their current positions due to long-term climatic
changes (Hou´erou 2008).
Factors such as ocean streams, rainfall, altitude, mountain
ranges, and urban settlement create further deviations in this
rough pattern of climates. On the northern side, the widest
distance between the most western point in Senegal and the
most eastern point in Somalia is 7,400 kilometers, a distance
that, being far from the nearest coast, creates a climate for
desert areas further inland, causing decreased rainfall (Smedley
et al. 2018).
In terms of its geological structure, Africa’s most prominent
mountains are found near the rift valley in East Africa (e.g.,
Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and the Ethiopian highlands).
Around the same rift, large lakes, such as Lake Victoria and
Lake Malawi, can be found. More generally, and disregarding
mountain ranges such as the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and
the Drakensberg in South Africa, geologists tend to consider
Africa as a vast plateau (Smedley et al. 2018). The majority of
the surface of Africa is not divided by mountain ranges, nor by
navigable rivers (again with notable exceptions, such as the
Nile and Niger). With relatively few river mouths, the
30,500-kilometer coastline is relatively straightforward, with
few bays or inlets, and is shorter in length than the coastline
of Europe.
Over time, Africa became a fertile breeding place for pri-
mates and subsequently became known as the “cradle of man-
kind.” Our human ancestors lived in forests similarly to
closely-related primates, such as the bonobo and chimpanzees.
As the first hominids were both capable of climbing trees and
walking on two legs (bipedalism), it seems that they developed
bipedalism before applying it when they moved from the forest
to the savannah (Green and Zeresenay 2017). Standing upright
is advantageous for reaching food in trees, freeing hands for
carrying food, scanning the field for enemies, and scaring ene-
mies by appearing bigger, among other benefits (Dean 2000).
A recent theory suggests that Homo sapiens did not evolve
from a single African population in East or South Africa, but
that its origins more likely were multiregional (Scerri et al.
2018). Going back at least 500,000 years, groups of Homo
sapiens with substantial genetic differences lived all over
Africa, encountering each other rarely due to the vast distances
or hindrance by barriers, such as dense rainforests. During the
stone age, about 300,000 years ago, different groups also devel-
oped different stone tools. Modern human traits, such as
rounded skulls, slender faces, and protruding chins, would have
evolved from interactions between the separated groups
between 100,000 and 40,000 years ago (Scerri et al. 2018).
Though the geological structure and north-south axis of the
continents probably contributed to the conditions that eventu-
ally brought forward the modern appearance of Homo sapiens,
the exact role of these factors has not yet been fully elucidated.
Therefore, in this causal flow model, “the cradle of
humankind” is taken as a separate biogeographical factor.
In summary, after its birth out of the supercontinent Pangea,
Africa was endowed with at least three biogeographical traits
that would impact the development path of its inhabitants,
namely its geological structure in terms of mountains, open
waters, and coastline; the fertile climate for primates; and the
fact that its main continental axis is north-south. This review
will further discuss the consequences of these traits in order.
Geological Structure
The early Africans adapted to the geological structure of their
continent in several ways. First, with relatively few navigable
rivers, no inner seas, and few natural harbors, the emphasis of
all transport and trading activities was highly dependent on
land routes. Given the climatic conditions of Africa, such
routes crossed dense rainforests where pathways are quickly
overgrown by vegetation, savannah lands where travelers were
easy prey for predators, and deserts where extreme tempera-
tures and navigation pose major challenges. Crossing any of
these zones between the east and west would already come with
many risks, let alone crossing in the northern or southern direc-
tion. Over time, people discovered ways to overcome these
barriers, such as navigating through the desert based on the
positions of the stars with protected caravans (Hopkins
1973). This knowledge was passed down through generations,
but these innovations could not prevent the difficulties and
dangers that were faced when traveling long distances. Where
the services of specialized guides and protective caravans were
required, these may have come at a high financial cost.
In modern marketing language, this long-distance trade
would be described as incurring high transaction costs. Conse-
quently, the majority of exchange took place in the relatively
safe and nearby environment of local communities, and per-
haps neighboring communities with whom enduring relation-
ships had been built. For the average African, foraging, and
later small-scale farming, were logical adaptive livelihood stra-
tegies because, for most Africans, a career in trading was not an
option. An estimated 600 million African farming households
still mainly produce food for their consumption, and setting
aside small portions for buyers (Rockefeller Foundation 2011).
Because evolution is also an individual learning process, it
is expected that some individuals would have explored new
strategies to build or improve their business. They would dis-
cover areas that offered relatively unique products and others
that demanded such products. Goods would travel as far as their
transaction costs could bear; therefore, the most valuable prod-
ucts crossed the longest distances (cf. Fafchamps 2004).
Throughout African history, these included gold, diamonds,
ivory, and salt (Hopkins 1973). At the same time, adaptations
were made that reduced transaction costs, such as trust-based
relations that were transferred to the next generations. Some
communities would make it their specialization to organize
markets and protect trade-routes as a source of revenue (Hop-
kins 1973). Though the scale and size of long-distance trade,
Ingenbleek 7
and the empires built on its revenue, can be impressive (Casely-
Hayford 2012), on a global scale these were merely small
corrections to a geographical structural disadvantage.
Second, with a relatively large share of the land consisting
of open plains without noteworthy geographical boundaries,
living in remote communities was a safe strategy to minimize
the chance of violent encounters. In a study conducted within
Africa, Nunn and Puga (2007) found a strong effect between
land ruggedness and current development levels, which they
saw as evidence for the protection that mountains and natural
barriers provided against slave raids. In the absence of such
barriers, the safest places to live were far from the primary
passages used by travelers, some of whom may have had bad
intentions.
An even safer option than settling in a remote place is to
keep moving, as pastoralists do, which is still a prominent life-
style, particularly in the Horn of Africa and Sahel (in Ethiopia
alone the pastoralist population is estimated to be 12 million
[Getahun 2008]). With marginal conditions making agriculture
extremely difficult or sometimes impossible, people adapted to
these conditions by building their livelihoods on keeping herds
of cattle, camels, sheep, and goats that they could move from
one place to another, thus allowing the vegetation to recover
after they had left. The prominence of this mobile lifestyle has
two consequences. First, mobile lifestyles are associated with
lower birth rates (Frankema 2015; Harari 2014), thus resulting
in lower population densities. Second, mobile lifestyles divert
development away from the development of states and eco-
nomic specialization. Because the highest cultural virtue of
pastoralists is to increase the size of their herds, they often only
sell animals out of necessity for cash or because natural con-
ditions require smaller herds (Teklehaimanot et al. 2017).
Throughout the generations, they have developed hierarchical
structures and enforce rules to ensure the common grazing
lands will not get depleted.
While living in a remote place may be a relatively safe
strategy for keeping dangerous people at bay, it also hinders
the process of state-building as it is more difficult to retain
people. Worldwide, most ancient states therefore emerged in
places with circumscribed land (Frankema 2015). Within these
natural boundaries, rulers could develop institutions to centra-
lize power, tax farmers, and raise armies (Johnson and Earle
2000). The people who were taxed and recruited for armies
were discouraged from leaving by the natural barriers they had
to cross (Frankema 2015). African rulers instead had to cope
with people being able to leave easily, something that would
not be unlikely if the leadership became extractive as the
groups grew larger (Wilson 2019). The groups that developed
state-like features found external sources of income to finance
themselves; for example, by controlling mineral resources or
trade routes (Hopkins 1973). In this respect, the states func-
tioned as businesses that generated income for their people,
rather than creating institutions for the people to effectively
run their businesses and pay part of their profits as taxes to the
state. Major trading cities in the Trans-Saharan trade network,
such as Gao, Djenne, and Timbuktu, for example, also lacked
the signs of centralized power or group cohesion, such as
palaces, temples, or pyramids. These cities instead consisted
of scattered villages, the population numbers of which could
substantially fluctuate depending on whether trade was “on” or
“off” that season (see also Hopkins 1973).
Cradle of Mankind
The fact that Africa was a fertile breeding place for new types
of primates and later hominids and a variety of Homo sapiens is
of importance because it gives rise to a significant biological
factor, namely the evolution of germs that spread diseases.
Many evolutionary ancestors of Homo sapiens were present
in Africa and as a consequence human pathogens could simul-
taneously mutate and spread throughout Africa for millions of
years (Frankema 2015). Consequently, when the first humans
began to move out of Africa, they enjoyed a relatively disease-
free environment (McNeill 1976; Reader 1998). Nine of the ten
most severe epidemic diseases in the “Old World” originated
from wild animals that were widespread in Africa. Of these
diseases, smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria, yellow fever, and
dengue fever can be traced back to sub-Saharan African wild
animal sources. Many Europeans who arrived on the coast and
settled in Africa suffered from these diseases because they
lacked genetic resistance (Frankema 2015).
The disease environment forms part of the explanation for
the differences in population growth across the continents.
Frankema (2015) computed that the evolutionary growth rates
up to the year 1500 were much smaller in Africa than in Eurasia
(three times greater than Africa) and especially the Americas
(eight times greater than Africa). According to estimates,
Africa was inhabited by approximately 1.7 to 3.4 inhabitants
per square kilometer in the year 1500 (if the Sahara is omitted,
this number rises to 1.9 to 3.8). By comparison, in the same
year, the number of inhabitants per square kilometer was 6.6 in
Eurasia, with Western Europe, India, and Japan being as high
as 16.3, 36.7, and 37.5, respectively. Central and South Amer-
ica and North America are estimated to have contained 0.8–3.6
and 0.2–1.2 inhabitants per square kilometer, respectively.
Humans arrived in the Americas approximately 12,500 years
ago, while Homo sapiens appeared in Africa 200,000 years
ago; thus, despite its head start, by the year 1500 Africa had
become one of the least densely populated places on Earth.
Alongside the previously mentioned safety reasons, the
African disease environment is an additional explanation for
the dispersion of distinct communities on the continent. As
large population groups are more vulnerable to crowd diseases,
it is, in an evolutionary sense, logical to expect that people
would eventually live in more dispersed, smaller communities.
Large population concentrations of 10 people per square kilo-
meter were, therefore, most likely absent in sub-Saharan Africa
for a long period of history (Frankema 2015). If the number of
languages present is taken as an indicator for dispersion, with
an estimated 1,250 to 2,100 spoken languages in Africa (Heine
2000), about a quarter of all languages are spoken only on this
continent (Diamond 1997).
8Journal of Macromarketing XX(X)
Life in dispersed communities has at least three conse-
quences. First, dispersion in distinct communities leads to
greater diversity in livelihood strategies due to multilinear evo-
lutionary processes. A greater differentiation is expected, not
only in languages but also in consumption, what people eat,
how they dress, and the tools they make to survive or to make
life easier (Sheth 2017). As early as the stone age (about
300,000 years ago), different groups of Homo sapiens had
already developed different stone tools (Scerri et al. 2018). The
likely explanation for this is that, because conditions differed,
the needs, the available materials to fulfill these needs, and
learning processes, all varied between locations, leading to
different tangible outcomes (this point will be returned to in
the next section).
Second, dispersion in distinct communities also has conse-
quences for the structure of the marketing system. Traders
learned that aggregating small production amounts of agricul-
tural surpluses from different communities into larger quanti-
ties was a viable strategy to sell to buyers with higher levels of
demand. This type of demand was found in communities where
such products were not found, and later from traders connected
to the European or Asian ships arriving at the coast. This, in
turn, explains the typical system of markets at multiple levels,
varying from small and local marketplaces where small-scale
traders would meet producers from nearby communities in
regional markets evolving, for example, at important road
crossings, to eventually large and centralized marketplaces in
capitals. In the central marketplaces, either large buyers pur-
chase the entire quantity to be transported elsewhere, or the
quantity is again disaggregated in different directions (Faf-
champs 2004). As such, the same market system can be used
in reverse to eventually reach consumers in dispersed
communities.
Finally, the fragmentation along ethnic, lingual, and reli-
gious lines, among other factors, as outcomes of different cul-
tural evolutionary processes, which is still typical for many
parts of Africa today, has been suggested by several authors
as a barrier to the evolvement of larger cohesive groups and
state development (Alesina and La Ferrara 2005; Casey and
Owen 2014; Easterley and Levine 1997). These barriers hinder
the exchange of ideas, norms, and institutions that can create
cohesion in larger groups (Wilson 2019). As such, remote com-
munities living in relative separation could maintain their life-
styles for many centuries without significant changes (Johnson
and Earle 2000).
North-south Axis
Diamond (1997) presented the north-south axis as the primary
explanation for the different levels of development across con-
tinents because it creates dissemination barriers for domesti-
cated plants and animals. These plants and animals are, in turn,
crucial for the spread of agriculture, which is needed to
increase food production and support population growth en
route to states with higher levels of political organization, tech-
nology development, and literacy (Diamond 1997; Johnson and
Earle 2000). The dissemination barriers are, in Africa’s case,
considerable. Crops, such as barley and wheat, were imported
into North Africa from the Middle East where they were first
domesticated, but require winter rains that are typical for tem-
perate climates and would therefore not grow south of the
Sahara. People living in sub-Saharan Africa had to domesticate
their own plants, such as sorghum and pearl millet, that are
adapted to less variation in day length and summer rains. The
farming practices for these plants disseminated across the Sahel
from east to west but not much further south. Cattle imported
from Eurasia did not spread across the forest belt because they
could not survive the tsetse flies. These factors constrained the
advancement of agriculture and food production (Diamond
1997).
The north-south axis placed another constraint on African
food production; it left Africans with fewer choices of plants to
domesticate. While the variation in vegetation is considerable
across the zones of Africa (e.g. Meredith 2014), the variation
within each zone itself is smaller than in Eurasia for the simple
reason that the landmass of each zone is smaller. The larger
landmass of Eurasia offers more species in almost any plant- or
animal-based category (Diamond 1997). Take the example of
grasses; less than 1%of the total number of grass species (56 in
total) have seeds large enough to be suitable for domestication
for agricultural use (Diamond 1997), including barley and
emmer wheat. Of these 56 species, only six originally evolved
in sub-Saharan Africa. Six species is perhaps still a sufficient
number, but the chance that any of them were discovered and
successfully domesticated is much smaller when compared to
the 33 that appeared in Western Eurasia (including North
Africa) (Blumler 1992).
Animals are important for human development for many
reasons. They provide meat, milk (and with that a basis for
other dairy products), leather, wool, plow traction, transport,
and can be used in the armed forces (Diamond 1997). The
guinea fowl is, however, the only animal which we can be sure
was domesticated in Africa. None of the large mammal species,
of which Africa has 51), such as zebras, wildebeests, rhinos,
hippos, giraffes, or buffalos, were domesticated (Diamond
1997). None of the 14 main herbivorous domestic mammals,
including the five most productive ones (sheep, goats, cows/
cattle, pigs, and horses), were indigenous to Africa (Diamond
1997).
The constraints on food production hindered population
growth in Africa. It is likely that communities would move
to (or began in) places where natural resources were favorable
to build a livelihood specifically adapted to the local environ-
ment. Lakes, rivers, and coastal areas with reasonable fishing
grounds started to host groups that would evolve into fishing
communities, while in other communities hunter-gatherers
would specialize in understanding the flora and fauna in their
neighborhoods. Communities across Africa would also develop
conservation and processing practices adjusted to the specific
attributes of the foods. Groups that had access to resources that
were of value to others could potentially benefit more from
sales than from their own direct consumption, as was the case
Ingenbleek 9
for communities with mining resources, such as gold and dia-
monds. Specific fruits, vegetables, and processed goods, such
as shea butter and textiles, were traded on a more modest scale.
These so-called endogenous products are often restricted to
specific ecological zones and/or manufactured with specific
artisanal practices developed over many generations (Babah
Daouda, Barth, and Ingenbleek Forthcoming). As such, food
scarcity, in combination with the natural diversity related to the
north-south axis, contributed to the diversity of communities in
Africa and the emphasis on basic products in the African mar-
keting system.
The diversity that evolved from multilinear evolutionary
processes in the different communities would logically have
stimulated traders to move around to find places selling some-
thing of value for their home community or for other buyers.
The diversity between communities thus leads to the hypoth-
esis that in order to extend assortments, the most rewarding
strategy was to search for communities that could offer some-
thing different. In an environment with substantial diversity
between communities, trade became an opportunity for making
a living, especially if the sources of the products were not
transparently available to everyone, thus creating structural
holes. More so than production or technological development,
trade was, therefore, the basis for developing a business. Many
indigenous African languages do not have a word for business.
Instead, they refer to business as trade, thus assuming that a
business can only be a trading business. In Northern Benin, the
word for “company” means literally “the building where they
trade.”
There are some noteworthy exceptions to the general picture
of dissemination barriers and diverse communities that did not
manage to build enduring states. In Ethiopia, farmers domes-
ticated a number of crops that are particularly suitable to the
highland climate, including teff, ensete, chat, and coffee. To
date, Ethiopia is one of the most densely populated countries in
Africa. It has a long history of centralized government and
developed its own script and calendar. In Madagascar and East
Africa, Asians landed between 300 and 800 CE and brought
Asian yams and banana, after which these two crops were
disseminated widely and are now generally seen as indigenous.
In West Africa, farmers domesticated cola nuts, (African)
yams, African rice, and palm-oil trees. Farming practices
enabled Khoisan-speaking tribes from modern-day Nigeria and
Cameroon to “engulf” pygmy homelands further south in
around 3,000 BCE. They also moved east and arrived at the
great lakes about 2,000 years later, and then towards in the
direction of South Africa.
The “Engulfment” of Africa
The mobile lifestyles of many Africans, the unfriendly disease
environment in which they lived, and the limited food surpluses
had kept the population density on the African continent rela-
tively low. Together with the reliance of early states on external
sources of income, the mobile lifestyles and low population
density left Africans with a relative disadvantage compared
to European powers. The Europeans arriving in Africa in the
fourteenth century had developed relatively higher levels of
political organization, technology, and literacy. These are ele-
ments that Diamond (1997) sees as crucial for one group of
people to “engulf” another. Europeans built ships and started to
explore the African coast, build settlements, and organize a
permanent presence of traders and armed soldiers. Their trad-
ing presence would lead to an intensification of trade, the
emergence of the Atlantic slave trade, and, after the abolish-
ment of the slave trade in the 19th century, an eventual colonial
invasion of the continent.
Around the year 1800, development began to accelerate
with the industrial revolution in Western Europe. International
trade intensified, and the level of business activity in Africa
grew with it. The first signs of a more diversified economy
started to appear during the last decades of the nineteenth cen-
tury (Allen 2011). In the eyes of Europeans, coastal trade had
reached its limits. The subsequent colonization interrupted the
organic development of African marketing systems. During the
Berlin Conference of 1884–85, the colonial powers drew
boundaries on the African map. Geographical boundaries had,
until then, been mostly irrelevant because labor, not land, had
been the limiting production factor.
The colonial system had a relatively straightforward busi-
ness model in that it focused on a selected group of minerals
and cash crops, such as palm oil and cotton. These mono-
crops were valuable input materials for the emerging Eur-
opean industries of manufactured consumer goods. These
manufactured goods could in return cater to the emerging
demand of a new African workforce of civil servants in the
colonial institutions and producers of cash crops. The colonial
administrators tried to unlock the production capacity and
purchasing power of agricultural producers further inland
with railroads (Hopkins 1973).
Though colonial rule initially brought improved welfare
and higher living standards to some parts of the African pop-
ulation, it also introduced a division between the formal and
informal economic systems. The formal system constituted
the businesses related to the European companies that created
the colonial economic systems, while the informal systems
largely constituted the economic activities that had been
developing in Africa before colonization. Men were often
employed in the formal sector, while women sometimes took
over the (informal) businesses (Hopkins 1973). Some activi-
ties continued informally without government support,
although others were prone to extractive institutions, in that
activities were discouraged or forbidden if they potentially
competed with the interests of companies of European colo-
nizers. In many colonies, Africans had to purchase expensive
licenses before they could trade, and some goods they were
not allowed to trade at all. In Uganda, for example, Africans
were not allowed to export coffee due to an Act created in
1930. Comparable measures were taken to discourage com-
mercial farming. In Kenya and northern Rhodesia, non-
Africans were restricted in the amount of money they could
lend to African businesses.Whileontheonehand,thismay
10 Journal of Macromarketing XX(X)
have been intended to protect Africans from high debts, it also
restricted business development (Kennedy 1988).
After decolonization, the distinction between formal and
informal activities remained. The economic policies of the
post-colonial governments often aimed to create jobs through
investments in industry. More recently, many African countries
adopted policies to remove trade barriers, thus improving con-
ditions for businesses to seize new opportunities. In an empiri-
cal study, Michalopoulos and Papaioannou (2010) found that in
Africa, national institutions have little impact on the economic
performance of the ethnic groups that live on different sides of
a border. Their findings suggest that the long-term features of
populations, including the marketing systems built over many
generations as an adaptation to biogeographical conditions,
seem to affect development more than national institutions do.
Discussion and Implications
In this article, I have identified the typical traits of African
marketing systems and connected them to three biogeographi-
cal factors, namely Africa’s geographical structure, Africa as
the birthplace of humankind, and the main-axis of the African
continent being north-south rather than east-west. The inhabi-
tants of Africa had to adapt to these conditions, and in these
human evolutionary processes they gradually built marketing
systems of which the typical traits are still often recognizable.
For many centuries, the biogeographical foundations have
directly or indirectly placed important constraints on the devel-
opment of African marketing systems.
Over the past few decades, the impact of these foundations
has fundamentally changed. First, the impact of the natural
infrastructure is being addressed with significant investments
in road infrastructure, among others, through projects led by the
United Nations and Chinese investments (Brautigam 2015).
With roads, other vital services can be disseminated, such as
irrigation pipelines, electricity, standardized consumer prod-
ucts, supermarkets, and online connectivity. Second, though
there is substantial variance within Africa, progress is being
made with state formation. Several African states are finding
ways to combine open market policies with the improvement of
internal institutions (Meredith 2005). Third, the most consid-
erable change is probably taking place in the disease environ-
ment with the reduction of infectious diseases and infant
mortality. Population growth is therefore steeply increasing,
leading to a market size that starts to pull towards specializa-
tioninmarketingsystems(FrankemaandvanWaijenburg
2018). In particular, the urban environments are rapidly becom-
ing more densely populated with more complex economies
(Economist 2010). Fourth, the dissemination of plants no lon-
ger requires an organic diffusion process, but is now supported
with substantial research to bring in foreign species and
develop underutilized local species for commercial value
(Dansi et al. 2012).
The biogeographical and evolutionary perspectives aid our
understanding of how fundamental these changes are. In the
rapidly changing environment of the past few decades, new
opportunities, as well as potential threats, are emerging for
businesses and entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs are making
changes to African marketing systems by extending the product
assortments for the growing populations and adding new layers
to the system as they seize opportunities in business markets
(Babah Daouda, Ingenbleek, and Van Trijp 2019). At the same
time, new foreign entrants are attracted to Africa from both the
traditional trading partners in Western Europe and Northern
America and other, rapidly developing, countries, such as
India, Brazil, and China. While these entrants may contribute
to the growth of the African economies in general, they may
also threaten the upcoming African companies in their exis-
tence once market growth curves start to flatten and markets
become more competitive. One of the most important questions
to consider therefore is how can African businesses create a
position of competitive advantage.
The framework in Figure 1 provides some direction in this
respect, though more research is necessary to develop these
directions into evidence-based marketing strategies. First, Afri-
can firms have a potential advantage over foreign entrants for
any business that comes with high transaction costs. Transport
costs are a source of successful exploitation by African firms,
particularly for building materials, such as cement (cf. Aki-
nyoade and Uchi 2017). Another source is the diversity of
livelihoods that produce many products with which consumers
may have positive associations because they originate from
their country or region of origin. These products include man-
ufactured skincare products such as shea butter, endogenous
fruits and vegetables that are usually not found in Western
supermarkets (Dansi et al. 2012), and cultural products such
as textiles. Though such products are already produced and
sold by informal-sector microentrepreneurs, the challenge is
to grow or manufacture them with a stable quality under an
equitable brand name so they become attractive for the growing
middle classes. The authenticity of these products may increase
further if they can be connected to specific origins in rural parts
of Africa (see also Babah Daouda, Barth, and Ingenbleek
Forthcoming). Possibly, African entrepreneurs who originate
from those areas may feel supported to organize enduring
access to supplies from those areas using their social or kinship
ties. From a policy perspective, this means that African coun-
tries should not only give way to large-scale agriculture and
upscaling projects leading to greater similarity between com-
munities. Though such projects may be necessary to provide
food for the growing populations, it is also important to cherish
the heritage as potential sources of competitive advantage for
endogenous African firms.
It is also important to recognize the disadvantages emerging
from the path dependency of the system. In most African coun-
tries the traditional distinction between the formal and informal
sectors can still be easily recognized. While the established,
large, formal-sector corporations may be important employers,
they are not always in the best positions to recognize and seize
opportunities in the rapidly changing environment. The cre-
ation of supportive environments for entrepreneurs to start their
business informally but grow and formalize it over time
Ingenbleek 11
without encountering too many bureaucracy barriers is, there-
fore, essential (Babah Daouda, Ingenbleek, and Van Trijp
2019). The dispersion of communities in rural areas is another
key characteristic that evolved from the past. To connect rural
communities in the value chains of emerging African busi-
nesses, the information streams in the trade network should
improve, so that all participants receive customer feedback
on their achievements as a source of learning and competence
development (Adekambi, Ingenbleek, and van Trijp 2015).
Interrelationships between business and government are logi-
cally explainable in a regulatory environment still under devel-
opment. Such practices may have some roots in the external
financing of states that go back a long way in African history. It
should therefore be considered whether firm competences of
interrelating with government and politics are the most impor-
tant ones to help African businesses create sustainable compet-
itive advantages and flourishing economies.
Theoretical Implications
Our case description has some implications for marketing the-
ory. First, the biogeographical approach has some commonal-
ities with deterministic approaches to marketing systems,
namely that the current state and appearance of marketing sys-
tems can be traced back to factors that cannot be changed. No
other factors are as immutable as the fundamental biogeogra-
phical characteristics on which the marketing systems are built.
The approach does, however, leave room for formalist ideas, in
that people can intervene in the direct consequences of their
biogeographical foundations. The path-dependency perspec-
tive to marketing systems, as introduced by Layton and Duffy
(2018), creates an important basis to bring these perspectives
together to understand how the past has created the marketing
systems we observe today. The human evolution approach, as
applied in the current article, offers theoretical ideas on change
processes that further assist our understanding of path-
dependent processes.
Second, several African business scholars have recently
questioned the nature of African firms, especially compared
to the foreign entrants arriving to take their share of the grow-
ing African markets (Lituchi et al. 2013; Zoogah 2008). They
often refer to the African businesses as “indigenous,” which
may correctly apply to the origins of the business owners, but in
many cases not so much to their business practices, products,
distribution systems, and competences. There are considerable
influences from abroad in terms of new managerial approaches,
system interventions, and even species that are prominent in
Africa but are not indigenous, such as chickens, pigs, cattle,
pineapples, and bananas. For businesses building on these ele-
ments, the term “endogenous” may be more appropriate
(Ingenbleek 2019). The biogeographical approach helps to dis-
tinguish these terms. As indicated in Figure 1, the term indi-
genous is more applicable when origins can be traced more
closely to the biogeographical foundations, while the term
endogenous determines origins into the social, technological,
biological, and economic/marketing systems that were built on
those biogeographical origins.
Third, the case of Africa clarifies that biogeographical fac-
tors are more than just one category in the list of factors that
comprise a social matrix within which marketing systems
develop. Instead, they are the fundamental factor from which
social matrices evolve, ultimately giving us an understanding
of why marketing systems at aggregate levels have the charac-
teristics they do. In Africa, humans adapted to the geographical
structure, disease environment, and north-south orientation in
ways that affected, among others, their culture, socio-economic
conditions, and power relations. In this respect, the case of
Africa shows the importance of taking path dependency into
account in the analysis of marketing systems.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the typical characteristics of African marketing
systems can be traced back to fundamental biogeographical
factors. While these factors created a unique development path,
the most important structural constraints have been consider-
ably reduced in the past few decades. These improvements
have allowed for a greater emphasis in a formalist fashion in
which policymakers and entrepreneurs can make changes to the
marketing system, and with that bring changes to the welfare
levels of Africans. Looking into the past may help endogenous
African firms to see potential pitfalls and opportunities, and
build on the advantages of the system that they are a part of.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks the African Studies Centre Leiden for inspiring
discussions with researchers there while he was visiting. The insights
obtained during the visit have contributed to this article in many ways.
Special thanks goes to Marleen Dekker, Chibuike Uche, and Michel
Doortmont. He also thanks Desalegn Gigussa for comments on an
earlier version of this article and the editorial team for their construc-
tive comments.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: the author
thanks the Social Science Group of Wageningen University for
supporting this research with a grant from the Excellence Fund.
ORCID iD
Paul T. M. Ingenbleek https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8793-716X
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Author Biography
Paul T. M. Ingenbleek is associate professor of marketing at Wagen-
ingen University, the Netherlands. Based on his expertise in strategic
marketing he likes to contribute to solutions for sustainability issues in
market-based agri-food systems. Much of his research focuses on sub-
Saharan Africa and other emerging market contexts.
Ingenbleek 15
