Riassunto analitico
The aim of this work is to analyse the opportunities, threats and ways in which business might be conducted in the African continent. Particular importance would be given to the role of culture in supplier-buyer relationships when the supplier is an Italian businessman and the buyer an African one. At the beginning of the thesis evolution of this continent with a focus to the current situation is described. Africa is identified as the continent of the future, full of opportunities, a continent that is slowly emerging in the modern world and that is gaining a lot of attention from international investors. However, we should have a look also to the other side of the coin it is a continent full of contradictions that have roots in historical and political situations, a continent full of disparities. To start a business there involve a lot of risks. Africa is open to international business, but firms in this continent are small, mainly familiar, unstructured and mostly informal; for this last reason it is difficult to find on the web trustworthy data because not all the firms are regulated. The peculiarity of Africa is that it is characterized by an interesting culture. The African culture has its basis on the Ubuntu philosophy: the individual is seen as part of a community, the interest of the single person is the interest of the all community. The countries that are currently investing more in this continent are China and India. The presence of these two nations is predominant, and in a way, is influencing this continent. Italian companies unfortunately have not yet captured the Africa’s potentialities; the presence of our investments is still quite low. The last part of the thesis describe the methodology and the results emerged from a qualitative study based on a number of semi-structured interviews administered to a sample of Italian suppliers and African buyers.
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