Africa is rising, but this has escaped the attention of most international business researchers. We argue that this is a missed opportunity. Africa a dynamic and distinctive region, and its rise presents a number of puzzles for international business (IB) research, such that observed phenomena seem to challenge the fundamental assumptions that underpin existing theoretical frameworks. Unravelling these puzzles and better explaining business phenomena on the continent requires a greater emphasis on the role of people, to balance IB’s traditional emphasis on institutions, location-specific assets, and other macro- level attributes. We explore how this conceptual shift presents new avenues for inquiry into issues that are important for IB, but remain understudied. Such issues include entrepreneurial human capital, social networks, institutional co-evolution, and the informal economy. We argue that Africa’s diverse and distinctive characteristics give it great potential to serve as a context for testing and developing generalizable, cutting edge IB theory.
