1^st Research Day on African Countries (JRPA) 

(Lille, November 30 2017)

The World Bank recently reported that developing and emergent markets experienced a 5.8% growth in 2016. The IMF forecasts a 4.7% growth in developing countries in 2017. The potential that lies in such contexts attracts an increasing number of national and international investors each year (e.g. new shopping malls, mobile phones, innovations…). Emerging countries represent an interesting context for scholars in management. Indeed, two recent special issues of the Journal of Business Research focus on the challenges and opportunities for marketers in emerging countries and on the global strategies in emergent markets[1].

However, such contexts are largely understudied (Lages, Pfajfar and Shoham 2015)[2]. In particular, Africa raised little attention among scholars although it holds a significant singularity from cultural, social and economic perspectives. Moreover, the African middle class increased from 5% to 15% over the last two decades (Ncube and Shimeles 2012)[3]. Still, there is a need for a deeper understanding of African particularities to facilitate its endogenous development.

The present call for papers aims to gather scholars (in marketing and management) interested in African contexts (North and Sub-Saharan Africa). In particular, the objectives are the following:

- To build relations between researchers located in African countries and emergent or developed countries ;

-  To contribute to the enhancement of conceptual research on Africa ;

- To propose managerial recommendations for local and global companies as well as public organizations.

These are some topics of interest : 

- Retailing and distribution in Africa: local markets, informal markets, alternative markets, modern retailing, Chinese commercial networks, etc.

- Migrations, poverty, BoP strategies, adaptation strategies to the economic crisis, etc.

- Societal marketing: ethics, CSR, sustainable development, fair trade, etc.

- Internationalization, partnerships within Africa, cultural team management, …

We suggest that you look carefully at the following pages :

- Call for papers page

- Submission format page

- Conference board members page.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Lille !

The Organizing Committee.