Combating Corruption in Africa through Institutional Entrepreneurship: Peering in from Business-Government Relations

Corruption remains a significant barrier to the socio-economic development of Africa, despite efforts by various local, national and international stakeholders to combat it. Mishra and Maiko (2017), in their article which was published in Africa Journal of Management, suggest that business schools could serve as institutions of change by incorporating student-elder partnerships in their curricula to develop ethical business leaders who will help fight corruption. In this article, I respond to Maiko and Mishra by refining their idea to make it more feasible within the current African context. I also outline why their idea might not be effective for combating systemic corruption in Africa, and propose an alternative focused on training business students to become institutional entrepreneurs in Africa’s political arenas. This article is intended to start a dialogue that will facilitate the development of novel and effective ways of using business and management education to combat corruption in Africa