Introduction

We are now entering a new era of socio-economic disruption arising from the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) – which is characterized by the amalgamation of the digital, biological and physical realms (Ndung’u and Signé 2020). A key question on the African agenda is how Africa can leverage 4IR for its benefit and not miss out this time around. This chapter deals with this question and explores some of the crucial cross-cutting issues surrounding the topic of 4IR in the African context. This work is intended to serve as a high-level African perspective of the fourth industrial revolution that will assist scholars, policy-makers, researchers, governments, business and other stakeholders in their respective roles in taking Africa forward.

Technologies of the 4IR are perhaps not a far-off vision for Africa (AfDB 2019), and are already playing a pivotal role as Africa transitions into the mainstream global economy. There are ongoing developments across the continent with recent expansions by tech giants such as Netflix, Facebook, Google and so on into Africa, and the rapid growth of tech start-ups and other such exciting developments in Africa's emerging technology landscape (Bright 2016). It has become clear that industries and governments must invest in and leverage 4IR technologies to make gains in the modern-day global economy (Marwala 2019). Although there has been some positive movement on the continent, with improved human development indices, and better regional interactions and economic progress, there are very deep concerns about the continent potentially missing out on reaping the growth benefits of 4IR due to the lack of human capacity development, adequate infrastructure and coherent leadership (Mead 2017; Radu 2020). These major thematic areas, that is, infrastructure, human capacity development and policy are explored in this chapter in the context of Africa's preparedness for 4IR. Taking into account that Africa is a vast and diverse continent, a high-level analysis of these issues is carried out with emphasis placed on the critical commonalities surrounding these issues as they pertain to Africa's 54 countries. This reveals some of the major challenges and opportunities relating to the aforementioned transition.

This chapter is organized as follows.

Blockchain technology, originally the basis of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, has received great attention from both academics and practitioners in the last decade. The consequent rise of interest in blockchain applications by different industries as well as public sector organizations has been complemented by questions and research on the impact of blockchain on organizations’ business models. Blockchain is also considered a source of innovation opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs. Therefore, this chapter explores its potential for digital entrepreneurs, by first introducing the main elements making up the technology and then discussing eight companies that apply blockchain in different sectors, thus providing insights for new ventures. The chapter aims to give an essential understanding of blockchain’s advantages for digital entrepreneurs as well as insights that could inspire potential future applications of this technology for value creation and innovation in different sectors.

The role of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the digital entrepreneurial world where businesses exploit modern technologies in order to gain a strategic advantage over their competitors when entering the market. By distinguishing among the different types of online business – SMEs, start-ups or spin-offs – this chapter introduces the concept of open innovation that lies at the heart of every digital entrepreneur. Furthermore, this chapter delineates the series of steps that an entrepreneur should understand and follow to successfully establish an online business and outlines the risks and challenges to be aware of along the entrepreneurial journey. The last section of this chapter features two digital start-up success stories that leveraged the dynamics of digital technologies and achieved great growth rates as well as high revenues.

Digital entrepreneurs create digital businesses through digital media funnels such as web applications, social media, mobile SMS and emails, providing digital products and services. Nowadays, it is relatively seamless for digital entrepreneurs to adopt the diverse digital tools and techniques in developing their products and services. Moreover, the avalanche that is the current digital era is changing the processes for many existing business models, in the financial sector, the health sector and many more. As a result of these changes, digital entrepreneurs are faced with new challenges and exposed to unprecedented risks. This chapter discusses the challenges faced by digital entrepreneurs and start-ups within business sectors such as fintech, insurtech, retailtech, biotech, healthtech and fashiontech. In addition, two case studies that demonstrate the existing challenges are highlighted with their corresponding focus points. The chapter concludes with a summary of the key points addressed and a few recommendations for digital entrepreneurs.

The present chapter offers an analysis of the role that digital marketing plays today in helping digital businesses reach their goals. It delineates the types of digital media that a company can harness in order to promote its products and services, and distinguishes among paid, owned and earned media. Furthermore, the chapter emphasizes the critical role of the digital marketing strategy and highlights the benefits and challenges associated with the various digital marketing tools and tactics available today, explaining the importance of selecting and implementing the most effective as well as the most prominent. Moreover, the chapter discusses how the performance and results of the different elements of a digital strategy can be tracked and measured in order to provide valuable data and insight into profitability and revenues. The last section of the chapter presents a case study of a start-up in the educational sector, depicting how strategic marketing decisions can affect the overall success of a company. This section aims to offer valuable advice and recommendations to entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors of every industry.

This chapter discusses the role of digital entrepreneurship in building start-ups and businesses that consider innovation to be a key success factor for thriving in today’s competitive market. After highlighting the difference between innovation and open innovation as well as its importance, this chapter explains how the right business model can help in establishing innovative digital entrepreneurship. It also discusses how information and communication technologies (ICTs) enable open innovation and differentiates between businesses that acquire other innovative start-ups and those that create innovation hubs in order to sustain their competitive advantage. Further, it describes the challenges that hinder innovation within digital entrepreneurship, before listing actions that need to be considered in order to meet the expectations set by the collaborators in digital innovation ecosystems. Finally, this chapter elaborates on a case study that discusses how innovation facilitated the introduction of innovative products to consumers and how this helped the business to make huge profits.

Digital entrepreneurship refers to the means or methods of creating fresh and innovative businesses, products or commodities as well as services that are enabled, permitted and provided via the Internet. Social media also refers to the mode by which people interact through the exchange of ideas and information in virtual networks. There are plenty of social media platforms in existence today; amongst the most popular are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp. The use of social media platforms for digital entrepreneurship can create opportunities like working remotely, on-the-go and at any time in the world. This chapter offers an insight into social media, its advantages on digital entrepreneurship as well as the potential future of social media for digital entrepreneurship.