Decolonising Entrepreneurship Theory: African Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Alternative Frameworks for Understanding Nigerian Enterprise

This dissertation engages the decolonisation agenda in business and management studies by critically examining the Eurocentric assumptions embedded in mainstream entrepreneurship theory and developing an alternative framework grounded in African indigenous knowledge systems and Nigerian enterprise philosophy. Mainstream entrepreneurship theory, from Schumpeterian creative destruction to lean startup methodology, carries unstated normative commitments to individual agency, market competition, growth maximisation, and formal institutional engagement that reflect Western cultural values and are inconsistent with the communal, relational, and spiritually embedded character of enterprise in many Nigerian cultural traditions. The dissertation proceeds through four original contributions: a systematic epistemic critique of mainstream entrepreneurship theory's cultural and historical blind spots, drawing on African philosophy of Ubuntu, Igbo obi economics, and Hausa-Fulani commercial ethics as alternative epistemological anchors; an empirical study of enterprise values, decision-making norms, and success definitions among 60 entrepreneurs from three distinct Nigerian cultural communities using ethnoentrepreneurship methodology; an original theoretical synthesis constructing a Communal Entrepreneurship Framework that integrates relational obligation, spiritual risk management, and intergenerational wealth ethics as core theoretical constructs; and a critical review of Nigerian entrepreneurship policy through the lens of the proposed framework, demonstrating how decolonised theory produces different policy prescriptions. The dissertation argues for epistemic pluralism in entrepreneurship research as both a scientific and a justice imperative. Keywords: decolonisation, entrepreneurship theory, African indigenous knowledge, communal enterprise, Nigeria.