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Market share gain is one of the key objectives for all firms for seeking growth. It is also a fundamental aspect of competitive rivalry. The extant review of the literature points to a gap among market share performances of emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) firms, advanced economy multinationals (AMNEs) and local firms. The purpose of this study is to delineate and contrast the market share performance of EMNEs, AMNEs and local firms in Africa.

The study used available longitudinal data (2013–2022) of six industries across four African countries from Euromonitor Passport, a rich, proprietary database.

Applying contingency theory, the study shows that, over time, there is no clear-cut winner in all markets and industries. Rather, market share gain is contingent on country and industry settings in Africa. Empirical analysis demonstrates that high-tech EMNE firms operating in Africa will exceed those of high-tech AMNEs and local firms. The findings also show that local firms generally performed better during the pandemic.

As Africa is a region of interest for scholars and practitioners, critical international business (IB) research contributions in Africa have predominantly focused on foreign investments from a particular nation. The present study enriches the literature by comparing the market share performance of AMNEs, EMNEs and local firms in this important region – during and prepandemic. The study offers theoretical and managerial implications for understanding the long-term performance of these three types of firms.