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This paper aims to present the Igbo management philosophy as having the potential to bring about success in Africa and propose a framework that comprises a set of values and three key institutions: the marketplace, the family and the apprenticeship system. The paper shows that effective leaders are servant-leaders who sacrifice for others.

This paper relied on earlier and contemporary peer-reviewed, news media and books. These materials offered insight into what Igbos believed, how they behaved and how they historically organized their lives. Materials authored by both African and non-African authors were considered.

The researcher concluded that Igbos developed a management system based on a philosophy that is African, which is different from the Western system. A framework for the Igbo management philosophy is derived from complex interactions of values and institutions in Igbo societies. The researcher finds that a set of values, particularly, the value of sacrifice, is crucial for ensuring effective business leadership.

Western influence on management has persisted. However, with the economic rise of China, Asian philosophical thought has taken a more center stage in academic management scholarship. Even though human civilization occurred in Africa, it is perplexing that African management systems are not mainstream. There has been research on indigenous African systems and African management philosophy in general. Previous scholarship has also explored the Igbo culture as a whole and their apprenticeship system; however, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first time a framework for an Igbo management philosophy is proposed.

Recently, there is an increasing academic and practitioner interest on the Igbo ethnic group, their business activities and how they have utilised industrial clusters to drive local industrial development in the southeast region of Nigeria and the country at large. However, there are relatively few studies that have explored the mechanisms driving this development. Our chapter focuses on explicating the Igbo business industrial clusters and its inherent locally generated venture capital approach built on the Igbo traditional culture and philosophy. We draw on previous literature to show the three phases: assessing competency, providing the start-up capital and continuous replication process involved in creating and sustaining the locally generated venture capital approach as operated by Igbo business industrial clusters. We contend that overall, this approach has the potential to drive modern business and industrial policies for driving entrepreneurial start-ups, innovation, and economic sustainability. We conclude our chapter by highlighting the implications for Africa, African business practices and areas for future studies.

This paper aims to address the main arguments put forward in Grietjie Verhoef’s article and contribute to a wider debate among management scholars on the role of indigenous theories. It challenges the view of African management as illusory and points to the rising support for indigenous theories as indicative of the weakening of the unquestioned dominance of universal theories.

This paper takes a conceptual and critically reflective approach, underpinned by a 360-degree evaluation of pertinent literature and theoretical arguments.

This paper reveals an underlying symmetry and interconnectedness, anchored on a shared communal ethos, among Afrocentric management concepts, specifically Ubuntu, Ekpe and Igbo apprenticeship systems. This symmetry points to an underlying indigenous management theory that begs to be further conceptualised, evidenced and advanced.

This paper affirms Verhoef’s demand for Ubuntu, Ekpe, Igbo apprenticeship system to be more rigorously developed and theoretically coherent and urges scholars to intensify effort towards advancing the conceptual and empirical foundations of African management. Echoing Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless counsel, this paper calls on critics of African management to join the effort to bring about the change they wish to see in African management theorising.

This paper disavows the alleged effort to impose a single “African management” model or perpetuate the “colonial/indigenous” binary divide but equally cautions against an effort to veto scholarly striving for a common identity, to learn from history or not embrace collective amnesia. As examples from the USA and Europe show, diversity, even heterogeneity, needs not to preclude the forging of a commonly shared identity complemented with appropriate sub-identities.

This paper links the African management-centred themes addressed by Verhoef to the wider debate among management scholars about lessening the dominance of universal theories and allowing space for context-resonant indigenous theories. It calls on African management scholars to invest the premium and intensified effort towards building a more robust and coherent body of indigenous theory that will have the capacity and efficacy to inform, explain and advance organisational practice and outcomes across Africa.