The cousin marriage tradition, colonial shocks and the performance of informal firms in sub-Saharan Africa

Estrin, Saul ORCID: 0000-0002-3447-8593, Mickiewicz, Tomasz and Zhang, Peng (2025) The cousin marriage tradition, colonial shocks and the performance of informal firms in sub-Saharan Africa. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. ISSN 1932-4391 (In Press)

Text (Estrin Mickiewicz Zhang SEJ final 05 2025) - Accepted Version Pending embargo until 1 January 2100. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB)

Abstract

The paper explores how the deep historical roots of informal institutions influence current informal businesses. It proposes that both pre-colonial institutions - the tradition of cousin marriage - and the subsequent shocks of colonisation still impact the performance of informal firms. We theorise on how the effects of historical family systems are moderated by the traumatic and spatially heterogenous shocks of colonialism, in particular the cultural values of the colonisers (individualism) and their religious (missionary) activities. Our hypotheses are tested by regression analysis based on surveys of informal businesses in multiple regions of eight African countries. We find that cousin marriage tradition is negatively associated with the performance of current informal businesses though this relationship is attenuated in places where colonisers were more individualistic.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Management
Subjects:	J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration H Social Sciences
Date Deposited:	14 May 2025 11:18
Last Modified:	14 May 2025 11:18
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128117

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