Research · Current research program

African Enterprise Dynamics

A long-term, mixed-method research program on how startups and small and medium enterprises face problems, organize their work, make decisions, innovate, build capabilities and adapt to changing conditions. It begins in Africa and is designed to extend to entrepreneurs in other regions and contexts.

The survey

What happens to businesses, good and bad, and how they respond.

The African Enterprise Dynamics Survey is the program's first survey. It invites owners and senior managers to share what happened to their business in the last 12 months and what the business did about it, so that what one business learned can help others. Good and bad outcomes are asked about separately, so the survey can record both.

What you will be asked

About you and the business: your role, and the business's work, size and setting.
The most important thing in the last 12 months: a problem, a sudden event, a change or an opportunity, or nothing important.
Outside conditions: the conditions around the business that played a part.
What the business did: the response, and the decisions and extra work it took.
Effects: what changed for the business and for others, including who carried the cost.
A closer look at one part: one set of more detailed questions, so different people see some different questions.

Who can take part

Owners and senior managers

Owners, co-owners and senior executives, such as managing directors and chief operating officers, including founders of startups that are already operating. You must be 18 or older.

Businesses of any size in any of Africa's 54 countries, including non-profit organizations that sell goods or services. Businesses fully owned by a government are not included. Up to two people from the same business can take part; the last page gives a business code to share with the second person.

What it takes

30 to 45 minutes, online

The survey is online and in English. Taking part is your choice: you can skip any question or stop at any time.

To stop and come back later, choose Save and finish later and make up a save name and password. Do not use your real name. Some words have a short definition, and you can open the word list at any time.

What comes back to you

Learning from other businesses

Your experience helps other businesses, and theirs helps you. We publish the findings in an annual public report, the first in the first quarter of 2027, open to every business, whether or not you choose anything more.

If you want more, you can choose a monthly report for participants from early 2027 that shares practices used by other businesses, a private profile of your answers beside group results, and an invitation to a private results webinar. Each is a separate choice; we ask for your email at the end of the survey and store it apart from your answers.

Your privacy

We will not publish your name or the name of your business. We report answers only in groups.
Some questions ask about sensitive matters, such as requests for unofficial payments, crime or conflict. You can skip any question, and we never ask for names.
Your answers are collected and managed in the United States by the Creazioneer Institute, which is based in the United States.
We keep your answers for research without your name, your business's name or your contact details. For 30 days after you finish, you can ask us to remove your answers by writing to [email protected] with the removal code shown at the end of the survey.
In the future, we may give other organizations access to results that are anonymous and grouped. We will never share your own answers or your contact details.
The full terms are on the survey's first page, and you agree to them there before you begin.

The research program

From background research to a baseline, then over time.

Stage 1 · Complete

Background research

A structured review of existing studies, datasets and measurement approaches across eighteen topic clusters, closed in October 2026 as the evidence base for the survey.

Stage 2 · Underway

African Enterprise Complexity, Adaptation & Growth Study

The initial survey study. The African Enterprise Dynamics Survey is open from 1 to 22 November 2026; it establishes a baseline and, with their consent, follows participating firms over time.

Continuing program

Recurring waves

Repeat survey waves, follow-up with the same firms (with their consent), case studies and careful expansion to new countries and contexts.

The questions behind the survey

Which problems do enterprises face, how are they experienced, and how do they couple or cascade?
How do problem patterns vary by context, stage, sector and resources?
How do enterprises find opportunities and carry out front-end innovation?
Which capabilities and how much effective capacity enable or constrain a response?
How do decision rights, authority and coordination shape adaptation?
How do enterprises explore, exploit and renew their capabilities over time?
How do tools, networks, workarounds and AI add to capability, or to the burden?
How is purposeful growth different from expansion, revenue and scale?

Our commitments

Africa is not one context.Countries, regions, sectors and languages are treated on their own terms, and local adaptations are never silently folded into a single global measure.

Evidence beyond self-report.Each survey asks about a real adaptation episode, so reported capability can be checked against what actually happened.

Honest limits.We retain null and adverse findings and make no claims of causation, national representativeness or universal ranking beyond what the evidence supports.

Consent and care.Firms are followed over time only with consent, and sensitive questions are optional.

See what the background research found and our working concept map

Open until 22 November 2026

Add your business's experience.

30 to 45 minutes, online, in English. You can save your place and finish later.

Take the survey

The official survey address starts with creazioneer.limesurvey.net. If a link you received looks different, write to us before you answer.

Survey questions: [email protected]
Research questions: [email protected]
Privacy and removal: [email protected]
Media and partners: [email protected]