This book explores Chinese engagement in Africa’s mining sector within the context of international business. Conceptual and empirical contributions by diverse authors examine mining activities of Chinese companies in several African countries. Emerging from those contributions is a theory of minimal investment, defined as the degree to which the companies invest minimally in African operations, communities, and countries just for them to get by (i.e., function as normal). The volume presents four conditions that explain why minimal investment persists as a dominant logic of foreign firm behaviour in Africa. Institutions permit it, strategies enact it, heritage legitimizes it, and reactions stabilize it. Minimal investment has produced order, and order is safety both for firms and often for host institutions alike. Optimal investment, by contrast, introduces ‘danger’ because it changes the status quo, redistributes power, and mitigates African rather than firm risk. The Theory of Minimal Investment (TMI) reveals how underinvestment is an intentional, albeit seemingly rational, historically embedded, and institutionally sustained strategy of engagement. Coming at a time in which African countries are seeing a surge of Chinese interest in Africa, this book offers a cautionary tale of the consequences of organizations seeking the ‘help’ of Chinese companies. It will appeal to International Business studies and strategy researchers interested in interorganizational relationships, particularly from the African perspective.
