Abstract
Africa represents tremendous potential constrained by complex challenges. A qualitative approach was used to do a thematic macro analysis of the competitiveness of Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa using the management research category, navigating institutional voids, identified by George et al. (2016) and incorporating data from the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report (GCR). This study provides a framework for comparative analysis to inform business practitioners of issues, challenges and opportunities and propose a research agenda for management scholars. In several of the factors, South Africa had the highest ranking. However, the most interesting findings emerge when analysing the measures on which all three African countries had equally poor ranks, namely; the quality of the education system and of math and science education. Additionally, information relating to some subthemes was lacking which could be the result of two factors. Firstly, certain sub-themes are difficult to quantify which makes it challenging to measure by way of a scale or rank. Secondly, there may be some information on certain sub-themes but the conditions or policies that give rise to the information are highly contextual and cannot be compared between countries in a meaningful way. Regardless of the constraints, the existing sub-themes are widely accepted to have a bearing on competitiveness.