Abstract:
Over the past few years, the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative
(BRI) has seen a marked increase among state-owned enterprises and large
organizations. However, SMEs especially, those in Africa are yet to exploit
the full potential opportunities embedded in the BRI. This study takes the
initiative to systematically identify and rank the set of factors that enable the
implementation of the BRI among Sub-Saharan African (SSA) SMEs using
survey data from 178 stakeholders. In total, we identified twenty-two factors
and categorized them into five broad headings. These are governmental, tech nical and innovation, firm-specific, network and cooperation, and BRI policy
factors. Subsequently, the picture fuzzy projection-based TOPSIS technique was
applied to rank the factors and sub-factors. The utmost ranked factor in the five
categories was the governmental factors, while transparency in BRI policy,
subsidy for SMEs, flexible trade agreements and clarity in the BRI policy
framework emerged as the top four factors respectively within the 22 sub factors. The study demonstrates that the BRI is embodied with its unique
features, hence, the factors explored in this study could provide policymakers
and SMEs in Africa and beyond with more useful information to understanding
the nature of BRI projects objectively and comprehensively.
