Necessity entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review of its nature, drivers, and outcomes

Abstract

Abstract Necessity entrepreneurship, generally understood as self-employment driven by the absence of better livelihood options, is a prominent form of entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the scientific literature remains scattered and theoretically underdeveloped. This article presents a systematic review of 27 empirical studies published between 2010 and 2026 following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines and thematic synthesis. Three research questions guide the review: (RQ1) how necessity entrepreneurship is conceptualised in SSA; (RQ2) what individual, institutional, and structural factors drive it; and (RQ3) what economic and social outcomes it produces. Seven analytical themes emerge: (1) heterogeneity beyond the necessity–opportunity binary; (2) structural and institutional drivers; (3) social exclusion pathways; (4) gendered constraints; (5) financial infrastructure and digital finance; (6) necessity-to-opportunity transition; and (7) multidimensional outcomes. Synthesising these themes, the review develops a Context–Capability–Trajectory (CCT) framework that explains necessity entrepreneurship as a dynamic process in which structural conditions generate necessity pressure, resource endowments and conversion factors shape the activity space, enabling mechanisms influence trajectories, and monetary and non-monetary outcomes feed back into context. The framework positions gender and social position as cross-cutting structuring mechanisms and offers five propositions for empirical testing in SSA.