ABSTRACT The impact of entrepreneurship and small business activities in Africa has habitually been lower and receives less attention in research. This study aims at investigating the mediation role of innovations on the relationship between entrepreneurial ecosystem approach and productive entrepreneurship. Using panel dataset of 35 African countries, the study contributes to the existing literature in two ways. First, the panel regression findings contribute to the theoretical debate and fill the empirical gap, recent research has been dominated by conceptual works. The findings reveal mixed (positive and negative) and weak insignificant direct influence of eco-factors such as finance, government support and programmes, knowledge, market and culture on productive entrepreneurship. However, their influence is more pronounced when innovations mediate the relationship. Second, it provides new insight to policymakers and practitioners in developing policies and programmes that foster entrepreneurial ecosystems and improved innovation performance for better entrepreneurship development. It concludes with suggestions for future research.

中文翻译：

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非洲的小企业和企业家精神：企业家生态系统和生产型企业家精神的联系

摘要在非洲，企业家精神和小型企业活动的影响通常较低，在研究中受到的关注较少。本研究旨在调查创新对企业家生态系统方法与生产型企业家精神之间关系的中介作用。利用35个非洲国家的面板数据，该研究以两种方式为现有文献做出了贡献。首先，面板回归的发现有助于理论辩论并填补了经验空缺，最近的研究已被概念性工作所主导。调查结果表明，诸如财务，政府支持和计划，知识，市场和文化等生态因素对生产型企业家精神的混合影响（正面和负面）和微不足道的直接影响。然而，当创新调解这种关系时，它们的影响更加明显。其次，它为决策者和从业者提供了制定政策和计划的新见解，这些政策和计划可以促进企业家生态系统并提高创新绩效，从而更好地发展企业家精神。最后提出对未来研究的建议。