Abstract
The literature on corporate governance and strategic management in emerging African economies has often lacked granular, longitudinal analysis of institutional evolution and its impact on enterprise performance. This review critically evaluates a comprehensive volume that analyses the development of corporate governance, diagnostic tools, and strategic planning within the nation's private sector over a significant period. The review employs a critical appraisal methodology, assessing the book's theoretical frameworks, its synthesis of case studies and empirical data, and its contextualisation within broader behavioural finance and institutional theory. The review finds the book's central thesis—that a persistent 'diagnostic gap' in boardrooms has hindered strategic agility—to be compellingly supported. A key theme is the documented over-reliance on imported governance templates, which the text argues has stifled locally adaptive strategic innovation. The volume is a significant, timely contribution that successfully bridges business economics and behavioural insights, offering a nuanced, evidence-based portrait of institutional progress and persistent challenges in an important African economy. The review recommends the book for scholars in African business studies, behavioural finance, and corporate governance, as well as for practitioners and policymakers seeking a rigorous, diagnostic analysis of enterprise development. Corporate governance, strategic frameworks, behavioural finance, enterprise diagnostics, institutional analysis The book's novel contribution is its integrated 'diagnostic governance' framework, which explicitly links behavioural biases in boardrooms to systemic failures in strategic adaptation.