New Foreign Venture Evolution Under Institutional Voids: Lessons from Shonga Farms in Nigeria

This article inductively builds theory on how transaction costs may be alleviated, and institutional voids bridged in developing economies, based on the case study of the successful migrants’ entrepreneurial involvement in Nigerian agriculture: Shonga Farms. We posit that the iterative process of building conditions of trust that initiates with long-term commitment, involvement of the regional government, appropriate modes of financial contracts, and the gradual transitioning of controlling interests to private actors, are factors of success. We draw additional lessons by contrasting our case study with other similar migrant schemes that failed.