Introduction

This chapter introduces the book and provides an overview of key terms and the historical context, the companies selected for the study and the country context. The term postcolonial transition describes the changes in countries such as Ghana and Nigeria during decolonization and the first two decades of independence. Multinationals became increasingly aware of the need to build goodwill with domestic stakeholders. The book details their legitimization strategies, especially in terms of corporate political activities (Part 1) and Africanization (e.g., promoting African staff to positions of responsibility, Part 2). The introduction reviews the relevant literature, covering several different topics such as decolonization and development thinking, economic nationalism and expropriations, Africanization and business historical studies of corporate legitimacy.