The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): Taking stock and looking ahead for international business research

The establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has opened new avenues of research interest in International Business and International Management. However, scholarly work in this fledgling area of research has been disparate and often lacking in the assessment of core international business implications of the emergence of the AfCFTA on member states as well as non-member states. This is because, as yet, no systematic attempt has been made to explore the AfCFTA in the context of IB research, or project future IB research directions. Hence, in this paper, using the PRISMA method we have systematically identified the current published research and scholarly work on the AfCFTA and provided a robust picture of the current state of knowledge and available literature on the AfCFTA while at the same time outlining potential areas for future international business research. •A systematic literature review on AfCFTA and implications for international business research.•AfCFTA provides an avenue to develop and test new theories while making meaningful contributions to the literature.•Studies so far focus on AfCFTA's impact on economic growth, implementation challenges, and policy recommendations.•Areas of further research needed to enhance our understanding of AfCFTA have been identified.