This paper investigates the emergence of community-led initiatives as a response to institutional voids within emerging contexts. These initiatives have ignited a period of substantial growth, fostering transformative change across local, national, and continental domains. While discourse on transformative social innovation has become increasingly prominent, there is limited exploration of the role of community-led initiatives in facilitating transformative social innovation (TSI) within emerging ecosystems, our research seeks to bridge this gap. To achieve this, we employ a comparative case study approach, examining three community-led initiatives across multiple African countries through 22 in-depth interviews. The novelty of our approach lies in shifting the perspective from a firm-centric view, which emphasizes stakeholder prominence, to a community-directed perspective that promotes collaboration and participation. This shift allows us to reevaluate the transformative impacts of these initiatives within emerging contexts. Findings from our case studies indicate the prominence and interpretive flexibility of these efforts. Results emphasize the exposure, international impact and entrenched connections that these initiatives facilitate, highlighting their efforts as stimulating significant and previously unremarked community-led change. .
