Morocco’s Intangible Competitive Advantage in the U.S.–Morocco–Africa Atlantic Corridor: Cultural Proximity, Transaction Costs, and Logistical Hard Power

Abstract

The emergence of the USA–Morocco–Africa Atlantic Corridor has generated extensive scholarship on its infrastructural and geopolitical dimensions, yet a decisive variable remains systematically unexplored: the economic value of cultural proximity as a supply chain competitiveness determinant in trans-African corridors. This analytical gap - the absence of quantitative studies on this variable in transatlantic logistics corridors - defines the scientific void this article seeks to fill.

Adopting a conceptual approach grounded in published empirical findings, this article argues and substantiates that Moroccan national culture - empirically proximate to Sub-Saharan African cultures on Hofstede's key dimensions - generates a durable intangible competitive advantage in trans-African supply chains. Through three articulated mechanisms (transaction cost reduction, logistical facilitation, and USA–Africa cultural intermediation), this advantage converts from soft power to strategic economic hard power. The argument is anchored in published empirical results (El Hassouni & Machrafi, 2023; Balambo, 2013) - notably the demonstration that affective trust and cultural proximity determine the durability of supply chain cooperation in the Moroccan context.

The article formulates three research propositions and opens an empirical program aimed at quantifying the economic value of cultural proximity in trans-African corridors.

JEL Classification : M16 · F60 · L91 · Z13

Paper type : Conceptual Paper