The entrepreneurial ecosystem in MENA countries: A temporal and spatial comparison

Résumé

This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in which entrepreneurs, SMEs, and startups operate in selected MENA countries, highlighting the beneficial and detrimental characteristics of the MENA entrepreneurial ecosystem. We will also seek to provide insights into how to stimulate and enrich the culture of entrepreneurship in the region. We used temporal and spatial comparisons between a set of countries in the MENA region and over the years for each one of them. The study was conducted based on the National expert survey (NES) led by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) between 2015 and 2018 in countries of the MENA region. The results allowed us to link experts’ given assessment of a specific framework condition to some decision-making actor’s actions. The results also show that the overall expert’s perceptions about entrepreneurial Framework Conditions in the MENA region remain weak and show some disparities between the countries studied. This study enabled us to finger-point actions that could impact the entrepreneurial ecosystem.