Article snapshot: "Entrepreneurial Innovation and Policy Implications in the United Arab Emirates"

This blog post provides an article snapshot of our recently published article on SMEs and innovation in the United Arab Emirates. If you would like to cite the article please use the following:

Erogul, M. S., & Van Horne, C. (2014). Entrepreneurial Innovation and Policy Implications in the United Arab Emirates. Journal of Enterprising Culture,22(02), 185-208.

The link to the article is available here: Entrepreneurial Innovation in the UAE

Murat and I wrote this paper based on GEM data from 2009 and 2011 (Murat was an author of the 2009 report and I was an author of the 2011 report). We looked more closely at the data concerning the innovativeness of SMEs in the UAE - both newly formed and established. The goal was to analyse the data to develop some policy recommendations specifically targeted at getting fresh entrepreneurs to choose innovation over "me too" in terms of technologies used and in their products and services offered to customers.

The findings indicate that business activity in the UAE among Emiratis is concentrated in consumer and service oriented ventures, such as retail, restaurants, health, education and social services. Secondly, UAE businesses in general are skilled at technology adoption, but not technology innovation. Thirdly, it has been found that new and young businesses in the UAE have minimal involvement in the high/medium technology sectors. 

If we look at Figure 1 we can see that basically all newly formed SMEs in 2009 -2011 period were in low tech sectors - except for RAK, where nearly 15% of entrepreneurs felt that they were operating in the high tech sector.

Figure 1: Technology level of the sector by Emirate (2009 and 2011)

When it comes to technologies incorporated into the products and services developed by new SMEs the figures are a little more promising. Especially when it came to women entrepreneur, half of whom felt they offered products and services that incorporated the latest technology. This compared to men, where less than one in five felt they used the latest technology. Further research is needed to see what these differences are attributed to... but it would be very interesting to investigate.

As the goal of the UAE to become an innovative economy, innovation will also need to be the life blood of newly formed SMEs and not just large established enterprises. More students graduating from Science and Technology degrees will encourage more to form businesses in sectors other than the service industries and business education will enable entrepreneurs to understand innovation processes and how to adapt them to best fit market needs.


The UAE still has some of the most internationally focussed SMEs on the planet... But for SMEs to become truly competitive they will need to innovate in their products, services, marketing techniques, delivery and supply chain management mechanisms and more. Additionally, the strength and ease of technology transfers, advanced entrepreneurship education and networking opportunities, and significant amounts of early-stage funding are important areas for policy development.

Operations Management field trip to RAK Pearls

On Saturday I went with Dr. Batoul's Operations Management class to Ras Al Khamiah and we visited the first company to manufacture cultured pearls in the Middle East - RAK Pearls. To learn more about the company visit their website here: RAK Pearls website

Our tour starts in the soon to be opened education centre

Our tour was given by Mr. Mohamed Al Suwaidi and it started with an overview of the history of pearling in the region. For over 7,000 years the area in the Arabian Gulf from RAK to Qatar the livelihood of thousands of men and their families depended on the pearling industry. Since the 30s with the rise of cultured pearls in Japan and the discovery of oil there has been little industrial regional production of pearls.

In 2005 RAK Pearls began operations with a vision to restart the industry in the country based on sustainability of the industry, the environment and as a way of preserving (or rediscovering) an important part of Emirati culture and heritage.

We started the tour talking about the past... the traditional dhow boats used and the daily life of the divers on the pearling ships. 

The men would go out on the boats and stay out from early to mid-June to mid September - or around four months and ten days. The pearl beds from RAK to Qatar lay under shallow water - making them accesable to the divers. The men would dive from sunrise to sunset and the dives would last between 2 - 3 minutes (yes, without breathing!)

The men would wake and say the morning prayer and have one or two dates and coffee and dive all day until the evening prayer, after which they would have their single meal of the day - catch of the day and rice. Work continued as they began to open the oysters from previous days that had died in their shells - making them easier to open (and super stinky I can only imagine). Only 1 - 2% had pearls that had market value... so incredible amounts of work for limited reward.

A diver's work was measured in the number of baskets of oysters gathered in the day.

How many baskets today?

How pearls were graded and weighed in the past...

We then learned of the new method used by RAK Pearls - that was a result of an R&D joint venture between themselves and a company in Japan. I took a video (with permission of course) about the "transplant" method and you can watch it here: RAK Pearls video


Essentially a seed (made from the shell of a large oyster from the Mississippi River) is implanted into the gonad of an oyster, along with cells from a "donor" oyster - which will cover the seed with mother of pearl... super interesting actually, even if I got wobbly watching the "transplant".

Donor oysters open and ready, surgical instruments, seeds and oysters ready for seeding covered with a damp towel.

Watching the operation with great interest....

After the seeding the oysters the oysters rest for a month, are sorted for the ones that survived
and then placed in trays in the "beds"

The oysters are then left to grow in the warm, clean waters of the bay... but they are "pressure" washed once a week to keep the shells free from dust from the mountains and parasites - so the oyster has nothing to do but create that beautiful pearl.

Then, almost a year later they are ready for harvesting - and they are left to grow for about twice as long as mass produced cultured pearls as Mr. Mohammed said they are aiming for quality and not quantity. 

Nothing is wasted during harvesting - the mother of pearl is used for decorative gift ware, the ground up shell is sold to cosmetic firms, the edible part of the pearl is sold to restaurants and the rest of the oyster is sold as fertilizer... nothing is wasted! Sustainability implemented and not just in the vision statement....

Then, the very exciting part of the tour. We each choose our oyster and find our pearl :) 

My pearl!

Some of the students showing off their pearls (most will be given to Moms of course!)

Deluxe corporate gift of the Dubai 2020 logo

RAK - stunning as usual

I think we all learned a lot in this tour - not just about Operations Management - but about SME Strategy and sustainability in action. 

Action learning in Arabia: Adventures, Blog posts and More: Presentation at QS Maple

Today I presented at the 4th QS Maple Conference here in Abu Dhabi. You can find a link to the conference here: Conference website

The mission of the Conference is:

• To provide a forum that promotes the development of higher education in the Middle East and Africa in the global context that stimulates international partnership.
• To support the processes of institutional evaluation and upgrading that will lead to greater worldwide recognition of Middle Eastern and African universities.

There were some really great presentations from universities around the world... and of course I presented about my action or experiential learning projects which regular readers are familiar with :) I spoke about the lessons learned and gave some examples... 

Five lessons learned

• Go over the theory - again and again and again 

Yes, I do PowerPoint - yes, presentations might be boring, but I try to use examples that "mean" something to the students. I also use the whiteboard a lot and write the strategic management process at least once a week!

• Provide minimal guidelines/rules 

This might go against traditional pedagogy... but the more I tell them exactly what to do the less they think... and I want them to be active thinkers, looking for answers to their questions... I also empower students who "get it" to be charged with explaining it to others... Prepare for panic and prepare yourself for questions...

• Trust/be patient 

OK, I almost always panic about the organisations of events - for example last week's poster presentations... and of course the event, project, field trip always exceeds my high hopes... They will pull it off... My students don't work like I do, but it always seems to come together...

Tweeting and then Instagraming my stress to aid communication!

• Be open for the unexpected/ Live in the moment 

Well... regular readers know that this is a must. This photo explains it all... not photoshopped and yes those are bees, lots and lots of bees!

Trying to be brave in the mountains of Dibba 

• Share (blog post)/Follow up

Then we go over the project in class... what went well, what could we change for "next time" and I write about it - to share with you my reader of course, but so that future groups can learn from past groups. Truly, they learn from each other much more readily than a middle-aged Canadian professor! (I know shocking!)

It was a great conference and I will need a few days to digest all I learned... I was also very happy to present what I do for the first time to an international audience and have it well received. All in all a great two days!

Top 5 (and least loved) blog posts after two years and 100 posts

Wow, two years after I started this blog and I am still at it... 100 posts in all, over 25,500 viewers (not all my Mom and Dad surely), many adventures and countless memories. As people like lists I decided to write another list... the top five blog posts of "all time" and a mention for the least loved....

The list includes both research results and "action learning adventures" - although the action took place in the classroom, on a camel farm and in Japan!

Number 5 with 770 views: Advice to Emirati entrepreneurs at each stage of the entrepreneurship process

The advice given is broken up into the four "basic" stages of the entrepreneurship process as illustrated by this fabulous graphic.

Entrepreneurship process in stages

The advice was developed after several years of research (which resulted in the UAE 2011 GEM Report and the first book on Emirati entrepreneurship) and seems to get a reader or two every week, even over year after it was first posted.

Number 4 with 859 views: Camel racing farm visit - another adventure in learning strategy from traditional industries

Given my overarching theme of learning about what strategy is "now" in the UAE by looking to the past and Emirati heritage, we visted two different camel farms in Sharjah, UAE to learn about camel racing and also to think about the strategy of camel racing...
There is a video here about the robot jockey (an Emirati invention) here:

Camel racing is a fascinating sport, with different strategies and tactics used to train, feed and heal camels - all depending on the age of the camel, sex and length of the race. They are also beautiful animals :)

We are interrupting a 5* dinner with imported fresh grass!

Number 3 with 1598 views: ZU Men's Business Association trip to Japan - Emirati planning in action (Part 1)

During the 2012 Spring break the Men's Business Association at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi went on a study abroad trip to Japan. Ten of the founding members of the Association, myself (the supervisor of the Club) and David (awesome instructor in College of Social Sciences and only Westerner I know who speaks local Arabic!) went on a ten day adventure to Tokyo - this is what we did, but more important how it all came together through the amazing support of so many people at ADNOC Distribution (forever grateful), Mr. Hasan (the most Emirati, Japanese person I have ever met), the UAE Embassy in Japan (will never be able to thank you enough) and ZU (many individuals put a rush on things that are not normally rushed).

This is just part 1 of 3 outlining our adventures, but needless to say we had a great time, visited many interesting sites, met wonderful people and learned to get around a country whose infrastructure is very different than our own - and are still in contact with our student translators who volunteered their time to be our guides. We have even had a visit here from one of them :) 

The group with the UAE Ambassador to Japan

Number 2 with 1755 views: Entrepreneurship as Process

I can only assume that describing entrepreneurship as a process is a term paper question... because this post is viewed in "clusters". It is a simple description of the four phases of the process... but I guess simple is a good thing when it comes to usability!

There are four basic phases of the process :

1.      Recognizing opportunities

2.      Assembling resources

3.      Launch of venture

4.      Harvesting and succeeding

Number 1 with 1908 views: Let them eat cake: Learning strategy through celebration

Manchester City won the Barclays Premier League football (soccer for the North American readers) for the first time in 44 years two years ago. Now, you might not know, but Man City is Abu Dhabi's team - Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment owned and run by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan bought the Club in 2009 - and just three short years later we won (yes - I am a fan too).

I learned to use all things football to teach different elements of strategic management early when I began teaching the boys... My plans to watch a video turned into a celebration with cake and pop and a video of the winning goal. And I still use this to teach... and yes, light bulb moments happen each time!

Totally yummy cake!

Now, for the least loved - in fact it was my first post welcoming people to my new blog... lets just say visits are barely into the double digits... but that's OK :)

I will continue with my blog... it will change and adapt as next semester I will not be teaching Strategy, but will be teaching Innovation Management to the girls... our action learning adventures will surely be held mainly on campus, but that just requires a bit of creativity and planning - something Emirati women excel at!

Abu Dhabi Marine Conservation Society's Beach Clean-Up Day

This past weekend I participated in the Abu Dhabi Marine Conservation Society's Beach Clean-Up Day at Al Harmia Beach in the Western Regions. Due to heavy fog it was officially cancelled for safety reasons (for the people travelling in buses from Abu Dhabi) - but there were a few people there and we all decided to stay and make a dent in a big job!

You can follow and keep up with their events on Instagram: @admcgroup

Before I get into the actually clean-up, the group itself is very interesting. Founded by two sisters, Shamsa and Maitha Al Hameli, here is a little information directly from them:

ADMCG’s Vision: To sustain a healthy marine environment for future generations.

ADMCG’s Mission: To raise awareness, engage the community and promote positive action towards Abu Dhabi’s marine life.

About us:

“Today, conservation of the environment is not meant only for the government or for the officials. It is something that concerns us all. Individuals, voluntary groups of our citizens and others - all can and must get involved.” - Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Inspired by the words of our late father Sheikh Zayed Bun Sultan Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Marine Conservation Group was founded by a group of environmentally aware young UAE nationals with the goal of raising awareness within the society about the marine life found in Abu Dhabi’s waters and highlighting the importance of conserving our fragile marine ecosystem.

These young women are truly inspirational and super organised... which brings us to the clean-up!

I was told about the group a few weeks ago from a former student - Salem - and I started following them on Instagram (social media is THE medium of choice for communication for young people in the UAE). Salem then suggested that a group of us (from the desert clean-up crew) should go - I agreed of course :)

We set out early in a dense fog... but we made it!

Great, clear to read signs :) 

The ladies were already hard at work when we got there a little after 8 am...

Lots of weird garbage that washes up with the tide... an old gas can...

There was actually a lot of garbage, mainly plastic, brought in by the tides and left by picnicers..

Cables... which get wrapped around necks of dolphins and turtles...

The seaweed hid some of the garbage... but it was "easy" pickin's!

Argh... we really need to do something about these plastic water bottles... in Canada we have an environment fee in some provinces (e.g. Alberta)

Salem didn't use the stick either... using hands might be harder on the back, but in many ways I find it easier (but there were tons of sticks to use if we had needed)

I had the garbage 'find" of the day.... 

There are also "organic" finds on the beach... I think most of us turn into budding scientists around interesting finds!

By the time we had cleaned our patch of beach, the clouds had lifted and we had filled 3 trucks full of refuse... 

I think this is a wonderful way for organisations to do "real" CSR - encouraging employees (and even family members) to take part in cleaning our environment... I also think that the more people who get involved, the more people will think twice before throwing out that plastic bottle over the side of the boat or on the beach.

Bravo ladies for founding this amazing organisation (and gentlemen who participated).... I will be back for the next one :)

(For more information in the group - or if you are interested in advice on how to set up a clean-up day for your organisation here is their Email: admcsociety@gmail.com)

Learning about UAE Mangroves on a Beach Clean-Up with the ADMCS

This past weekend I participated in the Abu Dhabi Marine Conservation Society's Beach Clean-Up Day at Al Harmia Beach in the Western Regions. (Thank you Salem for letting me know about it! I love that my former students remember my interest in these types of events).

You can follow and keep up with their events on Instagram: @admcgroup

Although I will be writing a blog post about the clean up and the group separately, I really felt the need to share what I learned about Mangroves - although I see them from my apartment I didn't really know a lot about them before yesterday.

Mangroves are vital for the health of the marine environment - Mangroves clean the air, water and provide a habitat for fish, bird and larger sea creatures... they also protect beaches from erosion and high tides... and they are beautiful and peaceful and quite inspiring.

Mangroves - view from Reem Island

While we were cleaning up the garbage in the thick seaweed, Shamsa and Maitha Al Hameli, sisters and founding members of the group, were also picking up green shoots that were growing in the seaweed... When they mentioned what they were I was fascinated... and I went into student mode!

This is a baby mangrove - which will die as the roots will not survive in the thick seaweed - they need to be transplanted to sand... and be near other mangroves

Each baby mangrove is treated as a treasure by the young women

We start with a clump of seaweed and baby trees (OK seedlings)

Seedlings actually germinate and start "life" on the mother mangrove tree, then the wind, tides or birds "transplant" them naturally

Carefully cleaning the seaweed from the roots is the next step

Then transplanting them near other seedlings....

A new mangrove "forest" is in its earliest stages... most likely seedlings from the plantation growing on the other side of the artificial reef

Thank you ladies - it was a great morning and great learning experience for me... I am looking forward to the next clean-up!

Desert clean up project: a lesson in strategic implementation

One week to go until the end of the semester and graduation! Yesterday we took our class field trip to the Al Ain desert - to clean a small patch of well used public desert, that also happens to be strewn with garbage of all descriptions!

I know more traditional professors and people education in the rote learning tradition will not understand how these projects have anything to do with learning... well, you do not teach critical thinking, problem solving and strategic implementation memorizing definitions.

Action learning is a movement gaining steam in academia - it involves not only hands on learning but applying theoretical concepts in real situations... Our desert cleaning project in Al Ain involved discussing the AD 2030 and UAE 2021 plans, but also the nitty gritty of strategic implementation. The vision of the UAE and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is based on sustainability of the economy, environment, the society, and culture. The desert has everything to do with all four... But there is a serious litter problem. Of course not everywhere is this "bad" and the students looked hard to find a "bad" spot that was also easy to get to. The desert in the UAE is breathtakingly beautiful, just certain well-used spots need some TLC!

It started with a small group in charge of the project (Hamad, Khalaf and Surour - awesome job guys!). They were tasked in finding the best place, leading class discussions on what would be needed, how we would organize, getting permission from the municipality, transportation, etc. I was in charge of sending countless email :) The municipality was very supportive and actually offered to send workers to help us out... Hamad knew what I would say to that and respectfully declined the offer!

Enthusiasm grew for the project over the past 8 weeks or so... being able to motivate is a helpful skill among professors of Generation Y students!

On to the photo essay :)

We arrive at the chosen - pre-scoped out site in the Al Ain desert. 

Garbage was everywhere, and actually was worse than I thought it would be... the students said it was because it was so close to the road and some great sand dunes...

Each group needed gloves, heavy duty garbage bags and a "stick" - Ace Hardware knew by the third group to visit that they were Zayed university students :)

There were skills to be learned, bags to be opened and lots of garbage! And every time you dug a little in the sand there was more :) Seriously some of it was super gross, luckily by the time we hit really gross stuff we had been at it awhile and had built up our immunity!

There were some weird "treasures" found... and I just love this photo showing enthusiasm, and even joy in our desert clean up project :)

Skills became talents :) Yes, not all students were feeling 100%, but they came out anyways!

Close up of the camels grazing - thanks Salem for the pic :)

Camels!!!!!!

OK, it is not that strange to see camels in the desert - but we all took photos and were excited all the same... and of course it was a stark reminder of the real dangers of trash in the desert... the camels graze in the open desert and eat the plastic... but the plastic isn't digested and the lump can grow so big the camel will die a quite painful death.

The January 2014 men's graduating class in the College of Business at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi with the "fruits" of our labor... some of it had already been hauled down to the big green garbage container just a few feet away (yes those containers are every km or so... the municipality provides them, people just don't use them!)

Part of the beautiful clean "patch" of desert!

Relaxing after the clean-up :) We had a lovely early dinner around the fire...

This is part of the great beauty of the desert - relaxing and sharing stories around a fire... watching the sun set, having the professor give suggestions on how best to manage the fire, ignoring those suggestions... etc!

The Maghreb prayer - I asked permission to take a photo and then to post it - they said of course Miss, this is who we are and why we are.

The Maghreb or sunset prayer is one of the five prayers that Muslims pray daily. I have had the honor of seeing my students pray on many occasions, but I wanted to share this special moment with you. The owner of the camels had noticed us cleaning and then joined the students in their prayers. He then talked with them and said he would send over camel milk from the evening milking to thank and welcome us. A photo of the still warm and frothy camel milk is below.

After dinner he came himself and sat around the fire - and asked about our project and then spoke of the importance of teaching each generation - parents to children - about cleanliness, the ways of the desert, their heritage and Islam. He asked each student to introduce himself, and from their names he would sometimes tell a story about the father or grandfather and guess where they were from. He also spoke of how proud he was of them and how proud the university and their parents must be.

He then asked if the professor (me) wanted to hold a falcon. So we walked the few feet to his truck and there was one of the most beautiful falcons I had ever seen! It was a Shaheen and had a royal lineage... let me tell you there were some excited students to see his falcons and hear about his hunting adventures around the world.

Camel milk is destined to become a super food in the next decade... and it is delicious :)

Me in a very warm jacket made for cold desert nights and a majestic Shaheen falcon

Action learning will always have "unintended" teachable moments... this project had too many teachable moments for all of us to count! Bravo gentlemen, I am proud of you... when you start your jobs in organisation in Abu Dhabi, just remember this was a valuable team building exercise :)

Smile and courage, Dr. Connie