Entrepreneurs and their networks in MENA: an article and project using big data (and policy recommendations too!)

This is a snapshot of an article written in collaboration with Dr. Lotfi (working in Sousse, Tunisia) and Dr. Taha (working in Sanaa, Yemen), it is part of a special issue published in the International Journal of Business and Globalisation. If you would like to cite the information in this blogpost (e.g. too lazy to read the full article, or better yet all the articles in the special issue, but think we did great work) please cite:

Van Horne, C., Belkacem, L., & Al Fusail, T. 2013. “The composition of entrepreneurship networks in MENA: A comparative analysis” International Journal of Business and Globalisation. 11(4), 337-352.

Finally, our special issue and article are published! We started this journey almost two years ago now - an innocent request from Thomas Schott (our tireless leader) to collaborate with GEM teams working in MENA on entrepreneurs and their networks. This request was possible with a generous grant from the IDRC - or the Canadian International Development Research Centre (website in English) whose aim is "IDRC funds researchers in the developing world so they can build healthier, more prosperous societies". An initial meeting planned for Spring 2012 in Egypt, was move to Tunisia and then finally took place in Jordan.

Of course, being me I wrote about what we did each day and posted it on my blog. If you are curious of the dynamics of multi-national/cultural/disciplinary research, then it is worth a read. This was day 1 and if you are interested there are 4 more days to read :) http://uaestrategy.blogspot.ae/2012/06/idrc-paper-development-workshop-or.html

Each of the cross-country teams were given a topic (we gave our preferences) and my team looked at the general composition of the advisory networks around entrepreneurs operating in the MENA region and compared them across the 14 countries for which we had data. Table 1 illustrates the rich amount of data we had at our fingertips (APS stands for the GEM adult population survey):

Table 1: Composition of data used from 14 MENA countries

	Years of APS surveys with networks	Adults in APS	Networks surveyed	Networks around future-start-ups	Networks around start-ups	Networks around owner-managers
Algeria	2009, 2011	5427	2187	1106	765	316
Egypt	2010	2769	996	496	125	375
Iran	2009,2010,2011	10061	3291	1470	620	1201
Jordan	2009	2006	326	0	124	202
Lebanon	2009	2000	610	0	143	467
Morocco	2009	1500	477	0	109	368
Pakistan	2010, 2011	4009	1534	907	298	329
Palestine	2009, 2010	4072	1057	468	234	355
Saudi Arabia	2010	2000	278	14	177	87
Syria	2009	2002	309	0	85	224
Tunisia	2010	2001	643	328	39	276
Turkey	2011	2401	680	156	178	346
U.A.E.	2011	2021	254	40	119	95
Yemen	2009	2065	570	0	555	15
All countries		44334	13212	4985	3571	4656

Through statistical modeling we found that there was significant difference between entrepreneurs at various stages of venture development for network size and network diversity and that entrepreneurs with larger networks (number of advisers and more diverse (from different environments, e.g. private, work, professional advisers are more likely to launch their business in a short time.

However, most entrepreneurs (read the paper to see country and environment specific detail) operating in the region have narrow and shallow networks... (see Figure 2). Most articles might end there, but we had bigger ambitions with this project.

Figure 2: Diversity of the network around an entrepreneur in MENA region

A primary goal of this research was to develop policy recommendations for programs governments, NGOs and other organisations could develop to foster greater and more successful entrepreneurship in this region. These are our policy recommendations (again, read the other GREAT articles in the special issue for a more complete story) that are based on "big data" - the biggest data base available in the region in fact.

Policy recommendations

While further study into all aspects of entrepreneurship in the MENA region is needed, the roles of networks are an important concept to support given the findings of this paper. The following recommendations are drawn from the analysis of the data provided in the GEM APS and the literature on entrepreneurs and their networks.

1.      Local governments, supported by NGOs, private foundations and private companies, should provide an “entrepreneurial space” in community centers or places of worship – where future or new entrepreneurs could have access to information about the process to start a new venture and also come to seek advice from other budding entrepreneurs or advice from professionals who would donate their services.

2.      With the heavy reliance of private networks, and the often times extremely limited resources of pre-start-up and start-up entrepreneurs, professionals should be encouraged to provide pro-bono advice which could be made available to entrepreneurs at local community centers.

The networks used by entrepreneurs, especially in the MENA region are mainly from the private sphere, however, efforts made from local, national and international agencies could supplement these networks for additional entrepreneurial activity currently and in the future.

This was an amazing project and I look forward to continue working with these researchers and this data into the future. En'shallah we will!