IDRC paper development workshop or "Nerds at work to find solutions for some big problems" Day 5

Before I begin the last blog post (which is a little late I know) I want to thank the tireless coordinator, cheerleader and “research guide” Thomas Schott – he was the first to arrive and the last to leave – gave extra hours in the evening to ensure those of us who wanted to learn how to use Amos had the knowledge we needed to continue at home. Of course I use we in the sense of the group – I corrected an entire thesis once that used structural equation modelling, and so really had to understand it to make the right English edits, and that was enough for this lifetime J So that you Thomas for your efforts, your kind nature and your undying enthusiasm for the GEM project, MENA and your quest to be part of the bigger process of gaining understanding about entrepreneurship and the role of networks in this most important phenomenon.

We started the last day as we also did, with a group presentation (this time group 8 of 8) of their paper and preliminary results and then a discussion of the entire group with questions, recommendations and one or two nerd fights (which always ended with laughs and very good humour). Group 8 presented the role of networks on job growth – well the perception on the part of the entrepreneur on how many jobs he or she expects to create. Of course networks has an impact on this…

An entrepreneur’s network can roughly be defined as his or her “social capital” – which I tell students is like self-earned “wasta”. I came to the UAE almost three years ago knowing no one – and now I know a lot of people, in different industries and walks of life – through attending community events, volunteering, work, students, friends, etc. I have built my network which I use to learn about the environment in which I live and work – entrepreneurs do the same thing.

Back to the role of networks in expected job growth – use of professional (colleagues, etc.) and international (people living abroad or from abroad) seem to positively impact an entrepreneur’s expectation of job growth – why is another question and the team will work on that in the next while (manuscript due in September 2012!).

We also talked as a group about policy recommendations and how best to make them. Remember, we are all working on our respective GEM 2011 reports – these were the team leaders and members who attended the workshop – and our “sponsors” want/expect/need policy recommendations. One senior team leader reminded us that to write good policy we have to think like policy makers – what is the strategy, what is the vision, what is possible, what doesn’t cost an arm and a leg (ok, he didn’t mention the last item, but I know it is true in the MENA region especially).

We then did more spss training and I might have answered some student email while this was going on J

After our final delicious lunch (darn you Jordan and your excellent food, I gained weight last week!) each team presented a road map towards article completion in September. This represents our “contract” amongst the team members and with the larger group (and IDRC who funded this project). Because we need to publish our papers or it would be like we sang into the wind, it may be the most beautiful song every sung – but if it is not recorded it will have a very limited impact (e.g. none) on the world.

It was really nice that two of the people who mentioned on day 1 their lack of confidence in their English speaking skills, spoke for their groups. Smile and courage in action! It made me happy that the environment of the group and its positive atmosphere had allowed their confidence to grow …

Second to last we talked about forming a task force – made up of MENA researchers working in the MENA region on the subject of research into entrepreneurship. I hope something comes of it – but of course sustaining any taskforce requires funds – funds we lack. We will see though J And of course I will keep you all updated through this blog.

This was an amazing experience for me as a young professor (OK, not so young in age, but young in career) and I know that we all benefitted from it. It would be wonderful to repeat it – with PhD students and not necessarily on entrepreneurs’ networks, but on research in entrepreneurship in the MENA region. We need more understanding of it – we really do. On the last evening we went for coffee on a very nice street downtown and we saw a small scuffle of local teenagers (or young men) – of course I thought they wouldn’t be doing this if they were busy doing something else – but they might not feel prepared or able to do anything else – why? What can we do to help? What skills are they lacking? How can we best motivate them? What industries interest them most? See, there are way more questions than hours in a day – that is why we need to work together to come up with some understanding based on sound scientific research – kind of like building our house on stone and not sand.

I will keep you updated with paper links as they happen – and if you would like to donate money to start the task force I will put you in touch with the right people J 

P.S. - Thank you Nadia and the IDRC - without your funding and efforts this would not have happened - thank you for setting an example of what rich countries need to do to create sustainable solutions for the great challenges the MENA region faces.

IDRC paper development workshop or "Nerds at work to find solutions for some big problems" Day 4

Second to last day and still no photos, sorry ... maybe I will ask someone to send me one of the dozen or so group photos we took last night!

I have forgotten to mention something that I actually tweeted - we are doing a lot of SPSS training (sigh) but it provides very good opportunities for nerd jokes (and yes, it is a great way to make the most of the rich and wonderful data we have and it is one of the best ways we have to test theory, test hypotheses and maybe even start to build some theory for the MENA region). OK, back to the nerd jokes, which are funnier than you may think (and really this is such a funny group, I laugh so much (maybe to hide the pain of SPSS).

OK, the joke already - in statistics things are "significant" when the relationship between the variables means that something is there and not just by chance or randomness (don't think that is a word, but you know what I mean). BUT - relevance means researchers should care about it - or it is interesting (e.g. UAE is a smaller country than Saudi Arabia) - so, kind of a running joke is about things being "significant, but not relevant". Hmmmmmm - ok, maybe you have to be there to get it, but really, in context and in that room sitting around that big table it is super funny!

But, what did we discuss today - well in the morning it was the impact of networking on the innovativeness of entrepreneurs - e.g do they offer products and services that others don't, that are new to the market, etc. By the way - UAE is tops on innovativeness for MENA countries... but really, it has more to do with the fact that we have more opportunity driven entrepreneurship than necessity driven entrepreneurship (no one needs to start a business to eat in the UAE, we are very very lucky that way). And still with all that, when compared with the rest of the world, the UAE is kind of low ...

The literature tells us that networks support innovation, because we have access to more information and therefore should be better informed of what is going on in the market and have more opportunities to hear about or see opportunities... but how are networks good and how could governments and NGOs working in the region support these networks.

Not surprisingly, when entrepreneurs mainly seek out advice with their family or close network - innovation is not often a result. Not surprising, our family and friends mainly (unless they live overseas or something) see and hear what we see and hear - so no really "new" or "novel" information.

I kind of had more moments of reflection today - because MENA entrepreneurs (in general) don't really take advantage of the "network" effect as much as other places - but why? Is it that the advice given by workplace, professional and market actors worse or of poorer quality than in other parts of the world - hmmmm, maybe.

Or, could it be that entrepreneurs in the region (in general) are not able to turn advice (or information) into knowledge or action because THEY do not have the necessary  education, skills or experience needed to turn information into knowledge into value (OK - my PhD thesis might have been on a very similar theme, but I think I am right).

But - good news, governments can more easily improve the skills of entrepreneurs than the professional, banking and regulatory system in their countries!

One last aside for this shorter than normal blogpost (I am super tired) - when we talk about MENA, we really cannot ignore God - most of the residents and entrepreneurs are Muslim and practising - and I think an understanding of that (especially for non - Muslim researchers like myself) is important for understanding the phenomenon of entrepreneurship.

Now, this was a private discussion and not in any way part of the official agenda for the meeting (said to reassure my secular Canadian readers), but this is my blog, so I will let you know about it!

We talked about the role that God plays in life, many in the West seem to believe that Muslims believe that God dictates all, but not exactly. We realised that we all (in the mini-discussion) come from traditions where we say that God helps those who help themselves – I think in the MENA region we can’t ignore God and religion in any phenomenon.

Finally, another last thing (reread my notes and realised I wanted to talk about this). Innovativeness is most linked (in a significant way) to the existence of an international network. In other words, the use of international networks has a significant and relevant affect on the innovativeness of entrepreneurial firms and the goods and services they offer. We tested this with the data a couple of ways, first we used a complex model, which was the same result of the simpler model and reflected the observations I have made through interviews and contacts with entrepreneurs in the UAE (and Dr. Victor had the same observation).

So, we may use many different methods to arrive at the same understanding - sometimes in research all roads do seem to lead to Rome.

À demain!

IDRC paper development workshop or "Nerds at work to find solutions for some big problems" Day 3

Wow! Only day 3, it feels like we have been here much longer and that I have known these funny and intelligent people for a few years, not a few days.

I am going to start back to front - the end of the day to the beginning. We went for the big dinner tonight, and again, it was another totally delicious meal. It was a traditional restaurant (of course I can't remember the name and I didn't pick up a match-box (sorry Mom) even - so maybe someone will write it in comments) and it was so good. First the mezze, hot and cold and fresh bread (the hollow kind) with seaseme seeds on it. There was even ketchup, must have been there for Anglophones - but really is a sign of a well run place if you ask me! Then the grillades or grilled meat, then watermelon that was so tasty you could smell the goodness from the plate - then Turkish coffee - pain!

It was friendly meal, and the the ladies were sitting on the comfy bench against the wall - self-segregation I guess :) After this most amazing meal we all got back on the bus and went to a famous dessert place - the kind with cheese in it - well TWO kinds - and wow - I was supposed to be on a diet :) Impossible in Jordan!

I would like to say a quick word about the woman/company who organised our stay here. Professional, friendly, bright, hard-working (no I am not getting a kick-back for saying this!). Hadeel Hasan is the Deputy General Manager of TravelMasters and I strongly reccomend, if you have a trip or a confrence or an excursion to plan in Jordan, contact this woman!

It was another excellent work say though (ok, I woke up with a fever and was a bit low energy - everyone asked how I was though, which is beyond sweet). And we had time to work in our teams and I think we have the outline and the tests and the literature we need to include - and that is a relief really :)

We started the day talking about opportunity recognition and that really it is a process - one that the use of networks helps with - or could help with. We talked about the data and that while not perfect, is quite important - no one has this - and we are the best positioned to learn from it, obtain understanding and then recommend policies to help ellivate the crushing unemployment in parts of the MENA region.

I thinkthere are many great things about listening to other teams' presentations, first learning from these super smart people, most of them very senior, second, thinking of the data and our own research questions in a differnt light, and third, listening to the debate and the genuine desire of everyone to do the best job possible and find the most meaning possible with this data set.

I was also struck by two seperate ephipanies if you will (well, stuff I already knew, but I wrote it down this time so I would remember it).

1. Scientists/researchers need definitions - we seem to feel naked without them. It is our first step in understanding, defining the problem, defining the terms - all to ensure that what we say is accurate, honest to the best of our knowledge and work - and not keeping within our boundaries.
2. Science /research is not about making sweeping statements and generalisations - it is about understanding the small bit of the pie so that we can go on to the next - but the process gets easier - the second piece of the pie takes shorter to understand and the third, etc. But there are no simple answers...

The afternoon presentation was about the structure of firms and networks - or do networks have an impact on the number of owners, etc. They used a vareity of methods to present the data -

IDRC paper development workshop or "Nerds at work to find solutions for some big problems" Day 2

Today we started the day talking about culture – and of course, when we talk about management and we talk about culture we also talk about - Geert Hofstede – a researcher who “defined” culture per country a million years ago (OK, maybe his book Culture’s Consequences was published in 1980, not a million years ago). Since that time people have been simultaneously criticizing his work and using it as a framework – because although it is imperfect – it seems to provide a solid enough theoretical framework to build interesting results.

We are all still getting to know one another, and the discussion could seem heated to “non-nerds”, but it isn’t. We all have the same vision – solid research to robustly explain the phenomena under study to arrive at an understanding that will hopefully lead to solid policy recommendations. I feel that we have a distinct understanding of what each other is dealing with, as a researcher and as a researcher in MENA.

We talked about the researcher as author – the stuff we publish (en’shallah) has to be interesting and readable and tell a story that is compelling and based on the questions being posed in the literature now – I liked how Bettina explained it as well though “observed patterns are not causal relationships” (this is my pet peeve in almost all the “research” published by newspapers in the UAE – but that is another blogpost, one that will most likely never be written).

Back to the day – I circulated an important recent paper from one of the most famous researchers in entrepreneurship, this region and in absorptive capacity (the main reason I love the guy – his paper with George changed how I looked at the world).  Shaker Zahra wrote “Doing Research in the (New) Middle East: Sailing with the Wind” and it was published just this past November (2011). It really outlines the directions that he feels really need to be studied – and I thought it might be important for us to place our work in his “world” so to speak – I am sending a lot of email with the blog posts and everything, I hope I don’t start ending up in the spam box!

We had a lot of discussion about what we are asking of the data – and we haven’t solved that issue yet – but it is and will continue to be an interesting debate.

There is also a debate on treating MENA as a single entity – and there are strong reasons to do that and equally strong reasons not to – I think it depends (really I do, it’s not a cope out). It depends on the question and what the data is trying to tell us.

(An aside – men DO NOT like taking direction J But then again, neither do I – I just pretend to listen and then do my own thing!)

After another excellent lunch, Dr. Victor (my research buddy from ZU) presented – and he presented a whole course work of literature on entrepreneurship networks in like 25 minutes – my head was spinning! But he brought up some interesting things. First, there are three main questions that guide the “science/art” of entrepreneurship:

1. Why, when and how opportunities for the creation of good and services come into existence?
2. Why, when and how some people and not others discover and exploit these opportunities?
3. Why, when and how different modes of actions are used to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities?

And then he spoke about the guiding principles in our global research:

1. Network ties are contingent upon relationships between individuals
2. The social structure can affect entrepreneurship
3. Role of social networks in business start-ups

Finally, (OK, this was not the end of the day, but at this point I had reached my saturation point for note taking – there was loads of SPSS training after and even this evening the hard-core researchers (e.g. not me) are being introduced to AMOS by Thomas) I finally got the definition of network I was looking for. Like I said, I like to know the rules and then might ignire them, but I wanted to know what was our guide.

So, this is network defined by Thomas Schott to us (based on loads of researchers, but he explained it well). Networks are the  relationships that each entrepreneur as an individual is involved in that provides resources – in our case knowledge/information/advice – one resource common across all phases. A network is the “set” of contacts (individuals, organisations,  around an entrepreneur who provide a resource (advice) to an entrepreneur.

I have studied networks before , and used slightly different definitions – but really, I like this one.

So, Day 2 is a wrap. I am very happy to have this opportunity to meet and learn from such smart, funny and stubborn people – many kind of remind me of all the people I did my PhD with (many from MENA) and it makes me happy (and tired, but a happy tired).

À demain!

IDRC paper development workshop or "Nerds at work to find solutions for some big problems" Day 1

So, day 1 of our paper development workshop funded by 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".

There are 25 people here, from 15 MENA countries and Denmark. Many are senior scholars, but there are a few newbies like Dr. Victor and myself, and even a couple PhD students. We have 8 teams of 2-4 researchers per team and each team is looking at a research question on the question of entrepreneurs and the networks they use (e.g. who they ask for advice) and how that influences various aspects of entrepreneurship, e.g. innovativeness of new firms, and how certain "types" of people (e.g. women, youth) use networks in different ways.

We have a lot of data, from a lot of countries - it is from the GEM Reports from 2009 - 2011. GEM stands for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor - a study of entrepreneurship that enables countries to obtain a portrait of their own "state of affairs" regarding entrepreneurship and who entrepreneurs are and allows countries to compare themselves with others (GEM Consortium home page). Dr. Victor and I are the team for the UAE 2011 Report - you WILL here more of it as the report is closer to publication.

So, enough background, what do 25 researchers do the first time they meet up - you guessed it we TALK! Thomas Schott from Denmark is the coordinator and Nadia Belhaj is the IDRC coordinator. Wow, we are kind of lucky to have the two of them - this workshop began with just an idea a year ago and now we are together - but why....

OK, a few:

1. Training in doing GEM research
2. Collaborate and work together across language, cultural and geographical boundaries
3. Publication

 As you may not know, less than 2% of the published scientific literature is published about or by scholars working in the MENA Region. Not a lot. We really need to support one another to make our footprint bigger - as they did in China, Brazil and what they are starting to do in Africa. Working together makes our research more robust, more relevant and just more interesting - because entrepreneurship research isn't about advancing theory (but we do need to do that to aid in understanding) - it is about studying a phenomenon that could help solve a (if not THE) major issue facing the Arab world today - unemployment (especially youth unemployment) and empowerment of groups who have traditionally had less power (e.g. women).

So, what we learn from the data, will hopefully help policy makers make better, more informed policy - to help solve problems before they become so big there is nothing left to do but clean up the mess.

So, I could go on, but I need to wake up at 6 to have time to have the yummy breakfast at the hotel before an 8 am start - yes, that early :) À demain!