Discovering Institutional Dynamics of Entrepreneurial Business Environment Development Evidence from MENA’s Oil-Richest Countries

Consideration of the MENA region illustrates that during the past years, oil production has resulted a socio-economic transition from old- to modern-style mode. In the meantime, entrepreneurial activity as a feature of economic growth being robust in the MENA region with more than one-half of its population under the age of 25 as a large motivated generation of young working people across the globe. Hence, the main objective of present study is prioritizing the institutional dynamics of entrepreneurial environment development in the most prosperous oil-richest MENA countries. In order to achieve this objective, first, eleven oil-richest MENA countries: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates are clustered regarding their economic diversification and performance during 2010-2016 using K-means algorithm. In continue, for finding the crucial institutional dynamics of entrepreneurial business environment development, the target is tackled by developing a hierarchy system and analyzing the model using fuzzy extended analytic hierarchy process (FEAHP) in the most successful clustered countries with highest economic diversity and performance. Thus, a group of 108 informants has responded the FEAHP questionnaires for Qatar and the UAE. Based on the findings, the discovered dynamics are diversity of economic activities, opportunities to start-up, entrepreneurial training programs, market openness, business education, women’s support to start-up, technical and vocational education, venture capital, rules and regulations governing entrepreneurial activities, and commercial and services infrastructure. The current fine-grained argument contributes on the oil-rich countries’ entrepreneurship literature, which can be useful for policy and decision makers to strengthen the business environment of Qatar and the UAE, or similar economies, as well as countries that have further remaining development steps ahead to boost competitiveness and attract investment for achieving a robust private sector. Keywords: Business environment, Economic diversification, Economic performance, K-means clustering algorithm, Entrepreneurial development, Institutional factors, Fuzzy extended analytic hierarchy process