Abstract:
In most advanced countries, SMEs contribute as much as 70% to GDP. However, Saudi SMEs are not yet major contributors; accounting for less than 20% of GDP in 2015 compared with developed countries. Saudi Arabia has taken considerable steps towards developing an entrepreneurship ecosystem and supporting SMEs to tackle fundamental issues in the Saudi economy; namely, a non-diversified economy and unemployment. From the entrepreneurship ecosystem perspective, the environment in Saudi Arabia is at the institutional level, that is, institutions in the private and government sectors are responsible for supporting SME growth through enabling resource access. This study argues that analysing SME’s growth should consider the level of the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the role of institutional support in influencing SME growth in Saudi Arabia by providing a unique application from an entrepreneurship ecosystem perspective. To this end, analysis of the role of entrepreneurs’ social networks arguably enables resource access at the collective level (institutions in the private and government sectors). The study then examines the relationship between various factors in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and SME’s growth. These include: 1) institutional support, whose is measurement is based on resource access via government and private institutions; 2) environmental factors, such as economic, political, legal, local cultural, and technological factors; and 3) other factors that might influence SME’s growth such as entrepreneurs’ characteristics and SME’s characteristics.
Naeimah Fahad Almawishir
2018 – the Manchester Metropolitan University
