Title: How public policies shape entrepreneurial ecosystems

Authors: Karim Elias Helou; Michael Neubert

Addresses: Saint Joseph University of Beirut, 15 Huvelin, Monot Street, Beirut, Lebanon ' United International Business Schools, Brandschenkestrasse 38, 8002 Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract: Public policies increasingly focus on the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems to facilitate growth. This comparative multiply case study explores the perceptions of 16 subject-matter experts about how public policies shape entrepreneurial ecosystems in the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon using Scott's institutional theory as conceptual framework. The findings suggest that public policies seem to be especially important during the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Public policies shape entrepreneurial activities directly as well as indirectly, whereas their regulative and normative components have a stronger short-term effect and their cultural-cognitive component has mainly a long-term effect. These findings have implications for public policymakers, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders on the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; ecosystem; public policy; Lebanon; United Arab Emirates; multiple case study; institutional theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2022.125985

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2022 Vol.13 No.2, pp.112 - 134

Accepted: 12 Mar 2022
Published online: 05 Oct 2022 *

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