Riyadh: Evolving to Become as One of the MENA Region’s Key Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Abstract

Riyadh’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is one of the most important drivers of entrepreneurship and innovation in the MENA region, as Saudi Arabia aims to achieve economic diversification within its industry, and thus reduce its dependence on oil. This paper analyzes how Riyadh’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is achieving these goals and explores the differences between entrepreneurs and owner-managers operating in the Riyadh ecosystem to identify their strengths and weaknesses in guiding Saudi policymakers’ decision-making. Using GEM data for Saudi Arabia and analyzing the ten pillars (connectivity, leadership, knowledge, talent, finance, culture, formal institutions, services and intermediaries, physical infrastructure, and demand) of the Stem model, the authors applied ANOVA tests for the quantitative variables and Chi-squared tests for the qualitative variables and rescaled the results to 0–10-point scales for ease of interpretation. We found that among the ten pillars studied, there were four that have improved the most in the Riyadh entrepreneurial ecosystem: two systemic (networks, talent) and two environmental (physical infrastructure and formal institutions), while it was in the systemic pillars (leadership, financing, and knowledge) where the least progress has been made in the period 2019–2022.

Sustainable entrepreneurship in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: a systematic evaluation of extant research

“…Of note, in alignment with other studies in KSA, the authors emphasized the need to evaluate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in different geographical locations (Elnadi and Gheith, 2021), and enhance the generalizability of the findings by improving the sample size (Bakry et al, 2022;Roomi et al, 2023). Furthermore, future research should consider shifting from a narrow economic focus to encompass larger societal and ecological contexts as extant research highlights the role of entrepreneurs in fostering non-economic benefits to society and catalyzing larger-scale socioeconomic transformations towards sustainability (Volkmann et al, 2021).…”

“…Of note, the role of the government in encouraging the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to sustainable entrepreneurship has been emphasized in most of the studies. Moreover, economic diversification is important to promote sustainable entrepreneurship in KSA, especially in the Riyadh province (Roomi et al, 2023).…”

“…The publications listed in Tables 1 and 3 were comprehensively examined to identify key themes. A significant number of studies focused on women entrepreneurship (Abdelwahed et al, 2022;Abed, 2021;Alhothali and Al-Dajani, 2022), the role of education (Alkhateeb et al, 2020;Elnadi and Gheith, 2021;Singh et al, 2022), governance and policy implications (Al Rawaf and Alfalih, 2023;Abdelwahed et al, 2022;Chaaben et al, 2022), SMEs and family-owned businesses (Al-Tit et al, 2019;Al Rawaf and Alfalih, 2023;Alshebami 2023a;Alshebami 2023b;Seraj et al, 2022), region/city specific sustainable entrepreneurship (Abdulghaffar and Akkad, 2021;Abdelwahed et al, 2022;Abdelwahed, 2022;Alhothali and Al-Dajani, 2022;Elnadi and Gheith, 2021;Fahad S. Almawishir and Benlaria 2023;Mohamed et al, 2023;Roomi et al, 2023;Singh et al, 2022), entrepreneurial ecosystem (Bakry et al, 2022;Elnadi and Gheith, 2021;Roomi et al, 2023), innovation (Al Rawaf and Alfalih, 2023;Alfalih, 2022;Alshebami 2023b;Bakry et al, 2022;Fahad S. Almawishir and Benlaria, 2023) and entrepreneurial resilience (Alhothali and Al-Dajani, 2022;Alshebami, 2023a;Seraj et al, 2022). Once the themes are examined, an overview of the methodological aspects is provided.…”

“…Even though it's crucial to examine sustainable entrepreneurship in all the regions in KSA, the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Riyadh serves as a significant catalyst for entrepreneurship and innovation within the MENA region. This is particularly crucial for Saudi Arabia's goal of achieving economic diversification within its industries and reducing reliance on oil (Roomi et al, 2023).…”

“…However, more attention needs to be paid to how these ecosystems promote sustainable entrepreneurship and contribute to the SDGs set by the United Nations (Volkmann et al, 2021) 9770/jesi.2024.11.3(6) assistance for emerging companies, availability of physical infrastructure, cultural elements, social considerations, and educational and training aspects (Elnadi and Gheith, 2021). Other factors were examined in the capital city of KSA; the results indicate that notable improvements were observed in factors such as connectivity, talent, physical infrastructure, and formal institutions, whereas other factors did not exhibit comparable development, which is leadership, funding, and knowledge (Roomi et al, 2023). Furthermore, Bakry et al (2022) provided a comprehensive assessment framework for entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems.…”