Boumediene Kebaili, Saif Saeed Al-Subyae and Fahed Al-Qahtani
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of psychological and institutional factors on the entrepreneurial intention among Qatari male students. Qatar has the world…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of psychological and institutional factors on the entrepreneurial intention among Qatari male students. Qatar has the world highest incomes per capita. Recently, the government launched many initiatives to stimulate Qatari’s to engage in entrepreneurship activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected by means of a questionnaire. The target population of this research were Qatari male students in the final year of Bachelor degree in Management. A total of 155 responses were used for the purpose of this study.
Findings
The findings indicate that Qatari male students hold a high entrepreneurial intention. In addition, two institutional barriers and three psychological barriers were found to be associated with the entrepreneurial intention.
Research limitations/implications
It would be interesting to investigate the barriers to entrepreneurial intention among Qatari female students by expanding the current theoretical framework to include some cultural factors pertaining to Qatari female students.
Practical implications
This study has implications for statutory bodies involved in promoting entrepreneurship activities. In addition, it offers some suggestions for educational institutions and vocational training centres.
Originality/value
The research confirms the need for more than one theory in explaining the entrepreneurship intention. Another contribution is the context of this study. Qatar’s social, economic and political contexts are totally dissimilar from Eastern or Western set-ups. The study provides some insights on the psychological and institutional barriers among Qatari male students.
Details
Keywords
Boumediene Kebaili, Saif Saeed Al-Subyae, Fahed Al-Qahtani and Zakariya Belkhamza
The purpose of this paper is to explore the major entrepreneurship barriers facing Qataris. Qatar has a very specific economic and cultural environment that is different from any…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the major entrepreneurship barriers facing Qataris. Qatar has a very specific economic and cultural environment that is different from any other Arab or western country. Such differences may contribute to the existing literature regarding entrepreneurship barriers in the Middle East.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative methodology was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with final year business students. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were used in order to uncover all aspects related to the research objective from the students’ perspective.
Findings
Seven factors were identified as the main barriers to start-up new business activities among Qataris, which are: the non-availability of funds, risk avoidance, fear of failure, market barriers, knowledge barriers, stress avoidance, and attitude towards change.
Research limitations/implications
It will be very useful to conduct a comparative study that covers more Gulf Cooperation Council countries to see whether the findings can be generalised to them. Furthermore, since this study adopted a qualitative approach, it will be interesting to empirically test these findings using a quantitative method.
Practical implications
The government needs to ease and facilitate the loans, by establishing a government fund for financing new businesses. Learning institutions have an important role to reduce these barriers. Indeed, promoting a healthy culture that encourages and promotes entrepreneurship can be achieved by including specialised entrepreneurship courses into students’ curriculum as early as primary schools. Government can also allocate certain percentage of contracts to new or small companies. This will ease market access. Business associations must also play their part by providing assistance, and provide training programmes tailored to the need of local potential entrepreneurs.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the entrepreneurship body of knowledge by providing insight from the Qatari-specific economic and social environment context.