Entrepreneurship in Oman: policies and practices.

Al-Balushi, Rashid Ali; Anderson, Alistair R.

Abstract

Oman provides an interesting context to examine how formal institutions encourage local enterprise. We examine the views of local entrepreneurs about the effectiveness of government policies that are intended to foster indigenous small business. We ask how they evaluate the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We provide an overview of the remarkable context, the Sultanate of Oman; a thriving oil based economy, but characterised by a high percentage of expatriate business ownership. Moreover, the current industrial and commercial structure looks unlikely to be able to provide sufficient satisfying jobs for the rapidly expanding youthful population. The government has responded by creating modern formal institutions to facilitate enterprise and by providing a number of well funded programs to enable local entrepreneurship. This forms the basis of our research problem, establishing how local entrepreneurs respond to these initiatives to address the low levels of local entrepreneurship. We conducted a face to face interview survey with 60 Omani SME owners asking about how well the initiatives had addressed their cultural and practical 'requirements'. We found that many respondents were motivated by a quest for independence coupled with the need for a 'good' job. However we also found that the sheer joy of entrepreneuring delighted some respondents. The initiatives had provided the means of achieving this self determination. The formal structures were very supportive; initial funding for example was readily available. However, we also found the informal structures were less developed. There was evidence of an emergent cognitive appeal and approval for entrepreneurship. We argue that there is need to develop such informal institutions to help existing businesses to grow and to cultivate an Omani enterprise culture.

Citation

AL-BALUSHI, R.A. and ANDERSON, A.R. 2017. Entrepreneurship in Oman: policies and practices. Journal of Asia entrepreneurship and sustainability [online], 13(4): proceedings of the 8th International conference for entrepreneurship, innovation and regional development (ICEIRD 2015), 18-19 June 2015, Sheffield, UK, pages 29-47. Available from: http://www.asiaentrepreneurshipjournal.com/JAESVolXIIINov2017.pdf

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 8th International conference for entrepreneurship, innovation and regional development (ICEIRD 2015)
• Start Date: Jun 18, 2015
• End Date: Jun 19, 2015
• Acceptance Date: Sep 30, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 30, 2017
• Publication Date: Nov 30, 2017
• Deposit Date: Mar 5, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 5, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Asia entrepreneurship and sustainability
• Print ISSN: 1177-4541
• Electronic ISSN: 1176-8592
• Publisher: RossiSmith Academic Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 29-47
• Keywords: Oman; Formal institutions; Informal institutions; Small business; Entrepreneurship; Policy; Entrepreneurial ecosystem; Joy in entrepreneur
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2786
• Publisher URL: http://www.asiaentrepreneurshipjournal.com
• Related Public URLs: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2651
• Contract Date: Mar 5, 2018