Entrepreneurship and innovation in a hybrid political order: The case of Lebanon

Nora Stel

No 2012-078, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: Governance is often treated as a 'black box' explanation for unproductive or destructive entrepreneurship. In order to improve our understanding of how governance structures influence entrepreneurship and innovation it is instructive to consider how entrepreneurs function in so-called hybrid political orders. Lebanon is such a hybrid political order in which a dual game of informal clientelism and formal programmatic competition shapes entrepreneurship. In this paper I provide an exploratory overview of the governance-entrepreneurship nexus in Lebanon. It is argued that although Lebanese entrepreneurial attitudes appear to be very positive, entrepreneurial activity seems to be adversely impacted by governance challenges and entrepreneurial aspiration is severely underdeveloped. In-depth interviews with Lebanese experts show that Lebanese entrepreneurs still face significant obstacles, often related to the political context and system. These include: the high costs of utilities and infrastructure; poor government support and a lack of political vision for the economy; and instability and unpredictability related to violent conflict that make investment and planning difficult and foster a short-term, migration-focused mentality. Lebanese entrepreneurs respond to these challenges by operating as independent from government as they can; taking a regional perspective; and diversifying. The challenging context, moreover, also offers particular assets and opportunities to entrepreneurs, such as a vibrant diaspora and a supposedly resilient business mentality.

Keywords: Lebanon; governance; conflict; fragility; entrepreneurship; innovation; business (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L26 M48 O17 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2012/wp2012-078.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:unumer:2012078

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ad Notten ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).