Entrepreneurial Finance in Egypt: Examination of the Opportunities for a Venture Capital Industry from an Institutional Perspective

Abstract

This thesis aims to generate an understanding on entrepreneurial finance in Egypt. Furthermore it explores the opportunities for a venture capital industry as a promising tool in entrepreneurial finance. As one of the MENA region’s emerging economies, Egypt is facing economic challenges and high unemployment rates. The Arab spring uprisings added to the pressures upon the economy of Egypt; however, it managed to ignite an entrepreneurial spark among the youth population. Access to finance is an evident hurdle facing entrepreneurship in Egypt. Thus promoting entrepreneurial finance as a growth engine in anticipation to overcome unemployment and slow rates of start-ups might be a plausible solution. Through utilising an institutional theory lens and its institutional determinants, regulatory, normative, and cognitive forces, were found useful to analyse the current entrepreneurial finance environment.
This research is an exploratory research; it takes into account both the supply side and demand side of entrepreneurial finance in Egypt. It adopts a qualitative approach for in-depth understanding of the domain and a grounded approach in regard to data gathering for its limited availability on the subject taking the form of a naturalistic enquiry. In doing so it follows an inductive approach to understand the interaction among the supply and demand of finance and the determinants shaping it. This thesis built on secondary data supplied by current research and reports and the primary research conducted via in-depth interviews and participant observations and analysed it from an institutional perspective.
According to the findings of this research, it was plausible to argue that the regulatory pillar was held most accountable for the under development of entrepreneurial finance in Egypt. The normative and cognitive pillars both have supportive and inhibiting factors. However, the overall effect of normative and cognitive pillars could be positive if policy makers were able to factor in the cultural and normative forces in policies promoting entrepreneurial finance. The thesis further suggests policy recommendations to enhance entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, and a vivid venture capital industry in Egypt.