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This paper aims to attempt to collate and understand the fragmented research on female entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The review assesses the literature at the macro, meso and micro analysis levels and addresses the obstacles, challenges, motivations and characteristics of female entrepreneurship in the MENA region.

The analysis bases on a gender aware, narrative review, which is an appropriate method when aggregating studies of different methodological approaches, covering broad and fragmented topics in different settings. The study analyzes the areas that have received sufficient research attention and those which are still under-developed.

Important gaps in the field are lack of theoretical foundations; an over emphasis on macro level indicators, such as culture and religion and an under emphasis on organizational level variables; a lack of studies that analyze female entrepreneurship within ethnic groups, or studies that acknowledge the complex social, cultural and religious diversity of the region; and inattention to particular regional experiences (e.g. refugees crisis) and emerging trends.

This is the first integrative review of the literature in the growing field of female entrepreneurship in the MENA region that identifies areas of particular research interest and questions that are still under-developed. The study proposes further avenues for future research.

This study aims to investigate how educational attainment and entrepreneurial competencies affect entrepreneurial motives of women (vs men) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This study shows that education has a more positive effect on women’s entrepreneurial motives compared with men. On the other hand, there is a greater positive effect of competencies on men’s motives. Moreover, the moderating effects of culture are compared. The results of the multiple regression analysis show that, within the MENA region, the cultural value of self-expressionism engenders increased opportunity-motivated entrepreneurship by men. Yet, it has no significant effect on women’s entrepreneurial motives.

This study analyses survey data using multiple regression analysis, relationship between independent variables, educational attainment and entrepreneurial competencies, as well as culture, and the dependent variable, entrepreneurial motivation. The present study focuses on data records concerning 13 MENA countries, notably, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The sample includes early-stage and established female entrepreneurs, a total of 1,551 respondents, for all countries for the entire period.

Entrepreneurs with higher levels of education and competencies are more likely to exploit market opportunities. However, effects from educational attainments and competencies are significantly stronger for men. Moreover, the increasing introduction of liberal or post-modern values in MENA societies has significant effects on men but no effect on women, suggesting that men tend to benefit much more than women in the Arab world with regards to their entrepreneurial behaviour.

The study is one of the few attempts to clarify the relationship between individual factors, here represented by education and competencies, and environmental factors, here represented by culture (post-modern values) and entrepreneurial motivation. Moreover, it addresses the MENA region, which is a politically and economically important and challenging environment, and which, to date, has received relatively little attention in entrepreneurship research.

Entrepreneurs interact with others and, through this, benefit from access to knowledge, resources and skills that enhance their own entrepreneurial and organizational capabilities. This paper aims to contribute to the literature interested in identifying and analyzing important antecedents of entrepreneurs’ choices regarding social relations. The study shows how the venture stage, innovativeness and internationalization of the firm potentially influence entrepreneurial choices regarding their social sources of advice.

The analysis is based on cross-sectional survey data for the years 2009 and 2010, involving 13 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. Respondents include future prospective entrepreneurs, start-ups and owner-managers of operating businesses, a total of 13,251 respondents across all countries for the entire period.

Entrepreneurs with innovative ventures draw more on advice sources that are able to give information useful for the commercialization of innovative products, and entrepreneurs of internationally exposed ventures rely on a broad base of advice sources that can connect them with a foreign market. However, the outcomes regarding the impact of “different venture stages” point to social interaction patterns that are strongly influenced by local culture and that do not support the assumption of universal entrepreneurship behavior. This study shows that social interactions decline in quantity the more as the venture progresses in age. However, the type of social interaction (e.g. private or professional sources) that entrepreneurs engage throughout the different venture stages remains essentially the same and does not change across different entrepreneurial phases. In the MENA sample, private relations remain the most important source of advice throughout all phases, and they are not replaced by other contacts.

Limitations of this paper refer to the use of a large-scale database that cannot address certain issues without more direct observation, such as the quality of different social relations. Future research could address this issue by offering more fine-grained items for the different advice sources.

The paper contributes to the debate on whether entrepreneurship is universal in nature. It focuses on data from emerging and developing countries in the Arab world, which is has not been studied very much in the entrepreneurship literature.