The goal of our research project is to identify and explain major business opportunities and challenges in MENA. To this end, we analyze various stakeholder perspectives on the business environment in MENA, and more specifically in Tunisia and Turkey, including top and middle-level managers, government officials, and members of the general public. We obtain these perspectives through in-person interviews and surveys. 

 

To undertake this project, the research team was awarded a three-year partnership development grant (PDG) by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in March 2018 to establish an international academic partnership in Canada that involves Canadian and US academic institutions as well as affiliated scholars with diverse expertise and disciplinary background: University of Calgary, State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY at Binghamton, USA) and Roanoke College (Virginia, USA). This new partnership will foster an understanding of risk resilience-building strategies of investors who have adapted successfully to the MENA business climate, as well as the socio-political consequences of these strategies for the host and home environment (e.g., social entrepreneurship).

 

By co-creating and disseminating unique evidence-based knowledge from this region, the partnership aims to contribute 

(1) a systematic and interdisciplinary knowledge base about the business environment and successful business practices in MENA, including a new dataset of survey and interview responses of policymakers, businesses (local and foreign), and the public;

(2) an increased understanding of potential positive and negative spillover effects of events in MENA on non-MENA business and society; and 

(3) a foundation for explaining investment decisions in developing democracies.