Female Entrepreneurship in Qatar: Obstacles and Challenges

Abstract

Abstract _x000D_ Qatar is a relatively a young economy with abundance of financial resources and approximately less than 300 thousand Qatari population which make the country one of the highest in terms of GDP per capita rankings in the world.. All those elements make Qatar a very interesting case study to study entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a rising topic all over the world. Economies, countries, governments, and general public started to pay extra attention to this concept. Entrepreneurship is now taken more seriously by the Qatari leadership. It is now the headline of economic development and the trend for attaining sustainable development. The country, regardless of its wealth, is struggling when it comes to entrepreneurship development. Qataris now depend on government support and typical business practice. Qatar entrepreneurship eco-system is rich and diverse; however, it is still in the process of growing. The Qatari government has adopted many initiatives to overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship; however, the situation in Qatar is much more complicated than government support. This research assumed that entrepreneurship in Qatar has greater problem starting with education, to financial support, laws, and regulations. This research tends to study the state of entrepreneurship in Qatar. The research also aims to investigate the barriers faced by Qatari entrepreneurs and ways to overcome those challenges. In order to do so, the thesis adopted mixed methods approach (qualitative and quantitative). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in order to collect data from both Qatari entrepreneurs and key leaders in the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Qatar such as incubators, development banks and other actors. The thesis successfully collected those materials and it was found that entrepreneurship in Qatar is suffering from various issues. The first one is government laws and regulations which is not compatible with the rapid economic development of the country. The second and most important barrier is education. Qatar lacks enough number of entrepreneurial education facilities and vocational training centers. On the other side, the society is oriented towards save bids and government-related jobs. Failure in the Qatari community is not something tolerated much and people are expected to be successful with their business life. The research suggested a set of recommendations, which was highlighted for the Qatari government, the educational institutes, society organizations, banks, entrepreneurs themselves, and the media. Recommendations were formulated based on the findings of the research.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Islamic Studies