A GCC Focused Textbook on Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management: A new Approach to Innovation for GCC Entrepreneurs provides insight on the GCC business system and practices, discussion of entrepreneurial and SMEs activities, case studies of innovation and startups, an overview of the challenges to creating an innovative environment, and explains the steps that are needed to create a new venture.

When we speak of small business in the GCC region, we are referring to more than one million small firms. Business education, innovation, and entrepreneurial development however, fall short from what exists in other developed economies. As the authors engaged in the practice of small business management as well as education about small business management at the university level in the GCC, they felt that more specific tools were needed to make business education relevant to this region. One of these tools was a textbook that applies a more regionally appropriate approach to the activities, examples, cases, roles, and laws of the GCC. In particular, this text book discusses:

• A conceptual framework for entrepreneurship and innovation development globally as well as specifically in the GCC
• The GCC business system from a historical and economic perspective (Islam & Oil, GCC Trade Integration, Labor Markets and Demographics)
• The challenges facing innovation in small business in the GCC: Legal, Education, Culture, managerial development, corporate governance, and financing.
• The legal environment
• The regulatory environment for small business (Obtaining a business license, approval of special requirements, IP, Etc)
• How to create a business plan
• Definition of entrepreneurship: characteristics and qualities
• Explanations of critical business functions to develop an enterprise