Entrepreneurship Ecosystems of Refugee Host Countries According to their Stage of Economic Development

In the current context of dramatic increases in refugees globally, the ability of host countries to harness their entrepreneurship ecosystem to engage refugees in their economy is of growing importance. This has the potential to resolve refugee integration issues while contributing to economic growth of the host country. The purpose of this study was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (EE) domains (as defined by Daniel Isenberg in 2011) in countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees globally, categorized by stage of economic development. This was accomplished by operationalizing Isenberg’s EE framework domains using Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) data. All countries are classified into three distinct stages of economic development as outlined by The World Economic Forum (WEF) based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI): factor-driven, efficiency-driven, and innovation-driven. This study used average GEI scores for countries from data collected between 2015-2017 for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of EE domains in Refugee hosting countries (RHCs) according to stage of economic development. This study identified the EE domain strengths and weaknesses of RHCs as a group at each stage of economic development by comparing their domain scores with their benchmark (average score of countries at the same stage of economic development). Additionally, this study identified domains needing improvement for RHCs wanting to foster entrepreneurship to advance to the next stage of economic development. This study highlighted the importance of adjusting strategies to suit the specific needs of different economic contexts, to foster entrepreneurship in both local and refugee communities.