Developing the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Owing to its importance in understanding the motives that lie behind the decisions individuals make to become entrepreneurs, scholarship in the field of Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) is increasingly gaining attention in academia, business industries, government institutions, and among researchers around the world. Over the past 20 years, Qatar has launched a number of initiatives to promote entrepreneurship in an attempt to promote

individual initiatives and enhance human capacity building. However, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reports for the last 3 years consistently indicate that EI in Qatar has been decreasing significantly. The literature shows that no published work is available regarding EI in the context of Qatari. In an attempt to test the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) empirically, this paper seeks to explore the determinants of EI in Qatar. Drawing on GEM Adult Population Survey (APS) in Qatar for the year 2017, the paper aims to explain the determinants of EI in Qatar. The data for GEM APS was collected by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) from a representative sample of 2,742 adults aged 18 to 64. The

sample was stratified by age, gender, and place of residence. Different modes of data collection were utilized to gather the information needed for the study, including telephone

interviews and Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). To this end, a structured questionnaire was used, employing both Arabic and English. Using Stata 16 software, the data were analyzed based on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), which is an appropriate technique for exploring complex relationships between independent constructs and variables on the dependent variable (EI). Based on the results derived from the current study, some important recommendations are provided for policy and decision-making, as well as for future study and research. The significance of the paper will provide empirical findings to assist researchers and policymakers towards understanding factors affecting entrepreneurial intentions.