Banque du Liban and institutional entrepreneurship : role of Banque du Liban’s circular-331 in fostering Lebanese technology entrepreneurship ecosystem -

Abstract

Traditional entrepreneurship literature often looks at the entrepreneur as the key to a startup’s success while it rarely acknowledges the importance of context in contributing to this success. The relationship of the entrepreneur to the context is same as cars to roads and gasoline stations—you cannot use cars if you need to develop your own roads or carry with you your gas—these are taken for granted if you need to drive cars. Context in our case translates into the institutional environment, which is also commonly referred to as the ecosystem. The contribution of a growing and a developing ecosystem to entrepreneurship success has been rarely addressed, in a theoretically rigorous and empirically meaningful manner, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Our research addresses this gap in the literature. It focuses on the Lebanese startup institutional environment development and evolution vis-à-vis the role of Banque du Liban’s Circular-331. It is based on a field case study including interviews with key players, study of documents and data from various sources to identify and trace the ecosystem transformation. Analytically and for research purposes, this study treats the institutional environment as an ecosystem. Also, it proposes that the development and evolution of that ecosystem (from a less mature landscape state) is dependent on the specific and directed changes in its three components: network of participants, governance structure and shared logic. The network of participants involves the key players within the institutional environment like the entrepreneurs, accelerators, banks, incubators, venture capital firms, universities. The densification of the network of participants occurs with the increased number in key players and role differentiation that occurs within the ecosystem, allowing for participants to contribute to the ecosystem and thus add value. The governance structure implies the definition and shaping of the rules of the game. It transformed