Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Governance and Development of SMEs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Public Policy and the Role of Multiple Government Actors(The University of Manchester, 2025) Alfageer, Mansoor; Hossain, FarhadSmall and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are key drivers of economic growth, job creation, and social development. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, SMEs account for 99% of all businesses, yet their contribution remains modest relative to international benchmarks and face persistent growth obstacles. This research aims to explore how public policy, public governance and regulatory frameworks, implemented by multiple government actors (MGAs), affect the development, contribution and sustainability of SMEs in Saudi Arabia. It has three main objectives: to explore the factors that influence SME growth, development and contribution; to explore how government policies shape SME resilience and market adaptation amid economic, social and institutional transformations; and to assess the role of MGAs in addressing SME development challenges and identifying governance gaps in greater depth for improvement. Adopting a multidisciplinary public policy and management approach, the study draws on theoretical governance perspectives and SME development concepts to explain how policy design, implementation and coordination among MGAs shape SME outcomes in Saudi Arabia. A qualitative case study approach was adopted. Data were collected in Riyadh through semi-structured interviews with 45 participants recruited via snowball sampling. Participants included senior government officials as key informants, SME owners, and business executives and professionals, who shared their perceptions of public policy and SME development, particularly after the launch of national transformation in 2016. Data were coded and thematically analysed in alignment with the research questions. Findings reveal that the national transformation since the launch of Vision 2030 has reshaped the macro-environment affecting SMEs. Requirements to nationalise employment, comply with a rapidly evolving regulatory framework, and meet taxation and a variety of fees collected by MGAs have increased SMEs’ sensitivity to policy design and implementation and have raised the costs and burdens of doing business. Fragmented governance, limited institutional coordination, communication gaps, limited collaborative governance and SME engagement, rising compliance requirements, shifting market dynamics, limited resources, and skills gaps across public and private sectors increase risks to SMEs’ survival and growth, underscoring the role of MGAs in closing governance and performance gaps identified for improved developmental outcomes. Conceptually, the study shows how MGA governance design, coordination and enforcement, under central state steering, shape SME development and position SMEs as policy recipients and instruments of state reform. Empirically, it links lived implementation to outcomes within a contemporary administrative development context, offering original qualitative evidence from an embedded case study that informs governance and management scholarship. Implications reveal that policy should prioritise coordination, predictability and communication, a unified e-government system, transparent enforcement and accountability, SME engagement, a long-term set of defined policies that enable SMEs’ strategic planning, and targeted support guided by outcome-oriented indicators. SMEs should embed compliance readiness, manage costs and regulatory burdens, engage through formal channels, build supply-chain partnerships, strengthen digital capability, and adopt formal governance practices. For sustainable finance, promote legal and financial literacy and encourage investment in promising businesses as an alternative to starting a new venture while remaining in professional employment. Within this macro case limitation, recommended directions include policy-specific and sectoral analyses by firm size, comparative regional work, and longitudinal assessment of regulatory and performance-management effects on development outcomes.19 0Item Restricted Fintech and Entrepreneurship: An Assessment Model to Evaluate Policy Instruments for Fintech Adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)(ProQuest, 2023-11-01) Alassaf, Deemah; Daim, Tugrul U.Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the engines that drive economic development. They are the backbone of the middle class as they provide social stability, innovation, inclusive growth, and poverty alleviation. SMEs contribute significantly to job creation, employment, tax provision and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, they face inferior conditions and challenges when it comes to their financing compared to that of large enterprises, as well as having a high expectancy of failing. Because of these limitations, SMEs tend to grow slowly since building up higher credit is difficult for them, and in addition to this, they lack access to broad financing channels. Hence, Fintech solutions offer promising potential for improving SMEs’ access to finance through extending them more accessible and available services, more efficient credit risk assessments and reduced transaction costs. These tools can offer a valuable opportunity for ventures that are too small in size, and involve a great deal of risk, or serve a social purpose. While researchers and practitioners have been promoting Fintech as a potential financial safeguard for SMEs’ needs, evidence shows an inadequate adoption rate of SMEs to such solutions. Therefore, this research aims to provide a comprehensive examination for Fintech policy instruments and analyze their effectiveness on increasing the adoption of Fintech by SMEs through evaluating the essential policy targets impacting the adoption of Fintech and assessing their weights and priorities in the context of SMEs. The research was built upon an inclusive hierarchical decision model and a comprehensive literature review. Experts’ insights were utilized to identify the most important factors influencing Fintech adoption and policy effectiveness. The Hierarchical Decision Modeling (HDM) methodology was used to identify the relative importance of those factors proposing a policy evaluation tool to assess the effectiveness of policy instruments on increasing Fintech adoption. To test the practicality and value the research model adds to the research objective, a case study of the policy instrument effectiveness, the Saudi Arabian regulatory sandbox, was conducted. This research presents the identification of seventeen distinct policy targets that fall within four main perspectives along with their relative weights, as it also integrates the desirability curves methodology that measures the importance of each perspective and criterion. The case study was introduced to illustrate how the model could be used to identify the policy instrument’s actual performance in terms of influencing SMEs adoption of Fintech, identify the instrument’s strengths and weaknesses, and offer recommendations and guiding principles on how to improve the detected weaknesses to increase the policy instrument’s effectiveness on increasing the adoption of Fintech by SMEs.37 0Item Restricted What are the driving forces behind entrepreneurship and innovation in small and medium-sized Entrepreneurship in the Jazan region?(Saudi Digital Library., 2023-11-29) Alhazmi, Amjad Abdulrahman; Huxtable-Thomas, LouisaThis study aims to investigate the driving forces that motivate entrepreneurship and innovation among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia. By exploring the motivations for entrepreneurs, factors that stimulate innovation, government policies and support programs, and barriers to establishing SMEs, this research seeks to shed valuable light on the entrepreneurial and innovative landscape in its region. As it utilizes quantitative methods of investigation, its findings offer insights into the motivations and experiences of entrepreneurs in the area. Data was gathered using the primary research method by distributing around 4200 questionnaires. Perspective purposive sampling was employed, choosing samples relevant to the objectives of this research study (Owners and managers of SMEs). Finally, descriptive statistics was utilized to identify patterns and themes within this data set. The analysis of 104 responses revealed the key drivers behind entrepreneurialism and innovation among SMEs in Jazan. The study determined that financial incentives and support, market opportunities and demand, personal motivation and passion, and networking/collaboration were crucial components in encouraging entrepreneurialism. innovation, technological development, and accessibility. Competitive advantage and survival, customer needs and satisfaction, employee training and empowerment, financial support and incentives, regulatory environment and ease of doing business, and networking and business support organizations were identified as key drivers. This study addressed some of the challenges entrepreneurs encounter when starting SMEs in Jazan, such as accessing capital and funding, market entry barriers and competition, and lack of infrastructure. Limited access to capital and infrastructure poses obstacles to entrepreneurs. Therefore, this study recommends increasing financial support through networking events, investing in infrastructure improvements, and creating entrepreneurship education programs aimed at supporting SMEs further in Jazan. It also addresses any limitations to current research as well as provides suggestions for future research endeavors.27 0