A Taxonomic Study of Innovation in the MENA Region Economies: Reflections on Entrepreneurism in Egypt and Qatar

The research goal of this paper is to study the impact of innovation in an economy. This has an effect not only on the economy in general, but particularly on entrepreneurism. To narrow the focus of the study, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was chosen and two countries were selected: Egypt, which is mainly in North Africa but partially in West Asia; and Qatar, which is in the most eastern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. Egypt is the most populated country in MENA, while Qatar has one of the smallest populations. Numerical taxonomy was applied to secondary data from Global Innovation Index (GII) for 2008–2017 for Egypt, Qatar and Switzerland, which was chosen as the benchmark country. Egypt has an efficiency-driven economy while Qatar and Switzerland have innovation-driven economies. Data from these three countries formed the compound distance matrices (i.e. primary data) of the research; the GII's annual country reports were used to specify the innovation distances within all three countries (i.e. secondary data). The results of the paper demonstrated that while emulating Switzerland's innovation success remains a long-term goal for many countries, Qatar is far more innovative than Egypt.