The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Ethiopia (Routledge Research on African Economics)

This book investigates Ethiopia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, assessing how entrepreneurship and small business development are being fostered and identifying gaps and opportunities for further positive change.

The second most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia, is marked by a growing economy and a dynamic entrepreneurial landscape. This book adopts a multi-level analytical framework to assess the actors, processes, and institutions that shape entrepreneurship in Ethiopia, capturing dynamics at the macro (national), meso (industry), and micro (firm) levels. The macro-level analysis benchmarks Ethiopia’s ecosystem performance against peer African countries. The meso level evaluates industry-specific support structures, including business networks and the availability and sustainability of business development services (BDS). At the micro level, the focus is on how firms access, use, and are impacted by ecosystem resources and business support services. Combining quantitative and qualitative research, the book shows how industry-specific BDS are integral to the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Providing an important case study of the role of entrepreneurship and small businesses in economic and social development, this book will be an important read for researchers across business, economics, and development studies, as well as for policymakers responsible for implementing strategies and policies to support entrepreneurship and small business development.

Mulu Gebreeyesus is Term Associate Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY. He was formerly a senior researcher at the United Nations University (UNU-MERIT) in the Netherlands and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute. He has published widely in the areas of competition and enterprises dynamics, industrial policy, entrepreneurship, and small business development.

Habtamu Legas is Assistant Professor of Economics at Addis Ababa University. He has also served as a consultant to numerous national and international organizations on diverse development issues. His research focuses on labor market dynamics, entrepreneurship and small business development, and the evaluation of development programmes.

Abebe Ayana is researcher at Ethiopia’s Policy Studies Institute. He holds a PhD in development economics from GRIPS, Japan. His expertise includes SMEs, entrepreneurship, trade and industrial development, and impact evaluation, with prior roles as a lecturer and consultant for the World Bank and other international organizations.