Evaluating the Key Success Factors of Social Business Hubs in the Middle East
Author (s)
Mahmoud Al-Kilani, Arie Hans Verkuil & Rolf Meyer
Abstract
Social business hubs play an important role in facilitating social innovation and support social entrepreneurs to deliver social benefits to the wider community. This paper aims to firstly identify and evaluate the key success factors of social business hubs in the Middle East with the focus on Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, secondly, identify what successful social hubs offer, and thirdly, identify the challenges facing social business hubs in the region. In-depth interviews with eight social business hub managers were conducted using a pre-designed questionnaire. The findings were interesting and meaningful and show the impact severity of the COVID-19 pandemic on the infrastructure of the social business hubs. Networking and collaboration seem to be the predominant success factor for social business hubs. Finally, we observe that social business hubs in the region are facing many challenges; the main two are lack of government support and funding issues.
Keywords: Success factors, business model innovation, social innovation, social hub and social incubator, accelerator.
| Title: | Evaluating the Key Success Factors of Social Business Hubs in the Middle East |
|---|---|
| Author: | Mahmoud Al-Kilani, Arie Hans Verkuil & Rolf Meyer |
| Journal Name: | International Journal of Science and Business |
| Website: | ijsab.com |
| ISSN: | ISSN 2520-4750 (Online), ISSN 2521-3040 (Print) |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5140107 |
| Media: | Online |
| Volume: | 5 |
| Issue: | 8 |
| Acceptance Date: | 12/07/2021 |
| Date of Publication: | 27/07/2021 |
| PDF URL: | https://ijsab.com/wp-content/uploads/799.pdf |
| Free download: | Available |
| Page: | 289-304 |
| First Page: | 289 |
| Last Page: | 304 |
| Paper Type: | Research paper |
| Current Status: | Published |
Cite This Article:
Mahmoud Al-Kilani, Arie Hans Verkuil & Rolf Meyer (2021). Evaluating the Key Success Factors of Social Business Hubs in the Middle East. International Journal of Science and Business, 5(8), 289-304. doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5140107
Retrieved from https://ijsab.com/wp-content/uploads/799.pdf
About Author (s)
Mahmoud Al-Kilani (corresponding author), School of Business, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), CH – 5210 Windsch, Switzerland. Tel: +41 56 202 7297. Email: Mahmoud.alkilani@fhnw.ch.
Arie Hans Verkuil, School of Business, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), CH – 5210 Windisch, Switzerland. Tel: +41 56 202 7297. Email: arie.verkuil@fhnw.ch.
Rolf Meyer, School of Business, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), CH – 4600 Olten, Switzerland. Tel: +41 62 957 2356. Email: rolf.meyer@fhnw.ch.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5140107