UoN Charting a New Era of Network in Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)

UoN Charting a New Era of Network in Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)

by

Norizan Mohd Kassim

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) consortium has brought together a global group of prestigious universities from various parts of the world to Miami, Florida, USA to explore the impacts and benefits of entrepreneurship research and education. The GEM 2020 Annual Meeting and Report Launch, a four-day event, was hosted by GEM and Babson College in Miami, Florida on March 1-4, 2021. The University of Nizwa, which was represented by Dr. Abdullah AlShukaili, Prof. Norizan Mohd Kassim, and Dr. Swadhin Mondal attended the above annual meeting. In the Research Paper Presentations session held at the event they presented a research paper entitled “Effect of Self-Perceived Cognitive Factors on Entrepreneurship Development Activities: An Empirical Study from Oman Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Data.” The session was moderated by José Ernesto Amorós (GEM Mexico, GEM Chile) and Rodrigo Varela (GEM Colombia).

As a follow up to the event, a webinar to launch the first “Oman Global Entrepreneurship Monitor National Report”, organized by University of Nizwa (UoN) was held on October 20, 2020. The webinar was inaugurated by Her Excellency, Madam Halima Al Zari, the Chairperson of the Authority of Small and Medium Enterprises Development of Oman. Prof. Aileen Ionesqu Somers, the Executive Director of the GEM Consortium and Prof. Alicia Coduras, who is the National Expert Survey (NES) Coordinator for GEM both attended and participated in the event. A copy of the Oman GEM National Report 2019-2020 was released to the public by the Honourable Chancellor of the UoN, Prof. Ahmed bin Khalfan Al Rawahi.

The GEM 2020/21 Global Report Launch webinar was held on May 10, 2021 at 09:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada). Forty-six GEM National Teams participated in the global report launch. The authors of the 2020/2021 Global Report which include Professors Niels Bosma, Stephen Hill, Maribel Guerrero, Donna Kelley and Thomas Schøtt shared their insights and analysis and answered questions raised by the webinar attendees. The session was moderated by Professor Aileen Ionescu-Somers. 

From the GEM’s Adult Population Survey that was conducted during the summer of 2020 the following results were obtained: 43% knew someone who had stopped a business in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, while 25% knew someone who had started a business amid the pandemic. The respondents of the survey included over 135,000 adults (ages 18-64) from 43 economies (#GEMGlobalReport21, https://www.gemconsortium.org/reports/latest-global-report.)

The GEM Oman (the “National Team”) was established at the University of Nizwa (UoN) and became a member of GEM in May 2019. Since then, the University of Nizwa is the leading and the sole sponsoring institution in Oman for this international project since the 2019 cycle. The team is led by Dr. Abdullah AlShukaili, the Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Center of the UoN and its members is comprised of Professor Norizan Mohd Kassim, Mr. Bader Al Suleimani, The Director of External Office, and Dr. Swadhin Kumar Mondal. 

Recently, the National Team has completed writing the draft of the GEM Oman National Report 2020/2021. The authors of the report were Dr. Abdullah AlShukaili, Prof. Norizan Mohd Kassim, Dr. Swadhin Mondal, Ms. Kawther Al Kindi, Ms. Fatma Alghafri, Dr. Issa Alshabibi, and Dr. Rashid Al Mutanni. The final report will be bi-lingual and it will include the first evidence-based assessment of the impacts of COVID-19 on levels of entrepreneurship in Oman and around the world. It is worth noting in this article that to date, the GEM Oman data 2019 and 2020 cycles have been used by both undergraduate and graduate students to complete their graduation and master projects, respectively.