A systems view of youth business start-ups in the Arab countries: influences and barriers.

Purpose: After the Arab spring, much attention has been devoted recently to diffuse the boiling situation across the Arab world. A number of policies have been introduced by governments. Amongst of them, it is to encourage youth job creation and entrepreneurship activities. Thus, a number of youth found themselves pushed toward starting up their own business in a very rigid and complex environment. This has not happened without problems. Therefore, this paper attempts to presents a conceptual model of youth business start-ups. It conceptualises youth attitudes towards entrepreneurial activities, the influential factors, barriers and business start-up process. Design/Methodology: Both a systematic review of key literature and a systems approach have been used in this study. From a systems approach, this study examines the entrepreneurship decision process through the interrelationships amongst its environment, its relationship structure and process and, its outcomes Findings: This study shows that youth are influenced by different factors. This study reiterates that a relationship exists between youth motives and drivers towards entrepreneurship. Other factors are the awakening of youth and determination to challenge governments for job creation and employment. Contribution: The study has the following contributions: (1) provides an understanding of youth attitudes and difficulties towards entrepreneurship activities, (2) Developing an exploratory and integrated model of new business start-ups and, (3) A proposed model acting as A Systemic Framework Guide of Decision Process for both academic/researchers and policy-makers in the Arab and developing countries