Thesis Title: Interconnectedness in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: A Social Capital Perspective.
Supervisors: Professor Mine Karatas-Ozkan, Dr. Vadim Grinevich and Professor Julia Bennell.
My research studies interconnectedness in entrepreneurial ecosystems with emphasis on the theory of social capital. I have engaged with entrepreneurs with various levels of experience, and other supporting actors in the ecosystem including CEOs of two accelerators, senior managers in different incubators, representatives and senior managers of different financial institutions and the former minister of telecommunications in Lebanon who had a direct impact on the development of that ecosystem. In particular, I have dedicated the bulk of research to address entrepreneurial ecosystems, social capital and network studies. The research first investigates an entrepreneurial ecosystem in a developing country context with scarce resources and contrasts that with the many case studies of ecosystems in the US and Europe. Local social capital is then studied through the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of the concept and compared to international social capital focusing on the role of diaspora networks. Finally, social capital is investigated at the birth and growth stages of the developing ecosystem in Lebanon.