From Ghadah Alarifi, Paul Robson and Endrit Kromidha
Monograph Chapter, in A Research Agenda for Social Entrepreneurship, Edited by Anne de Bruin and Simon Teasdale

This chapter focuses attention upon the emerging debates, research agenda and opportunities for social entrepreneurship (SE) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The MENA region is under-researched with too much research being based on secondary data rather than utilising primary data. The catalyst for more research needing to be done to understand SE in the MENA region is the Arab Spring. The majority of existing research in the MENA region has been greatly influenced by cultural and religious antecedents, especially Islam and Arabian culture. There are intriguing challenges to link the aforementioned tradition with theories of SE.