Critical Success Contextual Factors among SMEs in Saudi Arabia Essay

Critical Success Contextual Factors among SMEs in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example The intention of this study is Saudi Arabia, one of the richest Arab countries. Albeit geographically small compared to Russia and the United States, the country easily bested the two cold war super powers in terms of oil production with an estimated 10.5 billion barrels per day (bbl) for 2010 estimates. Oil is a very important commodity for the global market and it is very critical to move the economy of essentially all countries. Yet, despite this seemingly huge advantage, the country pales is not among the leading economies of the world. This is mainly due to the fact that aside from its huge oil deposits, the country is void of other natural resources. Still, among its peers in the Arab world, Saudi Arabia is among the richest nations. The country is a sprawling land of about 2.15 million square kilometres hosting about 25.7 million inhabitants. It is a Muslim country and monarchy is its form of government. Interestingly though, among the population of the country, about 7 millio n are foreigners working in the country. However, aside from the oil companies, major companies hold the bulk of businesses in the country. Recently though, Saudi entrepreneurs are picking up the pace and are steadily becoming a force for economic growth for the country. This is very important because for so long now, the country’s economy has greatly relied on oil revenues which, being a natural resource, is strongly influenced by the government despite the existence of foreign business partners. 1.1.1 SMEs in Saudi Arabia It is important though that these SMEs step up in Saudi Arabia. It is noteworthy to recognize the strong growth of these different entrepreneurs which now accounts to about 93% of the total enterprises in the country. It is lamentable though that despite of this, the sector’s contribution to job generation is a mere 24.7 percent. Although these are small and medium scale enterprises employing only a handful of employees (59 and below for small while 60 to 99 for medium), it is important for the country to be able to get more out of these budding entrepreneurs in order to give more jobs to the Saudis (info provided