Entrepreneurship policy to overcome barriers to new firm growth in a developing economy: evidence from Oman

The debate continues over the effectiveness of entrepreneurship policy to address market and institutional failures, as mixed findings from the literature have led to unclear conclusions. While this subject has been extensively analysed in advanced economies, little is known about the impact of entrepreneurship policy in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which current insights on entrepreneurship policy are applicable to less developed countries, where market and institutional failures are more pronounced. More specifically, the implementation of a government support programme – a programme aimed at granting loans for venture growth – in the context of a developing economy is assessed. Using bias-corrected matching estimation techniques, the results reveal that a policy designed to address severe financial market failure in a developing economy positively contributes to new firms overcoming barriers to growth during the critical early stages of their development.