The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Morocco between theoretical foundations and empirical realities

Abstract

The entrepreneurial ecosystem has become an essential analytical framework for understanding the dynamics of business creation, growth, and innovation within a given territory. In Morocco, entrepreneurship is officially recognized as a lever for economic diversification and unemployment reduction, particularly among young people. However, Moroccan entrepreneurs continue to face persistent structural barriers, including difficult access to financing, administrative burdens, a lack of entrepreneurial culture, and weak coordination among ecosystem stakeholders. While recent studies have begun to document this phenomenon in Morocco, they leave a significant gap: the insufficient articulation between the theoretical foundations of entrepreneurial ecosystems and Moroccan empirical realities, particularly the discrepancy between the available support offered and its effective appropriation by SMEs. To address this gap, this article adopts a mixed methodological approach, both exploratory and descriptive, combining a theoretical and empirical analysis of the Moroccan entrepreneurial ecosystem, based on secondary data analysis and field research through semi-structured interviews. On the theoretical level, the study draws upon the foundational works of Isenberg (2011), Stam and Van de Ven (2021), as well as recent contributions from the literature on National Systems of Entrepreneurship (NSE). Empirically, it relies on data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM 2023–2024), the Doing Business 2020 report, OMPIC statistics, and interviews conducted with 61 SMEs selected through purposive sampling. The findings reveal that 82% of SMEs identify access to financing as a major obstacle, 59% of business leaders perceive the business climate as unfavourable, and more than 40% demonstrate low growth aspirations, illustrating the paradox of an ecosystem that is expanding yet remains underutilized. From an academic perspective, the article introduces the concept of the “invisible availability paradox?? and proposes an empirical evaluation framework for ecosystem components that is transferable to other emerging contexts. From a managerial perspective, operational recommendations are formulated for public policymakers and private stakeholders.

Classification JEL : M13

Paper type: Empirical Research