News & Highlights

  • OCTOBER 2023
  • VIDEO

10 Year Anniversary of the MENA Research Center

To mark its 10 year anniversary milestone, the MENA Research Center unveils a video series aimed at shining a spotlight on the significant diversity of enterprises in our region and the important role played by family businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit shaping local economies. The Center has had the honor of turning some of the powerful stories into HBS case studies, and the videos feature a distinguished lineup of speakers, including faculty members, subject matter experts, and the case protagonists. In addition to those themes, the Research & More segment introduces perspectives from leaders representing key departments at HBS with which the MENA Research Center collaborates: Executive Education, External Relations, Global Initiative, Global Experience Office, and MBA Admissions. Watch the videos here.
  • SEPTEMBER 2023
  • CREATING EMERGING MARKETS INTERVIEWS

Creating Emerging Markets Interviews: Middle East & North Africa Region

The Creating Emerging Markets project provides a unique research and teaching resource on business leadership in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East over recent decades. At its core are over 170 interviews by Harvard faculty with high impact leaders in business and social enterprise. There are three recent CEM interviews focused on leaders in the MENA region: Adib AlZamil (Saudi Arabia), Amina Laraki Slaoui (Morocco), and Badreddine Ouali (Tunisia). The Creating Emerging Markets project is led by Professors Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna.
  • SEPTEMBER 2023
  • COLD CALL PODCAST

Can Remote Surgeries Digitally Transform Operating Rooms?

Launched in 2016, Proximie was a platform that enabled clinicians, proctors, and medical device company personnel to be virtually present in operating rooms, where they would use mixed reality and digital audio and visual tools to communicate with, mentor, assist, and observe those performing medical procedures. The goal was to improve patient outcomes. Nadine Hachach-Haram, founder and CEO of Proximie, aspired for Proximie to become a platform that powered every operating room in the world, but she had to carefully consider the company’s partnership and data strategies in order to scale. What approach would position the company best for the next stage of growth? Harvard Business School associate professor Ariel Stern discusses creating value in health care through a digital transformation of operating rooms in her case, “Proximie: Using XR Technology to Create Borderless Operating Rooms.”
  • MAY 2023
  • EVENT

Alumni Event in Egypt

On May 31st, the Center partnered with the HBS Club of Egypt to host an intimate gathering in Cairo featuring Professors Michael Chu, a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit, and Alvaro Rodriguez-Arregui, a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. The Professors focused their discussion on the rationale behind using business as a tool to respond to some of society’s most pressing problems, drawing examples from the cases they have taught in MBA courses. The event was attended by 20 alumni and friends of HBS.

New Research on the Region

  • April 2024
  • Article
  • Personality and Individual Differences

Loneliness and Emotion Regulation in Daily Life

By: Lameese Eldesouky, Amit Goldenberg and Kate Ellis

There is a growing understanding that emotion regulation (ER) abilities can be an important buffer for loneliness. However, most of this research is cross-sectional. Thus, it is unknown whether loneliness is associated with ER in momentary evaluations and can predict within-person changes in ER. We addressed these questions through ecological momentary assessment, where 169 Egyptian adults reported their loneliness and ER (social sharing, suppression, reappraisal, positive reframing, rumination) five times daily for 14 days. Loneliness negatively predicted social sharing at the within-person level and positively predicted rumination at the between-person level. However, loneliness was not linked to reappraisal, positive reframing, or suppression at the between or within-person levels. The results indicate that the global associations between loneliness and ER replicate previously established results for social sharing and rumination, but not suppression, reappraisal, or positive reframing in daily life. At the same time, the effects of loneliness on different strategies in daily life depend on whether they are at the within-person or between-person level.

  • March 2024
  • Case

Kashat: Navigating the Uncertainties of the Egyptian Fintech Market

By: Paul A. Gompers and Ahmed Dahawy

Karim Nour, the founder of Kashat, an Egyptian nano-lending fintech company, is contemplating how to manage the growth of his startup. Over the summer of 2022, Kashat's loan disbursements had grown by nearly 40%, fueled by macroeconomic instability in Egypt. However, economic uncertainty had also deterred investors from investing in the region. Nour soon began to realize he did not have the funds to maintain the company's rapid growth, in fact, he may not even have the capital to keep the company running. The case explores Nour's journey as he grapples with the concept of 'hibernating' the company, halting lending operations and preserving Kashat's invaluable data algorithm. Within the case, Nour weighs the risks of hibernating versus holding out for funding as he prepares to meet with Kashat's board. He also considers the possibility of being acquired as a means of continued survival for Kashat.

  • February 2024
  • Case

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoferry had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoferry was attempting the business’s most ambitious pivot yet, shifting away from a consumer facing online fashion stylist marketplace to a B2B model offering an AI-powered fashion styling advisor. The timing seemed right as the AI market in the region was booming, backed by the Saudi government. There was also virtually no competition. Moreover, large businesses had expressed an interest in signing up. The trouble was the AI was not ready yet, it could not generate styling advice on its own and still partially relied on input from the freelance stylists that Taffi attracted through the marketplace. Was this the right time for Taffi to pivot? The case chronicles the founding of Taffi, the pivots it made and why, and describes the challenges Geoferry faced during her journey of entrepreneurship and how she addressed them. The case serves to provide a founder’s account of setting up and operating a startup in Saudi Arabia. The case also explores how Saudi Arabia stimulated the development of a startup ecosystem through a multi-pronged approach, and provides a background venture funding in the region.

See more research

Dubai Staff

Alpana Thapar
Executive Director
Sadika El Hariri
Research Associate
Fares Khrais
Senior Researcher

Cairo Staff

Ahmed Dahawy
Research Associate

Istanbul Staff

Yasemin Çağlar
Associate Director, Educational Programs
Gizem Cihan Dinçsoy
Senior Researcher
Zeynep Mağgönül
Assistant Director, Administration

Tel Aviv Staff

Orna Dan
Senior Researcher