An Analysis of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Malawi: The Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) Approach

Abstract

The research paper provides an in-depth analysis of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Malawi. Employing the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) methodology, the findings reveal a weak entrepreneurial ecosystem with a GEI score of 12.2 out of a possible 100. The relationship between the GDP per capita and the three entrepreneurship sub-indices, thus, attitude, ability, and aspiration are very weak and fall well below global average trends. Unfortunately, despite the high total entrepreneurship activities (TEA) in Malawi, this leads to little contribution to the country's GDP per-capita – a common phenomenon in many developing countries. At the pillar level, Malawi’s performance is a mixed bag, however, with most pillars performing not only poorly but below world averages. Despite the general positive perception of entrepreneurship by citizens, the country’s weak entrepreneurial ecosystem has failed to harness the propensity to develop new products and adopt new technologies for innovation and high growth entrepreneurship. From a policy intervention perspective, Malawi needs to focus most of its efforts and investments in five areas that include start-up skills, risk acceptance, high growth, risk capital, and human capital to improve the country's GEI score by 0.02.