Service innovation in the Middle East. An analysis for Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Jordan and United Arab Emirates

In this work we analyze the importance of service innovation in the entrepreneurial and business activity in five countries that represent a 65 percent of the population of the Middle East. We study the characteristics of the owners of firms in the service sector according to the Standard Industrial Classification. We highlight the differences between services and industries with respect to innovation. Then we analyze the determinants of service innovation in this set of countries during the period 2001-2008 and the role of individual characteristics such as gender, age, skills and perception of business owners’ status. We estimate the most important factors for innovation in services sector and we compare them with the ones of manufacturing.