How Cognitive Aspects of Potential Entrepreneurs Respond to the Political Fluctuations and Economic Crisis in Egypt?

Entrepreneurship has a significant effect on the overall welfare of an economy because it decreases the level of unemployment and helps in fighting poverty, which dominates in most countries all over the world at this time. Therefore, the contribution of small and medium enterprises have been recognised by academics and policymakers. However, there are many factors that could influence individuals in starting up a new business, and one of these significant factors is perceptions. Thus, this study aims to present an understanding of how perceptions could influence Entrepreneurs' Intention (EI) in Egypt by studying the economic and political turmoil in the period between 2008 and 2012. The data which has been used in this study has been obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). To investigate the relationship between the individuals' perception and entrepreneurship intentions, the analysis model follows the logistic regression techniques. The initial results of the empirical analysis are that all types of perceptions under investigation-such as factors of characteristics of individuals' perception, sociocultural perceptions, and economic opportunities-intended to have significant leverage on intentions to start an entrepreneurial venture in this sample. Also, the results support the presumption of the economic and political events in Egypt affect the entrepreneur intentions across the years between 2008 and 2012.