Abstract
The paper provides an overview of entrepreneurial activity and attitude in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the purpose of facilitating stakeholders to create new knowledge-based activities. The paper takes a multifaceted nature of entrepreneurship to reveal the range of environmental conditions that affect the attitudes and activity of Emirati entrepreneurs. These appear to be important components in producing a dynamic economy which facilitates socially significant activity, employment and wealth. To realize this development, the paper makes a number of recommendations from building entrepreneurial readiness in schools to endorsing regulatory reform, bankruptcy laws and investor protection. Moreover, a ‘one size fit all’ approach that has been taken in the past requires re-examination to meet the requirements of regional variations and gender differences within the Emirati population.