The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor United Kingdom 2008 Executive Report

This report compares Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) measures of entrepreneurial attitudes, activity and aspiration in the UK with participating G7 countries and the large industrialized or industrializing countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China ('BRIC'). It also summarizes entrepreneurial attitudes, activity and aspiration within Government Official Regions of the UK and, for the first time, demonstrates the pattern of entrepreneurial activity at the sub-regional (NUTS2) level

The differentiated impact of role models and social fear of failure over the entrepreneurial activities of rural youths

The main objective of this study is to determine the differential impact of certain socio-cultural variables (such as entrepreneurial self-confidence, role models and fear of failure) on the entrepreneurial process of Spanish rural youths. In consonance with the new rural policy paradigm, the European Commission and the OECD are proposing entrepreneurship as a tool for economic diversification and endogenous rural development. Entrepreneurship is associated in rural areas with economic vitality and prosperity. Entrepreneurship in rural areas becomes a means for capturing and optimizing the true natural, social and human capital of a territory as well as a source of opportunity and welfare for the local population. However, in a context where many rural areas are suffering from an aging and retiring population, the emphasis on developing an entrepreneurially active community becomes especially important within the segment of rural youths. Environmental and social-cultural factors have been used to explain differences in entrepreneurship across territories, including the rural urban divide. This line of research has found that certain variables, such as the local presence of role models and the social stigma of failure, have a differential impact over entrepreneurial activity across certain segments of the population (gender, immigrant status). Therefore, this study has the objective to verify whether age affects the impact that certain socio-cultural variables have on the entrepreneurial process of rural and urban youths. The methodology used in this study is the logistic regression model for rare events, with a database of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in Spain for 2009, which has a sample of 26,990 adults. The study shows that young adults in Spain have a higher propensity for entrepreneurial activity than the rest of the population, but discriminating between urban and rural youth, the latter are less likely to be entrepreneurs. Amongst younger-aged individuals, social-cultural factors are found to have a differential impact on entrepreneurship across the rural-urban divide.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Do Institutions Have a Greater Effect on Female Entrepreneurs?

This paper compares the impact of institutions on individual decisions to become entrepreneurs in the form of new business start ups by males and females across 44 developed and developing economies between 1998 and 2004. We test four hypotheses; that women are less likely to undertake entrepreneurial activity in countries where the rule of law is weaker; where the state sector is larger; where the informal financial sector is weaker and where the formal financial sector is weaker. We use data from the Global Enterprise Monitor survey (GEM) which covers at least 2,000 individuals annually in each of up to 44 countries, merged with country-level data, from the WB WDI and Heritage Foundation. We start with a spectrum of institutional variables and by utilizing factor analysis prior to regression estimation models, we are able to obtain results that are more robust and address multicollinearity between the institutional measures. We find that women are less likely to undertake entrepreneurial activity in countries where the state sector is larger, and demonstrate that this result applies to both high aspiration and low aspiration entrepreneurship. We also find that women benefit more from the larger informal financial sector.female entrepreneurship, state sector, informal finance

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2008 The Netherlands

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a research program executed annually with the aim to obtain internationally comparative high quality research data on entrepreneurial activity at the national level. Over the years, GEM has expanded from 10 countries in 1999 to 43 countries in 2008. In this report, we focus specifically on entrepreneurial attitudes, activity and aspirations in the Netherlands. Hereby, we follow the entrepreneurial engagement ladder, consisting of latent entrepreneurship, earlystage entrepreneurial activity, established business activity and entrepreneurial exits. In order to measure earlystage entrepreneurial activity in a country, GEM developed the Total earlystage Entrepreneurial Activity rate. This rate includes both the prevalence of nascent entrepreneurs and that of owner-managers of young or new businesses. The group of nascent entrepreneurs refers to individuals within the adult population who are actively involved in their own new firm start-up, as full or part owner. The GEM data collection covers the complete life cycle of the entrepreneurial process. This cycle starts with personal assessments of attitudes and perceptions towards entrepreneurship. The life cycle continues with individuals who have the intention to start a business within the next three years (pre-nascent or prospective entrepreneurs). Next, the cycle refers to individuals at the point when they commit resources to start a business they expect to own themselves (nascent entrepreneurs), when they currently own and manage a new business that has paid salaries for more than three months but not more than 42 months (new business owners), and when they own and manage an established business that has been in operation for more than 42 months (established business owners). The aggregate of nascent entrepreneurship and young/new business entrepreneurship forms the TEA.

From nascent to actual entrepreneurship: the effect of entry barriers

This exploratory study focuses on the convention from nascent to actual entrepreneurship and the role of entry barriers in this process. Evidence is found for a strong conversion from nascent to actual entrepreneurship. Also positive effects are found on entrepreneurial activity rates of labour flexibility and tertiary enrollment and a negative effect of social expenditure.

Determinants of Entrepreneurship: Are Women Different?

In this paper we investigate, for the first time, how individual determinants of entrepreneurship - such as age, income, education, work status, skills, access to networks and fear of failure - differ between males and females. We conduct our exercise using individual data provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), available for 46 countries, between 2001 and 2004. The literature on entrepreneurship has uncovered differences in the rate of entrepreneurship between men and women, with women generally displaying lower entrepreneurial activity than men. This is important since, as we show, entrepreneurial activity is positively related across countries with the female to male entrepreneurial ratio. We examine total entrepreneurship rates, as well as entrepreneurship driven by opportunity and by need. We find that indeed entrepreneurial activity rates are lower for females across all but one of the countries in the sample. Looking at categorical groups – by age interval, education, work status, etc. – we find that female entrepreneurial rates are significantly lower than for males. For the first time we test for differences in the characteristics of female and male entrepreneurs and find that female entrepreneurs are slightly older, more frequently at home or not working, lower income and lower educated, and less access to business networks than their male counterparts. AS to the determinants of entrepreneurial rates themselves, the main differences across genders are the lower impact of secondary education and the larger impact of skills and fear of failure in female entrepreneurial rates relative to males. Results for entrepreneurship by opportunity and by necessity confirm the larger importance of specific skills for women creating new businesses,. Our results suggest that facilitating access to business networks and specific business skills are the most powerful instruments to increase the rates of female entrepreneurship. JEL codes:

VIE Project: Cultural values and socioeconomic factors as determinants of entrepreneurial intentions

This paper describes a research project currently being developed by the authors. It aims to analyse the role played by psychosocial, cultural and socioeconomic factors in shaping the entrepreneurial intention. Survey methods will be used on a population of potential entrepreneurs (having not yet performed actual entrepreneurial behaviours). In this sense, undergraduate students and individuals contacting business support centres will be considered as part of the sample. We expect to get a clearer understanding of the psychosocial elements, socioeconomic factors and cultural values affecting the venture-creation decision. The results would be important to policy makers (showing them what to encourage), to practitioners (what to do better), and to researchers (what to clarify)

The effect of business regulations on nascent and young business entrepreneurship

In this paper we examine the relationship, across 39 countries, between regulation and entrepreneurship using a new two-equation model. We find the minimum capital requirement required to start a business lowers entrepreneurship rates across countries, as do labour market regulations. However the administrative considerations of starting a business�- such as the time, the cost, or the number of procedures required�- are unrelated to the formation rate of either nascent or young businesses. Given the explicit link made by Djankov et al. (2002) between the speed and ease with which businesses may be established in a country and its economic performance�- �and the enthusiasm with which this link has been grasped by European Union policy makers�- our findings imply this link needs reconsidering.

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2009 The Netherlands

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a research program executed annually with the aim to obtain internationally comparative high quality research data on entrepreneurial activity at the national level. This academic research consortium started as a partnership between the London Business School and Babson College in 1999 and started with 10 participating countries in this same year. Over the years GEM has expanded to comprise 54 countries in 2009. Currently, GEM is the single largest study of entrepreneurial activity in the world. The GEM research program provides a harmonized assessment of the level of national entrepreneurial activity and conditions to which it is subject for all participating countries. The Netherlands has participated in GEM since 2001.