Research news story

Entrepreneurship in 2006

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor UK published

Entrepreneurial activity in the UK has remained resilient to pressures of globalisation and economic downturn in the US according the largest annual survey of entrepreneurial activity. Whilst entrepreneurial activity declined substantially in other G8 countries, in the UK the decline was statistically insignificant 0.4% (from 6.2% to 5.8%). This is compared to bigger drops in the US (12.4% to 10.0%), France (5.4% to 4.4%), Germany (5.4% to 4.2%) and Canada (9.3% to 7.1%).

London Business School's Global Entrepreneurship Monitor United Kingdom (GEM UK) is the largest single study of entrepreneurial activity in the world. In 2006 it surveyed 43,000 UK adults on their attitudes towards starting their own business, their entrepreneurial potential and entrepreneurship as a career choice.

The UK still lags behind the US and Canada while India and China are setting the entrepreneurial pace for the rest of the developed world. But GEM UK demonstrates that voluntary exposure to enterprise training in early life is positively associated with entrepreneurship in later life. Those with voluntary access to training at university or on government programmes are nearly twice as entrepreneurial as those without such training.

Furthermore, Pakistani and Bangladeshi people are nearly twice as entrepreneurial as their white British counterparts and Black Africans and Black Caribbean people are nearly two and a half times more entrepreneurial.

However, women are still less likely to be entrepreneurs and are more likely to close their business for personal reasons such as getting another job or losing interest than men. They lack confidence about their entrepreneurial potential, and although entrepreneurship is seen as a good career. Training and subsequent entrepreneurial activity are more positively associated for women than for men, so a greater emphasis on exposure to enterprise formally or informally could impact positively on women's engagement in entrepreneurship in the future.

For more information and copies of the report or go to GEM Consortium.

Created: Monday 05 March 2007 23:17

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