16 March 2004
The Scottish Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor (“GEM”) produced by the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship @ Strathclyde
states that Scotland is facing a ‘demographic time bomb’ and that a continuum of
policy intervention is required to address the situation.
Dr. Jonathan
Levie, the report’s co-author, stated: “The most serious issue facing
entrepreneurship in Scotland is now population decline rather than
anti-enterprise attitudes. In-migration offers a partial solution but we must
also see clear policies mapped out as to how we reverse this cataclysmic
decline.”
In light of recent debate the report argues forcibly that
‘in-migration’ could make an almost immediate impact on increasing
entrepreneurship levels based on the new research conducted.
The good
news for Scotland is that its Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate in 2003
at 5.5% was the same as the average for all 17 European Nations in the study.
This sees Scotland move up from the third to the second division of national TEA
rates. Key findings and policy
recommendations from the report include:
- TEA rates at 5.5% with a recovery in opportunity
entrepreneurship among young males
- Attitudes to entrepreneurship continued to improve with
Scotland now in line to UK averages
- People who spend a third or less of their time in the region
where they now reside (in-migrants) are around 60% more likely to start or run
their own business than those who have spent more than a third of their lives
there. In other words, in-migration could make an almost immediate impact upon
entrepreneurial start-ups
- 3.1% of Scottish adults were trying to start their own
businesses whereas 4.5% were trying to start a social enterprise this is
an important sector that the Report’s authors do not believe is given the
policy attention it requires
- Funding remains a critical obstacle, if only by perception, to
business start-up and the gap remains in the supply of relatively modest
amounts of money. From a policy perspective extending the PSYBT model to
support the post 30 age bracket may offer a solution
- Scottish males are twice as likely to start up in business as
their female counterparts. Startup rates are however equal when it comes to
social enterprises. Policy-wise more must be done to encourage the female
population to embrace business entrepreneurship
- The nascent entrepreneurship population is measured in mid 2003
at 93,000 leading the report’s authors to describe Scottish Enterprise targets
of 8,500 start-up assists and 115 social enterprise assists as “somewhat
modest”, and worthy of review by the new Chief Executive and Chairman of that
organization.
In his foreword to the report, Tom Hunter, whose
endowment to the University of Strathclyde enabled the research behind the GEM
report, noted: “These findings are not a stick with which to beat ourselves,
but an apolitical analysis to assist in informing further developments whilst
always recognising economic rejuvenation for Scotland’s economy is a long-haul
process. Beware commentators, trade bodies and politicians bearing quick
fixes. Equally there can be no excuses for ignoring facts and not acting upon
them.” |
