Entrepreneurs must work together to persuade governments to liberalise trade and investment policies on an international level, it has been claimed.
The ninth annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report found that up to 40% of early-stage entrepreneurs expect at least a quarter of their customers to from outside their own country.
Speaking about today’s launch of the report, Kent Jones, GEM team member and Babson College professor, said:
“The world economy needs entrepreneurs and increasingly, entrepreneurs depend on an open and expanding world for new opportunities and growth through trade, foreign investment, and finance.
“GEM research confirms that new entrepreneurship opportunities in all countries will expand if trade, entrepreneurship and economic growth are fostered, especially in the developing world.”
The report also noted that the more burdensome a country’s business regulations, the lower the entrepreneur’s expectations for growth are.
Early-stage entrepreneurship has a tendency to be high in countries with lower average incomes, the GEM found. This then declines in middle-income countries and rises again for high-income nations.
Niels Bosma, Utrecht University and research fellow, GEM coordination team said that this U-shaped pattern suggested entrepreneurial activity was not rooted only in economics, but also in ‘culture and demography’.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008