Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report finds Irish Entrepreneurs want Significant Business Growth

15 November, 2007

The latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report has been released recently by Micheál Martin TD Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It is a benchmarking study by ondon Business School and Babson College Boston year by year of in depth entrepreneurial activity across OECD countries, country by country.

The headline GEM finding in this year's report is that while the overall level of early stage entrepreneurial activity among the adult population in Ireland is lower in 2006 (7.4%) than it was in 2005 (9.8%), as is the case in the US and Canada, the percentage among the adult population in Ireland that have growth aspirations for their new businesses is approximately the same (1.3% compared with 1.0% in 2005). This means that while the overall level of entrepreneurship activity may be somewhat less than in 2005, the number of early stage entrepreneurs aspiring to significant growth has remained constant.

In Ireland, culture and social norms continue to be highly supportive, opportunities for new business opportunities continue to be widely perceived among the adult population, while the level of informal investment continues to be out of sync with the level of early stage entrepreneurial activity.

One of the findings in this year report, which was particularly interesting, is that entrepreneurs have a much lower fear of failure than have the rest of the adult population. This leads to the conclusion that when people have some experience of entrepreneurial activity their fear of failure, as an inhibitor to entrepreneurial activity, is greatly reduced. This has implications for the education sector and for giving students experience of entrepreneurship within a "safe" environment.

Following the highlights, the report this year has five sections:

Section 1: Entrepreneurship in Ireland in 2006

Section 2: International Comparison

Section 3: Does Gender Matter?

Section 4: Profiles of Selected of Countries at a Glance

Section 5: Pen Pictures of Recent Entrepreneurs Featured on the Cover

The report is available in electronic format on the Enterprise Ireland web site http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/ and on the GEM web site http://www.gemconsortium.org/ where you will also find the global report, other national and special topic reports. The report continues to be sponsored in Ireland by Enterprise Ireland and Forfas who this year have been joined by a new sponsor, the NDP Gender Equality Unit of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

The GEM team would welcome your feedback, as they are constantly trying to make the report more relevant and more accessible to our readers.