Swedish GEM-results shows a decline in entrepreneurship

Decline in Swedish entrepreneurship 2017 depends solely on a decrease in women’s entrepreneurship

In 2017, Swedish entrepreneurship decreased, 7.3 percent of the Swedish population is active at an early stage or operates a young company. Even the growth ambitions, as well as the level of innovation, have decreased according to the entrepreneurs. The decline in entrepreneurial activity depends solely on a decline in women’s entrepreneurship.

This year’s GEM report devotes special attention to serial entrepreneurs, i.e. entrepreneurs with previous experience of entrepreneurship. Experience have a positive effect on almost all indicators in the report: perceived capabilities, fear of failure, job creation etc. The best school for entrepreneurship seems to be trying their own business. Entrepreneurial experiences enhances future entrepreneurial ventures and appears to lead to more high-performance entrepreneurs. From a policy perspective, it stresses the importance of creating good conditions not only for starting businesses but also for opportunities for a second chance.

The proportion of individuals claiming that fear of failure prevents them from starting a business has increased from 29 to 37 percent over the past decade. If reconstruction is made easier and cheaper and bankruptcy does not involve lifelong debt, it helps to establish more growth-oriented companies. It also signals how society values risk taking and entrepreneurship.

Find the report in swedish here.

The Swedish GEM team 2018

Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum is the Swedish partner of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the largest global research venture on entrepreneurial activity.

Since 2010, Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum has published an annual Swedish report based on survey and interview data. The global project was started in 1999 and has grown from including 10 countries to 54 in 2017. The last survey covered ca 68 percent of the world population and 86 percent of global GDP.

From left to right the Swedish GEM team 2017: Pontus Braunerhjelm, professor and team leader, Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum, Carin Holmquist, professor Stockholm Scool of Economics, Ylva Skoogberg Project Manager Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum, and Per Thulin, PhD, Royal Institute of Technology and Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum. 

For more information about GEM please visit: www.gemconsortium.org

To download GEM Global Reports please visit: www.gemconsortium.org/report