Experts of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in Russia reveals record growth of new companies
The results of the world’s biggest research on entrepreneurship activity ‘Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2019/2020’ were presented in Miami, USA. More than 150,000 people from 50 countries took part in it.
The analysis was carried out by scholars of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) with the support of Sberbank. According to its results, the number of people in Russia involved in starting and running new companies made up 9.3% of the total labour force. This figure is a record for Russia in the history of the research, which started in 2006.
In other countries, this rate fluctuates from 4 to 5% in Italy, Poland, Pakistan and Japan to 35% in Chili and Ecuador. In the BRICS countries, the number of people attempting to build and run a new business also varies. For example, in Brazil 23% of the total labour force are young entrepreneurs, in India – 15%, in China – 8.7%. The number of people whose companies have existed on the market for more than 3.5 years has not changed and stays at 5.1%.
In 2019, in Russia business has more often started than closed: 3.4% of the total labour force have stopped being entrepreneurs. The majority of the companies they worked for closed, and a fifth of them went on to work with other companies. 80% of all the people who closed their business in 2019 based their decision on negative causes: financial problems and unfavourable external factors.
78%
of respondents agreed that entrepreneurship enables money to be earnt in the context of limited employment opportunities.
The main reason for starting a business remains the need to maintain income: 69% of respondents link the opportunities for a higher income and financial well-being with entrepreneurship. A quarter of respondents inherited businesses from their older relatives.
In 2019, the number of people who want to start their own business in the next three years grew to 9.8%. This is 4% higher than the 2018 rate.
‘The growth of the people who want to start their business is connected with the increase in the proportion of those who see opportunities for entrepreneurship in their region. 30% of respondents believe that there are vast possibilities for a new business. This figure was only 23% in 2018. The number of those who think they have enough expertise and skills to start a business also grew. In 2019, every third respondent answered in this way,’ said the head of the GEM project in Russia, associate professor of the Graduate School of Management Olga Verkhovskaia.
In 2019, the proportion of Russian companies which have foreign clients almost doubled to 14.4%.
30.2 %
of respondents stated that their businesses have high potentials.
In June 2020, a new version of the national report ‘GEM Russia 2019/2020’ will be presented. In 2019, 2,000 Russian citizens took part in the survey.
‘Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’ analyses different aspects of entrepreneurship. This includes the involvement of people in creating and running both new companies that have existed on the market for less than 3.5 years, and the firms that have managed to pass this mark. Also, the list includes: reasons for opening and closing businesses; the attitude of the population to the entrepreneurship; the level of entrepreneurial intentions; and the plans of development of businesses.
From the start of the project in 1997, 110 countries have taken part in it. In Russia it has been implemented by the research group of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University, which has been supported by Sberbank since 2018.