Bauchowitz, St., (2014), “Entrepreneurship in Southern Europe: Symptom or Solution to the Euro Crisis?”, LSE Eurocrisis in the Press, 14 Φεβρουαρίου.
Entrepreneurship has long been recognised as an important factor in generating economic growth[1], but the post gets the roots of Greece’s (not so new) entrepreneurship wrong. Where there are few employment possibilities people will have to become entrepreneurs – but these are subsistence entrepreneurs, which are quite distinct from the holy grail of transformational entrepreneurs found in the more dynamic economies.
Subsistence entrepreneurs engage in basic economic activity that rarely go beyond meeting the entrepreneur’s own needs. By contrast, transformational entrepreneurs tend to create larger enterprises, and provide employment opportunities for others. To be sure, there’s nothing wrong about subsistence entrepreneurs – they do contribute to a large part of economic activity in developing and transition economies. However, this type of entrepreneurship will not solve the Euro Crisis or “ignite the beginning of a new dynamism.”
Rather than relying on the assumption that domestic capital formation is a sign of the great things to come, let’s look at some actual data. Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor show that in Greece, about 30% of entrepreneurs are subsistence entrepreneurs. Only about 20% of new entrepreneurs in Greece, Spain, and Italy believe that that they will employ more than 5 people within 5 years. Only about 13% of Greek entrepreneurs think that it is a good idea to start a business where they live.
Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις
- Kastelli I. and Caloghirou, Y., (forthcoming), “The impact of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship on the growth and competitiveness of European traditional sectors”. In H. Hirsch-Kreinsen , I. Schwinge (eds.), Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship In Low-Tech Industries, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Mortensen, D., (2013), “From Unemployment to Entrepreneurship”, Project Syndicate, 07 Νοεμβρίου.
- Endeavor, (2013), “Εntrepreneurship and Investment Opportunities in Greece Today”, Athens: Endeavor Greece.