UK Entrepreneurs Are Robust Against Global Decline; 2006 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Shows UK Entrepreneurs Battling Trend of Decline to Remain Steady; Training and Support Key in Overcoming Fear of Failure.

Byline: Babson College

WELLESLEY, Mass., March 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- The largest annual survey of entrepreneurial activity in the United Kingdom shows the UK is bucking the worldwide trend of decline in entrepreneurship. Whilst entrepreneurial activity across all G8 countries declined, in the UK the decline in Total Early Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) was statistically insignificant 0.4 percent (from 6.2 percent to 5.8 percent). This is compared to bigger drops in the US (12.4 percent to 10.0 percent), France (5.4 percent to 4.4 percent), Germany (5.4 percent to 4.2 percent) and Canada (9.3 percent to 7.1 percent).

London Business School's 2006 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor United Kingdom (GEM UK), surveyed 42 500 adults across the nation in 2006 on their perceptions about entrepreneurship and whether they were engaged in any such activity. It is the single largest study of entrepreneurial activity anywhere in the world.

Whilst the UK was defined by generally positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship, fear of failure remains prescient, especially amongst women. Indeed, women are approximately half as likely as men to be thinking of starting a business (5.3 percent compared to 10.4 percent) and are less likely to believe they have the skills required, as well as being substantially more likely to fear failure (39.2 percent compared to 32.6 percent).

However, this fear of failure may be misplaced. Established business ownership in the UK is at 93 percent of early stage activity, showing entrepreneurs in the UK fare well in terms of probability of business survival - this is in stark contrast to the majority of the G8 countries and India and China where the early stage entrepreneurial activity does not convert into established business ownership at such a rate.

There are still differential levels of entrepreneurial activity by region. There are four "less entrepreneurial" parts of the UK: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Yorkshire and Humberside and the North East where TEA rates are significantly lower than for the other areas of the UK. These are also the regions where fear of failure is higher and, for the North East and Northern Ireland, where self-perception of skills is lowest. In the South West, where entrepreneurial activity is the highest, the perceptions and attitudes towards entrepreneurship are the most positive of any region.

Ethnic minority groups are, as in previous years, much more entrepreneurial than their white counterparts. Black African (35.0 percent), Black other (27.0 percent) and other Asian (27.9 percent) groups are the most likely to be thinking of starting a business in the next three years whereas White British (6.3 percent) are the least likely.

The UK still has some way to go if it is to catch up with the US and Canada while India and China are setting the entrepreneurial pace for the rest of the world. But the GEM UK report demonstrates that voluntary exposure to enterprise training, as early as the age of 11, can have a major impact on the likelihood that an individual will be an entrepreneur in later life. People who …