GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor - News

New GEM Team in Indonesia

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:59 +0100

It is our pleasure to welcome to GEM Parahyangan Catholic University (UNPAR), representing Indonesia, the world's 4th most populous nation and one of increasing global significance.

Data collected this year will figure in the GEM 2013 Global Report, due for publication in January.

Click here for more information on UNPAR.

Entrepreneurship falls to new low in South Africa

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:41:38 +0100

Almost three years after the FIFA Soccer World Cup, entrepreneurial activity in South Africa has dropped to an alarming new low.

According to the GEM 2012 South Africa report, Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial activity (TEA) in the country dropped to 7.3% from a high of 9.1%, an almost 20% drop from the previous year and the lowest in four years.

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO DOWNLOAD THE GEM 2012 SOUTH AFRICA REPORT

“This shows us that any impact of the Soccer World Cup is gone,” says Mike Herrington, Team Leader of GEM South Africa and Executive Director of GEM Global, explaining that after an initial boost following gains in small business creation, most of the momentum appeared to have been lost, almost three years following the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

He attributes this loss of entrepreneurial spirit to a complicated cocktail of problems, including SA’s poor education system, difficult and onerous labour laws, crime, government corruption and nepotism and generally unfavourable conditions for entrepreneurs in South Africa.

“South Africa needs a wake-up call. If the climate for entrepreneurship is not improved, then…

Report on the XXIII Latin American Conference on Entrepreneurship

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:16:05 +0100

One of the GEM Colombia institutions, the Center for Entrepreneurship Development at Universidad Icesi , hosted the XXIII Latin American Conference on Entrepreneurship, held from 17th-19th April 2013. Three GEM-based papers were presented: "The Entrepreneurial Pipeline in the Caribbean", "Social Entrepreneurial Activity and Institutions in Spain" and "Social Entrepreneurship in the Caribbean Region".

Rodrigo Varela and Juan David Soler of Universidad Icesi presented "The Entrepreneurial Pipeline in the Caribbean", which sets out a new way of analyzing and presenting the GEM results. The paper uses this new idea to analyze the GEM data collected in 4 Caribbean countries in 2011 and 2012. Using the entrepreneurial pipeline you can:

Present and understand the GEM results with greater ease

Identify “leaks” or problems in the system

Formulate specific policies at each stage of the process

Chart the evolution of the dynamic entrepreneurial process over time

Elisabeth Ferri, Claudia Alvarez and David Urbano of the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain, presented their paper "Social entrepreneurial activity and institutions in Spain". This study analyses the relationship between social entrepreneurial activity and institutions in Spain, using institutional economics…

Comparative International Entrepreneurship Research: A Review and Research Agenda

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:34:56 +0100

GEM members Siri Terjesen and Jolanda Hessels (and non-GEM member Dan Li)’s literature review of comparative international entrepreneurship is forthcoming in the Journal of Management. Part of the review highlights the contributions of the GEM project in generating long-standing research initiatives and exchanges.

Entitled “Comparative International Entrepreneurship Research: A Review and Research Agenda”, it may be downloaded HERE.

According to the authors, the review "systematically examines comparative international entrepreneurship (CIE) research, analyzing 259 articles published in 21 leading journals from 1989 to 2010. We outline the importance of multi-country studies of entrepreneurial activity in enabling the comparison and replication of research and generating meaningful contributions to scholarship, practice, and policy.

"Our systematic review classifies research findings into four levels—individual, firm, industry, and country—each with respect to characteristics, antecedents, and outcomes of entrepreneurial activities as well as theory and methodology. Taken together, our review highlights the heterogeneous nature of entrepreneurship across countries and its role in explaining outcomes at firm (e.g., financial and export performance) and country (e.g., economic growth) levels as well as antecedents at the country level (e.g., culture).

"We find that the CIE literature…

10 Years of GEM In Chile

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:12:11 +0100

Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD) celebrates 10 years of GEM in Chile with the launch of a commemorative book

The book was presented by the Deputy Minister of Economy, Tomás Flores and Executive Vice President of CORFO (National Agency of Innovation), Hernán Cheyre.

The book discusses the evolution of entrepreneurial dynamics in Chile in the last decade, and also provides key indicators for GEM Chile 2012.

Tomás Flores emphasized the importance of measuring entrepreneurship in the country. "We use GEM to assess the impact of what we are doing in public policy; it helps us to understand how we can foster entrepreneurial spirit". The Secretary of Economy also highlighted the importance of failure as part of the entrepreneurial process, highlighting "cheap and fast" failure. "We want to change the culture - we do not want failure to be seen as something negative".