There is good news to report from Chile about the perception of entrepreneurship. Consider the following data from the latest GEM Chile National Report:
- 71% of the Chilean adult population aged 18-64 perceives entrepreneurship as a career option.
- 76% perceive that they have the necessary knowledge and skills to start a business.
- 73% can point to individuals as models who started a business in the last 12 months.
Unfortunately, these perceptions are not resulting in entrepreneurial activity. Although 59% of this population perceived opportunities to create a business where they live, only 54% expressed the intention of starting a business in the next three years. A plausible explanation could be the fear of failure, which represents a barrier when realizing business opportunities (46%).
“Entrepreneurship is an option in Chile, but fear of failure affects opportunity perception and entrepreneurial intentions due to lack of profitability,” note report authors and GEM Chile National Team researchers Maribel Guerrero and Claudia Yáñez-Valdés.
To address the fear of failure, policymakers involved in shaping the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Chile should strengthen the re-design of secondary/tertiary educational programs to encourage entrepreneurial mindsets based on success-failure experimental learning. Entrepreneurial support offices should incentivize the creation of re-entry entrepreneurs’ networks that could act as resilient mentors/advisors for those who are considering an exit or discontinuation of their business. The financial and bankruptcy regulations should also be revised to provide alternatives and options to SMEs or re-entrepreneurs.
The report is produced by the Universidad del Desarrollo. You can access the complete study at this link.