News

Canada is the only G20 country able to claim that high levels of confidence among entrepreneurs are reflected in a similarly high number of new businesses registered. A new report from Ernst & Young finds Australia also performs well on both counts, though it lags well behind Canada. For all other countries, there are significant opportunities for improvement on one or both of these key measures of entrepreneurship

The Nice Côte d’Azur 2011 Entrepreneurship Barometer points out that Britain is the leading country in terms of new business density — scoring higher than Canada. Russia and France also performed well on this scale. But British entrepreneurs are only moderately confident about their country, with 32 per cent rating the United States as having the most favourable environment for entrepreneurs.

A lack of confidence is even more acute in Russia, and especially France. The report states that it would be beneficial for these governments to get at the root cause of these low levels, which often appear more closely related to perception than reality.

With the exception of Russia, and to a lesser degree Brazil, the G20 rapid-growth countries all suffer from relatively low new-business density. Possible explanations are many, but a lack of confidence in their country’s environment for entrepreneurs is not one of them. Most of them, aside from Russia, boast moderate to high levels of confidence, with Brazilian entrepreneurs being particularly confident — more so than any other G20 country other than Canada.

The strength of confidence in Brazil likely explains why it has the sixth-highest new business density, despite serious challenges including access to funding, regulation and taxation.

The report emphasizes not only what governments can do, but also what entrepreneurs can do “to seize opportunities presented by the environment in which they operate.” It was released to coincide with the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit, which starts in Nice, France on Oct. 31.