Venezuela among the most entrepreneurship-oriented countries

Once again, the Venezuelan people's entrepreneurship spirit was mirrored in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

As appears from the study, 15.4% of Venezuelans are embarking upon Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activities (TEA). Such a rate puts the country in 11th position among 54 surveyed economies.

While the Venezuelan TEA has been falling lately, nevertheless, "Venezuela remains among the countries with the highest TEA rates in the world," the study conceded.

China, with 24%, and Chile, with 23.7% of their population with new initiatives, head the yearly study prepared by the US Babson College and London Business School, among others.

Another piece of data, which shows Venezuelans' trend toward entrepreneurship, is that 67% "perceives" it has the capability to do it, whereas 83.1% thinks that entrepreneurship is a good choice in their career.

However, under the comments referred to Venezuela, the GEM noted that the people's perception not always translates into successful projects.

"Venezuela shows a particularly high measure in perceived capabilities. This fact could be related to a cultural perception of self-capability to accomplish challenges, but it differs with the evaluation provided by experts related to the real capacity of people to create and conduct a business successfully."

In this connection, in Venezuela, 24% only thinks that fear of failure precludes it from entrepreneurship. In other nations, this numbers is usually higher.

The GEM also stressed the contribution from the private sector, academia and educational institutions on behalf of the culture of entrepreneurship.

"Venezuela has been improving its entrepreneurship ecosystem in the last two years with several initiatives arising from the private sector and academia. One of the striking elements of the assessment of experts is the high value of the contribution of the education system at higher levels. This may be related to the role that the academy has had in joining efforts to support entrepreneurs and providing training programs for different scopes."
While the study labels Venezuelans' entrepreneurial culture as "strength," it points out, "policies and regulations continue being the main challenges."

Recommendations

Rebeca Vidal, a researcher with the Caracas-based Institute of Higher Education in Business Administration (Iesa), thinks that at least four recommendations could be retrieved from the GEM 2011 to enhance the environment.

The first one is associated with "relaxed labor regulations," as mentioned in her analysis of the study posted on her Twitter account. The second recommendation refers to an "open market" and less bureaucracy.

"Development of managerial capabilities with access to funding" and "macroeconomic stability" including infrastructure development are the researchers' other two recommendations.

Translated by Conchita Delgado