Europeans more reluctant than Americans to take risks in business creation, says report
Europeans are more reserved than their US counterparts when it comes to the creation of a business, a new study carried out for the European Commission by EOS Gallup Europe has found. Over 8,000 Europeans and 500 Americans were interviewed in September 2001 for the Flash Eurobarometer 2001 survey on entrepreneurial attitudes in Europe and the USA. A large divergence in attitudes towards risk emerged from the survey. While respondents in both the EU and the USA came out with a clear majority in favour of giving a second chance to those who have started a new business and failed, 48 per cent of Europeans said a business should not be set up if there is a risk of failure, compared to just 37 per cent of Americans. There was much more enthusiasm for becoming self-employed in the USA, where 59 per cent of respondents saw it as an attractive option, compared to 48 per cent in Europe. This represents a significant change from the 2000 survey, when a majority of Europeans claimed they would prefer self-employed to employee status. The study also found that men and those under 25 were more likely to be pro self-employment. An equal number of people in Europe and the USA have already given some thought to starting a new business or taking over an existing one. But again the USA takes the lead in actually doing this, where 21 per cent of respondents had either started a business or taken one over, compared to 17 per cent of Europeans. Some 34 per cent of EU respondents indicated they had never considered doing either, against 30 per cent of Americans. Within the EU, southern European and Irish respondents came out most in favour of becoming self-employed. Finland and Denmark revealed the highest number of people who have already done so, with 25 and 24 per cent of answers, respectively. The study also found that if they had the means, respondents in Europe and the USA would prefer to start their own business than take an existing one over. In addition, respondents in the European Union and the United States identified a lack of financial support as the main barrier to starting a new business. Within the EU, the lack of financial support is feared least in Finland and the Netherlands and most in southern Europe. Administrative complexities, the second most quoted difficulty, are particularly feared in Italy, Portugal, France and Sweden. A large number of European respondents are inclined to see entrepreneurship as something that cannot be taught, according to the study, although Europeans are more willing to attend classes to learn business skills than Americans.