STA, 7 March 2020 - Detection of business opportunities by individuals in Slovenia has been improving in recent years, shows the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey. More than half of Slovenians perceived business opportunities last year, which compares to 38% in 2016, the Maribor Faculty of Economics and Business has announced.
Asked whether they personally had the skills and knowledge to start a new business, 57.5% of the surveyed Slovenians answered affirmatively, which places Slovenia 26th among the 50 surveyed countries around the world.
More than 60% of Slovenians said they knew someone who had started a new business, which ranks the country 14th, while the country is 30th in terms of the share of those who think there are good opportunities to start a business in their area (47.6%).
Almost 55% think that it is easy to start a business (21st), 42.2% have fear of failure (27th), while 15% have entrepreneurial intentions (29%), shows the GEM 2019/2020 global report.
Total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rate in Slovenia is at 7.8%, up from 6.4% in 2018, putting Slovenia in 40th place globally, and in 15th place among the 21 surveyed European countries.
Miroslav Rebernik, the head of the GEM survey team in Slovenia, said that the results showed that creating more profit was by no means the only driver of entrepreneurial activity of the new generations.
"The conscious shift towards more sustainable entrepreneurship is getting stronger, although the desire for creating higher profit still remains a strong motivator," he added.
On a scale from zero (insufficient status) to 10 (very adequate), Slovenia fared the best in physical infrastructure (7.06), while also doing well in internal market dynamics (5.36) and government entrepreneurship programmes (5.13).
"The mark for government entrepreneurship programmes increased the most on average for a second year in a row," noted team member Katja Crnogaj.
The most positive features of Slovenia's business environment include government programmes for small and medium-sized companies intended for the earliest phases of entrepreneurial activity, and the good support environment for start-ups, she added.
Overall, the survey suggests that the conditions which should be developed the most are education at the primary and secondary level, and transfer of research and development to business, which also applies for Slovenia.
The full report can be read in PDF form here, with the section on Slovenia on page 45
