The Chile 2008 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report found that 80% of the country’s economically active population considers entrepreneurship a desirable career option. GEM Chile estimated that 12.9% of the adult population (between 18 and 64 years of age) is considered early-stage entrepreneurs. This percentage was slightly lower than the reported figure of 13.4% in 2007.
José Ernesto Amorós, researcher at the Universidad del Desarrollo, GEM Chile coordinator, and one of the authors of the study said, "This slight decrease is mainly due to a lower number of new business owners, probably because they were unable to survive the "valley of death" that occurs before the fourth year of the business’ life.” He also added that "It is difficult to talk about the full impact of the crisis, but it is likely that 2009 will see an increase in the need for entrepreneurship."
The average Chilean entrepreneur is a middle-class male, older than 40 years of age, whose main business activities are designed to provide services or products to consumers. Most of the country’s entrepreneurs are self-employed.
Chile is one of the developing economies that has a higher proportion of entrepreneurs who seek real opportunities for business (68 % of entrepreneurs) compared to entrepreneurs driven by necessity.
GEM Chile also looked at three key components of entrepreneurship—attitudes, activities, aspirations (Global Entrepreneurship Index GEINDEX)—and found them to be at favorable levels in Chile, making it the #1 country in a group of developing economies, and ranked 26th overall among 64 countries that are included on the index. José Ernesto Amorós said, “This shows that in general terms the country is leading, as in the WEF's Index of Competitiveness, both in Latin America and in emerging economies that participate in GEM. However, this new index allows us to determine areas of opportunity and the requirement to work in more effective programs and policies to promote entrepreneurship in Chile.”
A National Expert Survey conducted by 225 experts was included in this year’s report. It established that in Chile, there is a low level of Research & Development transfers to start-ups, specific education in entrepreneurship, and access to financing for new businesses. But these experts also concluded that Chile’s best-evaluated items are: access to physical infrastructure, telecommunications, ports, roads, social and cultural norms that encourage entrepreneurship, and commercial and professional infrastructure.
Additionally, the experts noted that there have been improvements in developing entrepreneurship support systems mainly in the financing and government programs. These can be explained by an improvement in the management of various instruments, such as those promoted by CORFO, the National Agency of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the other national sponsor of GEM Chile. CORFO is promoting the emergence of networks of business angels and other financing programs for entrepreneurs.
The GEM Chile 2008 National Report was launched in May at ICARE one of the most important Chilean Private Business Associations and national sponsor of GEM Chile. GEM Chile is a joint project between Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI) and Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD).
The launch was attended by Mr. Andrés Velasco, Chile’s Minister of Finance who detailed the promotion of entrepreneurship through government policies. In doing so, Mr. Velasco described the significant role of entrepreneurs in national economic development and the key role of innovation in order to improve entrepreneurial capability. Mr. Velasco also commented on the importance of research like GEM which helps to provide better knowledge and understanding of entrepreneurship dynamics in the country.
GEM is the world’s largest global research project studying entrepreneurial attitudes, activity, and aspirations in over 60 countries since 1999. GEM measures the rate and characteristics of nascent, early-stage, and established entrepreneurs. No other study surveys provide consistent cross-country analysis and measures of individual entrepreneurial activity in a global context. Babson College is co-founder of GEM and the lead sponsoring institution. Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD) of Santiago Chile, and Reyjavik University of Reyjavik, Iceland are GEM sponsoring institutions. For more information, contact Marcia Cole, GEM Media and Public Relations Manager, at Babson College, Wellesley, MA (colema@babson.edu ).
GEM Chile 2008 can be downloaded from www.gemchile.cl (in Spanish).
