2023-11-12 05:15:00
Asturias and La Rioja are the regions of Spain with the lowest rates of entrepreneurial activity. This is highlighted by the latest editions of the GEM Report (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor), which is the world reference in the study of entrepreneurship. In Asturias, the rate of adults who are starting a company or owning a new business is 4.5% compared to the 6% average in Spain. Factors such as the aging of the population are key to explaining the low rates of entrepreneurship in the Principality, but experts agree when pointing out that the regional environment is not favorable either. In fact, they give it a fail. The lack of market dynamism, the low transfer of R&D, barriers to access to the internal market, bureaucracy, taxation, insufficient entrepreneurial training in classrooms or lack of financing are identified as the main weak points.
The Caja Rural de Asturias-University of Oviedo Entrepreneurship Chair is responsible for preparing the GEM Report in Asturias based on 1,500 surveys. The director of the chair is Manuel González, professor of Business Organization at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Oviedo, who highlights three key factors to explain the low rates of entrepreneurship in Asturias. The first and most important, the aging of the population. “Entrepreneurs are usually less than 45 years old and in the population pyramid of Asturias the percentage of the population above that age is increasing,” says González, who points out two other factors: the low level of “entrepreneurial culture” and the “tradition” that existed in Asturias of a public company with good salaries that channeled aspirations away from self-employment.
Qualitative report
The GEM Report survey does not delve into the causes of the low entrepreneurship rates, since it is a portrait of the situation. But the Report also includes a qualitative study that analyzes whether the Asturian environment strengthens or retracts entrepreneurship. In this complementary analysis, known as the NES Report, 32 experts from nine sectors participated: financial, political, public sector, education and training, R&D transfer, marketing, market opening, infrastructure and culture. These experts were provided with a qualitative questionnaire so that they could express their judgment on a scale from 0 (completely false) to 10 (completely true) regarding the environmental conditions for entrepreneurship in Asturias. Of the 19 aspects evaluated by the experts, only eight obtained a score higher than 5 and the average score obtained by Asturias was 4.8 points, which is equivalent to a failure.
Strengthening factors
Among the aspects of the environment that achieve approval from experts when considering that they favor the start-up of businesses are the government programs to support entrepreneurship (which obtain the highest score, 6.3 points, and which indicate that they do there is an effort from the administrations to try to promote entrepreneurship and raise low rates); the priority given to environmental sustainability and social responsibility practices in companies; the existence and access to physical infrastructure for entrepreneurship (business centers, seedbeds, nest ships…); access to commercial and professional infrastructure, and economic recovery from the consequences of the covid pandemic.
Retracting factors
The list of aspects that hold back entrepreneurship in the opinion of experts is much longer. The dynamism of the Asturian market obtains the worst score (3.9) and also suspends the perception of the economic performance of new and growing companies (4.9). These two factors are in many cases determining factors when deciding whether or not to start a business since they directly affect profitability. Other factors that obtain a lower score are the transfer of R&D (4.2), the ease of access to the internal market (4.4) and the social and cultural norms that support entrepreneurship (4.4). Entrepreneurial education and training – in which Asturias has been a pioneer with initiatives arising from the public company Valnalón that have been replicated in other communities – also fails both the school stage (4.4) and the post-school stage (4.9 ). And government policies that reduce bureaucracy and taxes on new companies (4.6) or the facilities for accessing financing for new businesses (4.8) are not approved either.
The evolution
Although the entrepreneurial environment in Asturias fails with a score of 4.8 points, the rating has improved compared to reports from previous years. “In 2021, Asturias was the autonomous community in which the entrepreneurial environment obtained the worst score (4.3 points) and now we are in seventh position in Spain. However, it continues to be suspended and there is still a lot of room for improvement,” said Vanesa. Solís, professor of Business Organization at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Oviedo and technical director of GEM Asturias.
The recommendations
The 32 experts who were interviewed also made recommendations to strengthen the entrepreneurial context in Asturias. Above all, they highlighted the need to improve government policies and programs to support entrepreneurs, which include reducing bureaucracy and taxes for new companies. They also highlighted the importance of continuing to improve entrepreneurs’ access to infrastructure to start their businesses and support to obtain financing.
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