According to the Monitoring of Entrepreneurial Activity prepared by the GSOM SPbU, in 2023 businessmen rate the opportunities for starting a business in the regions more highly than last year: 38.4% agreed that in their region there will be favorable conditions for starting a business in the next 6 months.

The GSOM SPbU has been monitoring entrepreneurial activity since 2006 using the GEM methodology. GEM reports are the main source of information for conducting comparative studies on the levels of entrepreneurial activity both at the stage of creation and at the stage of development of an entrepreneurial firm.

 

According to the author of the study, Associate Professor of the Department of Strategic and International Management GSOM SPbU Olga Verkhovskaya, this is a record for the last 10 years: from 2012 to 2018, the index of assessment of conditions as favorable for entrepreneurial start was 21.1%, in 2019 approached the mark of 30%, in 2020 for the first time exceeded this mark and remained virtually unchanged for three years, and in 2023 added another 5%.

The conclusion of GSOM SPbU researchers: despite the covid restrictions and sanctions regime, the conditions of the external environment are increasingly considered by the entrepreneurial community as promising for business organization. The high assessment of favorable conditions in the last two years can be attributed to several key factors:

1. growing opportunities for entrepreneurs in changing market conditions,

2. emergence of new product niches against the background of withdrawal of a number of foreign companies from Russia,

3. building new supply chains.

Olga Verkhovskaya, Associate Professor of the Department of Strategic and International Management at the GSOM SPbU, shared information about entrepreneurship trends in Russia

 

May 26 is Entrepreneur's Day in Russia. How many people consider themselves entrepreneurs in Russia and what is the portrait of a Russian entrepreneur?

According to the results of monitoring of entrepreneurial activity in Russia in 2023, 17.6% of the adult able-bodied population consider themselves to be entrepreneurs.

Some of them (5.9%) own a business that has survived many “infantile diseases” and has been on the market for more than 3.5 years. 4.4% own and manage a new business, and 7.3% are taking the first steps towards creating their own business. All these values are record highs for Russia during the Entrepreneurial Activity Survey, which has been conducted since 2006.

Compared to the early 2000s, when only every 20th Russian citizen was involved in starting a new business, in recent years more than every 10th Russian citizen can already be categorized as a starting entrepreneur.

Has the attitude towards entrepreneurship changed in modern Russian society and within the business community itself? What criteria do you use to track these changes?

 

The largest gap is observed in the assessment of entrepreneurial abilities.

While about 90% of entrepreneurs believe that they have enough knowledge to start an entrepreneurial business and run a business, only 36% of non-entrepreneurs do.

And although the value of this indicator has increased compared to previous years, the gap between the entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial communities is still very significant.

The differences are also evident in the assessments of the fear of failure.

Entrepreneurs are less likely to say that the fear of being unsuccessful will prevent them from starting a new business. Among the owners of a new business, 24.1% stated this. Among non-entrepreneurs, 47% of respondents said that the fear of being unsuccessful will stop them from starting their own business, even if they see an attractive opportunity for an entrepreneurial start.

There is also a gap in the assessment of how favorable the conditions are for doing business in the region of residence.

Among non-entrepreneurs, only 35% of respondents see opportunities for an entrepreneurial start. The owners of new companies showed the greatest optimism: 66.2% of respondents considered the conditions for creating and doing business in their region of residence favorable. At the same time, the owners of mature businesses were much more pessimistic when answering this question: only 43.2% of entrepreneurs agreed that the conditions in the region are suitable for a startup.

In assessing the public attitude towards entrepreneurship, we see a more unanimous position of all respondents.

Starting entrepreneurs have shown the greatest optimism in assessing the attractiveness of an entrepreneur's career and how high a position those who have created a successful business occupy. The least optimistic (as in matters of entrepreneurial self-esteem) are the owners of established businesses.

That is, we can say that the attractiveness of a career decreases as entrepreneurs face the difficulties of the stages of growth and business survival. In general, 66% of respondents agree that an entrepreneur's career is a good choice and perceive the status of an entrepreneur in society as high.

Dynamics of characteristics of entrepreneurial self-assessment 2012-2023, %. Source: APS Russia 2012-2023.

Who is he, a modern Russian entrepreneur?

Russian entrepreneurship as a whole is characterized by the predominance of male entrepreneurs throughout all the years of the study (since 2006). In 2019, for the first time there was a change in the gender structure towards the predominance of women entrepreneurs (54.4%), but then the distribution returned to the usual pattern.

Men are active in starting and owning a new business: 13.8% of men and 9.7% of women are early entrepreneurs. At the same time, women are careful in starting a business, but in 2023 they demonstrate a greater willingness to maintain an established business.

The average age of a Russian early entrepreneur is 36 years old. The owners of a mature business are somewhat older, their average age is 45 years.

The study participants aged 25 to 34 showed the greatest activity in creating a business. In recent years, an increase in early entrepreneurial activity has been ensured by the youngest age groups, whose representatives have more often begun to consider entrepreneurship as the main way to adapt to difficult economic conditions and earn money.

The highest levels of entrepreneurial activity, both among beginners and experienced entrepreneurs, were recorded among respondents with higher education. These studies show that the level of education has a positive effect on business survival.

Assessment of factors of perception of entrepreneurship by men and women, 2023, %. Source: APS Russia 2023

In general, all groups of entrepreneurs are more likely to assess their financial situation as good or very good, compared with the rest of the study sample.