Go-getting women outpacing men

Oct 17 2007 by Aled Blake, Western Mail

WOMEN entrepreneurs in rural areas are supporting the enterprise economy in South West Wales, an influential report claims.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study of South West Wales is undertaken by Professor David Brooksbank and Professor Dylan Jones-Evans of the National Entrepreneurship Observatory for Wales.

It found that women are more active in starting their own businesses than men in the region – with people living in rural parts of the region also proving more entrepreneurial than their urban counterparts.

GEM was established in 1997 as a joint initiative between Babson College and London Business School.

It describes and analyses entrepreneurial activity across a large and growing range of nations

Through producing internationally comparable data on the “elusive concept of entrepreneurship”, the GEM study is the only longitudinal study of entrepreneurship undertaken throughout the major nations of the world.

The project is supported by European Structural Funds, the Welsh Assembly Government, the University of Glamorgan and Cardiff University.

The latest research from the Observatory shows that the proportion of adults involved in starting and managing a new business in South West Wales was measured at 5.6%, as compared to 5.5% for Wales.

Prof Jones-Evans said this was due to a number of key factors.

“In South West Wales, female entrepreneurial activity rate was higher at 4.3%, the same as in 2005,” he said.

“This is higher than the 3.5% measured for the rest of Wales and demonstrates the importance of supporting women in developing entrepreneurial ventures.

“The study also shows that location is having an effect on enterprising activity.

“Entrepreneurs in more rural areas have more confidence in their skills, knowledge of entrepreneurship from role models, and a lower fear of failure.

“The difference between South West Wales and the rest of Wales is that those living in South West Wales villages are much more likely to feel they have the skills to start a business, and know an entrepreneur, than those living in South West Wales towns.

“Entrepreneurial activity rate for immigrants is also higher than the average for the UK or immigrants in the rest of Wales.

“Therefore, while the same positive relationship is found between immigration and entrepreneurship for both parts of Wales and the UK, the effect is much greater in South West Wales.”

However, the type of business being created within the region is worrying, especially if more growth-oriented businesses are to emerge to create wealth and employment, according to Prof Brooksbank.

He said, “Independence is the main reason for entrepreneurs across all regions pursuing a business opportunity, with seven out of 10 entrepreneurs in South West Wales citing this reason as the key driver in establishing a new business, well above the rest of Wales and the UK.

“Fewer entrepreneurs in the region – 4.8% – are driven by considerations of increasing income than for the rest of Wales, which has 31.8% or the UK at 19.5%.”

This focus on lifestyle over wealth creation may explain the fact that South West Wales lags behind both the rest of Wales and the UK in terms of high expectation entrepreneurship, which is an indicator of the prevalence of fast growth businesses within the economy, according to the study.

Prof Brooksbank said, “The higher level of necessity-driven entrepreneurship, where individuals are pushed into entrepreneurship because all other options to work are absent or unsatisfactory rather than through exploiting a perceived business opportunity, may also be explained by the lower motivations of adults in the region.

“Therefore, while entrepreneurship is buoyant within South West Wales, this finding suggests that this has been partly driven by failings in other parts of the economy of the region.”

A copy of the report can be downloaded from the National Entrepreneurship Observatory’s website, www.neo-wales.com