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It is this programmed image of the entrepreneur that will be addressed in this study undertaken in 44 countries by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

This is how GEM defines "high expectation entrepreneurs". They are expected to recruit 20 employees, or more, in the next five years.

The programmed image of this entrepreneur shows that he is most often male, that he has a high level of education and that he is ready to take financial risks. This portrait cannot claim to be complete without considering nationality or at least geographic roots.

In fact, if 2% of US citizens are either creators of high expectation businesses or their employees, only 0.2% of the Spanish are in the same situation. The difference between North America, Oceania, parts of Europe and the Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong) shows that the level of development in a given country or regional area is not a key factor for high-expectation entrepreneurship.

THE FACTORS FAVORISING DEVELOPMENT ARE AS MUCH ECONOMIC AS CULURAL AND POLITICAL

The most significant factors for the development of high expectation businesses are cultural, economic and political.

The political aspect: the quality of infrastructure, government policies, legislation such as schemes to help entrepreneurs and the quality of training are the determining elements for the emergence of high expectation businesses.
The economic aspect: the availability of finance, transfer of technologies, availability of merchant services, dynamism and market openness as well as the existence of business creation opportunities influence the behaviour of high-expectation entrepreneurs.
The cultural aspect: the respect and the social recognition from which entrepreneurs benefit or not, according to their nationality, seem to have strong impact on their ambitions and their staffing forecasts.

SUPPORT MEASURES MUST BE MORE "SELECTIVE"

The results of the study show that only a favourable combination of the three determining factors allows a real development in high expectation businesses.
It is therefore a question of the better targeting of measures that favour the emergence of high expectation businesses, depending on the level of the country's development.

In the developed countries, the primary goal should be to acquire better knowledge of the high expectation entrepreneur population in order to better understand their needs and consequently adapt the support measures aimed at helping them. This selectivity must equally prevail in the support for business creation: business creation incentives must effectively take into account the potential for recruitment according to areas of activity.

In countries on the development threshold, the problem for high expectation entrepreneurship appears in a different manner. Whereas new business creation is plentiful, there is very little job creation and the developing sectors are not those which use high levels of expertise or technology. Improving the infrastructure, developing training and supporting the dynamism of local markets seem to be the major configuration which could lead to effective policies.