Entrepreneurial support: still needs to be made more widely available
Howmany entrepreneurs in France actually receive business support? Shows like “Who Wants to Be My Partner?” highlight certain aspects of this and sometimes give the impression that such support is reserved for successful businesspeople, or that it’s only available to entrepreneurs with high-growth potential.
Karim Messeghem, University of Montpellier; Constance Banc, University of Montpellier; Justine Valette, University of Montpellier and Sophie Casanova, University of Montpellier
When it comes to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, France doesn’t seem to be doing too badly on the global stage. According tothe Global Entrepreneurship Monitorstudy, it currently ranksfifthamong the countries that do the most to promote and support entrepreneurship through government initiatives. But in reality? How many people actually benefit from this support?
Entrepreneurialsupport aims to create conditions conducive to the emergence and success of entrepreneurial projects. It draws on a variety of methods, such as mentoring, and structures, such as accelerators. More specifically, it can be defined as a process organized by a third party, designed to be long-term, and enabling a project leader or entrepreneur to benefit from a learning environment, access to resources, networking opportunities, services, and decision-making support.
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Over the past decade, France has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of new business founders. A recent study by the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Lab at Labex Entreprendre sought to objectively assess the reality of the support available to them.
Less than a quarter of the entrepreneurs receiving support
We drew on data collected as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2023, incorporating questions about support services. The study focused on what might be called “emerging” entrepreneurs—that is, those who had started a business within the three and a half years preceding the survey. They represent 10.8% of the population aged 18 to 64.
The findings show that 23.5% of emerging entrepreneurs receive support. This rate is very close to the one measured in the 2023French Entrepreneurship Index. In this study, the proportion of project leaders who “sought support and received it” stands at 22%. In other words, less than a quarter of emerging entrepreneurs currently receive support.
Entrepreneurial support can take many forms. Emerging entrepreneurs primarily highlight the benefits of decision-making assistance and the learning process facilitated by advice (80%), critical feedback (63%), strategic information (51%), and moral support (47%). Networking is a key benefit enjoyed by a slim majority of supported entrepreneurs (51%). In contrast, only 29% of these entrepreneurs had access to financial support. Finally, office space provision is a relatively underdeveloped practice; only 18% have benefited from it.
There is also a wide variety of entrepreneurial support organizations. The major players are trade associations, such as chambers of commerce and industry. Twenty-nine percent of emerging entrepreneurs have primarily benefited from this support. Organizations such as incubators, business nurseries, or third places attract 21% of entrepreneurs, compared to just 13% for major networks (Adie, BGE, CRESS, France Active, France Angels, Initiative France, Réseau entreprendre, Pépite…). Finally, employment integration and re-entry organizations (Apec, Pôle emploi) support 18% of emerging entrepreneurs.
Should this support be redirected to those who need it?
When we look at the sociodemographic characteristics of emerging entrepreneurs, the proportion of women entrepreneurs is lower (40.7%). However, the rate of support stands at 25.3% for women entrepreneurs, compared with 22.3% for men entrepreneurs.
The age group that receives the most support from business support services is 25- to 34-year-olds. The rate of support (31%) is very high in this group compared to the rest of the population. This finding should be viewed in the context of the trend toward younger entrepreneurs in France and this age group’s strong interest in support services. Older entrepreneurs tend to seek out support services less frequently; only one in five does so. Their greater experience and better access to professional networks may explain this lower level of interest.
Finally, educational attainment appears to be a key factor in the use of support services. Entrepreneurs with a high level of education tend to rely more heavily on support services. For those with a high school diploma or less, this rate is only 17.8%. This finding raises questions about the ability of support providers to better target this group, which, paradoxically, would seem to need such support the most.
With limited support—and perhaps sometimes poorly targeted—key players, such as the Public Investment Bank (BPI), have recognized these gaps and proposed coordinating the main stakeholders in entrepreneurial support. Cap Créa now brings together 27 organizations committed to promoting entrepreneurship. The challenge is to make the support ecosystem even more inclusive for those with fewer qualifications and older individuals.
This research, funded by Labex Entreprendre, receives government support administered by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the Investments for the Future program. The ANR funds project-based research in France. Its mission is to support and promote the development of basic and applied research across all disciplines, and to strengthen the dialogue between science and society. For more information, visit theANR website.
Karim Messeghem, Associate Professor, University of Montpellier; Constance Banc, Lecturer and Researcher, University of Montpellier; Justine Valette, Associate Professor of Management Sciences, University of Montpellier and Sophie Casanova, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.