Bolivia Entrepreneurship
A Surprising Revelation

The GEM measures enterprising spirit and activities during the initial phases of the entrepreneurship phase. Maestrías para el Desarrollo (MpD) (Bolivian Catholic University) was the academic institution selected and acknowledged in Bolivia to carry out this research.

The GEM study evaluated the results of entrepreneurship in 43 countries during 2008. The findings show a relationship between a country's economic development level and its types of enterprise, according to the Programa de Investigación Estratégica en Bolivia (PIEB).

This organization states "In countries with less income the percentage of the population involved in enterprising activities is higher and as the national development level increases, enterprising activities decrease."

Results

The main results of this research show that in Bolivia 29.8% of the adult population is involved in initial entrepreneurial activities, which means new and recently established companies that have existed for less than 3.5 years.

Bolivia is followed by Peru (25.6%), Colombia (24.5%) and Angola (22.7). On the other extreme, the countries with the least amount of entrepreneurial activities are Belgium (2.9%), Russia (3.5%), Germany (3.8%), and Romania (4%).

The GEM is a research program established by Babson College and the London Business School, leading academic institutions in the world on matters involving entrepreneurship.

This is a translation from an article posted in El Deber, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Personally, two things strike me as interesting about this article. First of all, only 43 countries were included in the study so I'd like to know which countries were not included. I also wonder if only formally established and registered companies were included in the study or if "informal" business was also included (Bolivia has a huge non-registered business sector).

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