D Enterprise

4.12 Attitudes to risk taking

Why is it significant?

If society is not supportive of entrepreneurs and their activities, fewer people will be prepared to take risks in business.

How does the UK perform?

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) finds relatively low levels of entrepreneurial motivation in the UK, especially when compared with the US or Canada. GEM also examines society’s wider attitudes to entrepreneurship and finds the UK scoring the lowest of all the reported countries apart from Japan.  GEM concludes that, in the UK, entrepreneurial options are given less serious consideration than in France or Germany, where levels of perceived opportunity are very similar (Chart 4.12).

Last updated on 20 November 2003