As shown by the results of the latest end-of-year survey in 2021 on the indicator of business creators' confidence, the BCI index (developed by SKEMA Business School in partnership with Opinionway and Challenges), new entrepreneurs are quite determined and confident for the future. This was the main finding of the survey carried out with 800 entrepreneurs, who had created a company in the last five years, which assessed the confidence they had in their project, their capacities, their resilience to crisis, their ecosystem, and their image in society.
New entrepreneurs stood out decisively in France in the prevailing climate of anxiety and pessimism resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. The next survey, conducted in late 2022, will show if this index remains at these high levels in an overall climate that has further worsened due to the war in Ukraine, high levels of inflation and the uncertain outlook of the socio-economic environment in France.
This index consist of five key aspects [i]:
- How entrepreneurs perceive their CAPABILITY in seizing opportunities...
- ...while showing RESILIENCE to the uncertainties in their environment.
- How these entrepreneurs feel about the SUPPORT provided by their ecosystem.
- Their assessment of the SUCCESS of their project.
- The perception of the IMAGE they convey around them, and that of entrepreneurship in French society in general.
An overall confidence level of 71%
After a complicated, uncertain period due to the pandemic, the 2021 BCI index highlighted the entrepreneurs' confidence in themselves (image, resilience and capabilities) and the entrepreneurial project (success) of the creators of these young companies. This result reflected an increase of 1.8 points compared to the BCI 2020 index.
The new entrepreneurs showed strong resilience and were very confident in their ability to cope with the difficulties they encountered (+2 points).
They were more confident this time around in terms of both their entrepreneurial capabilities (+2.4 points) and the success of their business projects (+2 points).
They also saw a positive development in their image in society (+2 points)
A confidence correlated with impact innovation and environmental and societal commitments
- While some people talk about the world of tomorrow, young companies are working to actively build it. The most confident entrepreneurs are the most innovative, have an environmental or societal vision, and propose disruptive offers.
Customised support and entrepreneurial mutual aid: sources of confidence - Individualised support and a sense of mutual aid are also aspects that have a positive impact on the confidence of entrepreneurs. For example, an incubation process and peer support stand out among the factors of confidence in the entrepreneurial environment.
Public schemes top the list of confidence-building funding sources - Access to public subsidies or the business start-up support schemes offered by Pôle Emploi (Job Centre) boost the confidence of entrepreneurs.
Questions about the effectiveness of the ecosystem
- The effectiveness of the ecosystem and the schemes introduced to support entrepreneurship is not only the aspect most negatively viewed by these new entrepreneurs, but also the only one going in the opposite direction and registering a downward trend (-0.3 points).
An incentive to adjust the schemes
Business creators have a key impact on regional and national economic development as innovators, job creators, facilitators of technology transfers, and the disseminators of knowledge, and more broadly, as major players in societal and environmental change with a positive impact. Yet, these economic players are too often considered in their entirety and the public policies deployed seem to be chiefly focused on the standardisation of schemes. On the contrary, each situation is specific, and adaptation through a dedicated ecosystemic approach needs to be the rule.
We can thus call for the emergence of a broad range of incubation ecosystems, which would surround a young start-up with a network of players federated into an impact business act, within which creating value for all the stakeholders would take precedence over capturing individual value. A physical and "moral" scheme of this kind would be designed to unite pre-identified players specific to the project in a virtuous circle of collective gain, enabling them to accelerate their development.
The confidence of "impact" entrepreneurs in deploying their entrepreneurial projects will condition the emergence of a new paradigm that is urgently needed, given today's environmental, social, and societal issues. Perhaps, this could be a good incentive to adjust the current schemes?
The BCI index was developed by researcher Philippe Chereau, professor of strategy and entrepreneurship and director of SKEMA Ventures at SKEMA Business School, and researcher Pierre-Xavier Meschi, professor of international strategy at SKEMA Business School and Aix-Marseille University.
[i] The five key aspects of the ICC index were constructed on the basis of published research on the dimensions of entrepreneurial capabilities (Zhao, H., Seibert, S. E., & Hills, G. E. (2005). The mediating role of self-efficacy in the development of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 1265-1272), resilience (Sinclair, V. G., & Wallston, K. A. 2004. The development and psychometric evaluation of the brief resilient coping scale. Assessment, 11(1), 94-101), image of the entrepreneur in their environment (Acs, Z.J, Autio, E., & Szerb, L. 2014. National systems of entrepreneurship: Measurement issues and policy implications. Research Policy, 43, 476-494), perceived success (Fisher, R., Maritz, A., & Lobo, A. 2016. Does individual resilience influence entrepreneurial success? Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 22(2), 39-53), and entrepreneurial ecosystem support (Santoro, G., Bertoldi, B., Giachino, C., & Candelo, E. 2020. Exploring the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience and success: The moderating role of stakeholders' engagement. Journal of Business Research, 119, 142-150).