TÁRKI EUROPEAN SOCIAL REPORT 2009 Further investigation of the survey results allows us to assess respondents’ attitudes towards the most frequent risks associated with self-employment (Figure 7.9). The six possible answers can be organized into two thematic groups: one referring to financial risks (bankruptcy, loss of property and insecure income) and the other related to personal risks (job insecurity, having to invest too much wasted time and energy, and the possibility of personal failure). Six respondents in seven mention one of the financial risks, and half of all respondents are concerned about personal risks. 100
Figure 7.9: Risks involved in starting a venture, by country
90 80
Source: author’s calculations based on Flash Eurobarometer 192 (2007) data.
70 60
%
50 40 30 20 10 0
LV HU PL PT IT LT AT DE NL ES SK EU UK EE CZ SI DK SE BE LU GR FR IE CY FI MT Financial risks (income insecurity, bankruptcy, loss of property) Personal risks (job insecurity, time and energy invested, failure)
Fear of risk has its socio-demographic attributes. One of these is that women tend to worry more than men about financial risk, but there is no difference between the genders with respect to personal risk. Another attribute that can be observed is that the fear of financial and personal risks declines with age: the danger of financial and personal risk is mentioned most by the youngest cohort. (We should note, however, that this is primarily due to the high proportion of concern related to the notion of bankruptcy, while the loss of property and income insecurity do not display such marked generational differences.) If we look at labour market positions, references to financial risk are made with above-average frequency by students, the unemployed and blue-collar workers. Personal risk, by contrast, causes more concern not only to students and the unemployed, but also to managers and graduates of higher education generally. As was mentioned above, every respondent was asked this set of questions. Thus, it is worth finding out whether there are differences between those who display entrepreneurial inclinations and those who prefer the hypothetical option of being an employee. What we see is that the two groups do not differ in terms of how often they mention financial risk, but there is a weakly significant difference in terms of their fear of personal risk: those who prefer employee status are somewhat more likely than average to see personal risk involved in a business career. Potential entrepreneurs – those tempted to become self-employed within the foreseeable future – feel more apprehensive about an entrepreneurial future than either those unwilling to try
Entrepreneurial inclination, potential entrepreneurs and risk avoidance
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