“New technologies have simplified access to entrepreneurship … – The Digital Factory

 

  The Digital Factory: Compared to other existing studies, we learn on the entrepreneur the results of the study Ager?

  Alain Fayolle : There is a convergence of all these works, especially between the Ager study and Entreneurship Global Monitor (GEM). Vis-à-vis perceptions of entrepreneurship are very positive, very high. Overall, 75% of those who responded said they had a positive attitude. For France, the rate is 77%. When you spend at creative intention, the rate is even higher in France than in other countries, which include the United States. The passage to the act, however, is much less common in France than in other countries. It is a paradox that is unique to our country. To explain, the GEM study shows that fear of undertaking is higher than elsewhere. The fear of failure makes the transition to the act harder than in other countries.

 

  A very high valued entrepreneurship and fear they not reflect the same phenomenon. We would have a more positive image of entepreneuriat we consider it dangerous?

 I do not think you can make that connection. However, it is a strong correlation between age and positive image. The younger you are, the more we have a positive view of entrepreneurship. It echoes with the desire for independence, freedom, taste for new young generation technologies. New technologies have a positive effect: they make entrepreneurship more accessible

.
 

  You are a professor of entrepreneurship at EM Lyon Business School. How it manifests this craze?

 The number of youth dies following “entrepreneurship” is much more important than in the past. Similarly, they are more likely to start a business during their studies or once they complete. There are a few years, the speech was to start but after having had a first experience in a large group or have completed a mission abroad. Today they launch. Mostly the projects involve new technologies related to the Internet.

 

  Do you think this is a real change of attitude or is it a forced adaptation, young noting the relative closure of the labor market?

 The factors explaining the choices of young people and authors are multiple. If the business world is closed to younger, it likely has an influence, but that does not explain everything. For graduates of a school as EM Lyon, I doubt that this is crucial. They have a good professional integration. However, what they lived with their parents, their families, has an influence. The employability window is reduced and many young people have seen a loved one affected by unemployment. Indirectly, they know the difficulty. But I think what the focuses is the echo met by the world of entrepreneurship and personal values.

 

  What do you think of the three criteria (they like to learn things, they want to enjoy life, they love directing and telling others what to do) that define an entrepreneur in the overall study?

 The entrepreneurial process is a learning process. I am very surprised that people who responded to this survey have as much conscience. On the second criterion, I think it means “enjoy life” in the sense of “need of independence”. This raises the question of the balance between private life and professional life. This may seem surprising given the investment demand entrepreneurship, but people are projected beyond the difficult time of launch. I do not really believe that the desire to lead others is an important motivating factor for managers.

 In French, the search for independence, the need for fulfillment, of accomplishment are crucial.

 

  16% of respondents to the survey believe that the fear of unemployment is a drag. Entrepreneurship can not be a solution to unemployment?

 I think the fear of unemployment reflects the fear of failure, which is a very French phenomenon. If we fail, we will be unemployed.

 However, entrepreneurship is not to be seen as the only answer to the problem of unemployment. In any one in some cases, why not, but generalizations can be dangerous. To start a business, it is considered necessary to have a high psychological capital. The latter has four components: optimism, hope, self-efficacy and resilience. I’m not at all convinced that we find among its components jobseekers very long. To be an entrepreneur, it takes skills, a state of mind, the psychological dispositions. Everyone can not be. Moreover, everyone does not want to.

 

  There is much talk of released business. Do entrepreneurs prefer not to free a constraint by creating their own business?

  I do not know. What is certain is that there was a desire among contractors to be master of their own destiny, to make choices more freely. I had done a survey of alumni who have created their business on their definition of the entrepreneur. I kept the reply from one of them, “an entrepreneur is to be a passionate, loving freedom, who built a bar without prison”

.