Digital service companies and product companies have the highest growth potential. A new global study by Amway has examined how many people in 44 countries around the world want to start such companies. Switzerland ranks poorly.
For eight years, Amway has conducted global research on entrepreneurship, examining perceptions and attitudes toward self-employment. The recently published Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report 2018 examines intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of entrepreneurship. This year’s report spans 44 countries, with in-person and telephone interviews conducted with nearly 49,000 men and women aged 14-99 and sheds a light on entrepreneurial activities in Switzerland and around the globe.
That most of the newly founded companies in Switzerland are small service companies is a well-known fact. The new report puts this in a global perspective. When asked what kind of business they’d imagine starting, an overwhelming 75 percent of respondents chose “serve customers personally” compared to only 25 percent for “serve customers digitally.” This finding was consistent among even the under-35 demographic, countering the common perception that millennials prefer virtual interaction over interpersonal.
However in Switzerland serving the customer personally is even more popular. Only 13% of the respondents want to serve customers digitally. That is the second lowest share of the 44 examined countries. In line with this result only a minority of 35% wants to build product companies. The European average of 44% is clearly higher. Interestingly in Asia much more people want to serve customers digitally (35%) and build product companies (52%).
Good business environment
The report has also some good news for Switzerland. The business environment is rated highly. In Switzerland 72% of the respondents said that the education system teaches people the skills they need for starting and running a business (European average 36%), 63% said that dealing with taxes is manageable (European average 26%) and 72% said that the economic situation in the country is beneficial for starting and running a company (European average 29%).
The first iteration of AGER launched in 2010 as the Amway European Entrepreneurship Report, then expanded worldwide with the 2013 AGER, encompassing 24 countries. This year’s report spans 44 countries. In Switzerland, Rico Baldegger Director and Professor at the School of Business Administration Fribourg (HEG-FR) collaborated with Amway.
The report can be downloaded from the Amway website.
(SK)
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