U.S. Culture Slightly Less Entrepreneurial Than Indonesia: Survey

Americans have long been comforted by the belief that they live in the world's most entrepreneur-friendly country. But among the 24 countries surveyed for a newly-released BBC World Service Poll, that honor goes to Indonesia.

According to the survey, Indonesian culture ranked as having the most friendly to entrepreneurs. The United States is a close second, with Canada, India and Australia rounding out the top five.

Russia, Italy, Turkey, Egypt and Colombia sit at the bottom of the list.

The BBC Poll asked a series of questions to 24,000 people with the intent of measuring cultural support for innovation and entrepreneurship, including how they felt their home countries valued starting businesses and whether or not the respondents themselves had ideas on which to base their own business.

Respondents from the Americas, Africa and Asia generally said that innovation and creativity were highly valued in their countries. European responses, however, varied more widely.

If respondents came from Western Europe, for example, they most likely agreed that innovation and creativity were valued qualities in their societies. Respondents who hailed from the Eastern or Periphery Europe, where unemployment is much higher, were more likely to express their belief that their national cultures looked negatively upon such qualities, on the other hand.

Overall, those surveyed felt their own entrepreneurial efforts weren't backed by their home country. A majority of the population in every surveyed country stated that they either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, "In this country, it is hard for people like me to start their own business."

At the same time, though, only 51 percent of Americans have had an idea of their own for starting a business, according to the data, putting the U.S. behind countries like Canada (53 percent), Mexico (58 percent), China (67 percent) and Nigeria (79 percent).

Americans responded more positively (54 percent), however, when asked whether they had an idea for improving their community.

Comments

[Jack Soetopo]

12:06 AM on 05/28/2011

http://birokrasi.kompasiana.com/2011/05/28/sby-kami-menunggu-surat-pengunduran-diri-anda/

[Jack Soetopo]

12:05 AM on 05/28/2011

Please read this For Indonesia

[classicalgeek]

09:38 AM on 05/27/2011

There are so many hurdles to overcome in the U.S. to start a small business that just doing the startup is a full-time job and a major investment.

On the other hand, if I were to start a business in France, the cradle of bureaucracy, I could fill out one form, pay 1 Euro, and wait 1 week. Voila, my business is formed. And I could get many years of tax holidays by promising to employ a few French people once my business got big enough. With minor modifications, the same process is available in Germany, too.

[PRR Fan]

08:42 AM on 05/27/2011

We have a president and major political party that has repeatedly denigrated the wealthy, called for taxes on those who make over $250k which would also cover many small businesses, accused the wealthy of not paying their fair share and demonized the free markets. Why is anybody surprised?

[46n09]

08:57 AM on 05/27/2011

Like the president and majority of Americans, I would love for the wealthy and corporations to simply pay their fair share of taxes, just like everyone else, rather than cutting education, medicare, social security and so on. Nothing, not even the wars the republicans started, add to the deficit as much as the bush tax cuts. We would also like clean air and water too.

[PRR Fan]

09:29 AM on 05/27/2011

The top 1% of income earners pays 38% of the Federal income tax burden while earning The top 2.5% of income earners pays approximately 50%, the top 5% pays about 60%, the top 10% pays about 70% and the top 25% pays about 87%. Oh, the cut-off for the top 1% of wage earners is about $380k and includes a large number of small businesses that file as individuals. Based on this, what would you argue is a fair rate? And don’t forget that about 47% of Americans effectively pay no Federal income tax.

http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125997180

[Madbunny]

03:45 AM on 05/27/2011

Heck yes its hard to start up a new business!

The market is really saturated with a lot of people, and its practically impossible to compete with the big dogs on anything except customer service.

Taxes are not really a major factor, there are so many breaks for small business that its almost irrelevant. Startup capital on the other hand is harder to get these days, since banks are being tightfisted, preferring to squeeze their profits out of fees and micro transactions rather than investing in communities.

The last time I checked, health coverage was pricey as well, private plans are outrageously expensive and don't 'qualify' for group discounts like a larger business does. Lacking a public option of some sort I've been forced to choose between no coverage or no equipment in some cases.

Being your own boss is still worth all the troubles though, mostly.

[TheSheeple]

12:39 AM on 05/27/2011

Look,s like BO's winning the war on wealth creation.

[shallowthoughts]

10:14 PM on 05/26/2011

What counts as an entrepreneur? In my travels in West Africa, China and Southeast Asia it seems that everyone has a business. Food carts, people hawking items along the streets and highways, people selling lottery tickets, people selling clothing, people selling phone cards, and on and on and on. Don't see any of that in the developed world. I would think that these countries and those like them would be more entrepreneurial.

Maybe the article is talking about formal government support and infrastructure for small business but I don't think the authors are counting informal entrepreneurial businesses.

[kittyarmy]

08:26 PM on 05/26/2011

I find this article disappointing as, for one, it didn't specify why Indonesia scored higher than the US (the percentage for Indonesia wasn't even included). Two, am I understanding correctly that the sudy measured only "cultural support" for entrepreneurship? This include whether the respondents have ideas for their own business, but did the survey include a question as to whether or not the respective country/government/society of the respondents actually provide any concrete support toward that goal? As someone actually from Indonesia, I find it hard to believe that my country would trump the US in this. Indonesia does have far fewer business

[Matt12]

08:06 PM on 05/26/2011

A flat tax system will cure much of the inequality, plus health care reform

[Charlotte Bonnie]

06:11 PM on 05/26/2011

This may be due to the fact that in the last decades Americans are told to get a college degree then get a nice comfy job at a company. Innovation went out of the window and people turned into robots. As far as I know, the US has been the country of choice for entrepreneurs rather than Europe.The US culture used to give more value to entrepreneurship and it needs to get that entrepreneurial spirit back. I heard from a relative that the US government is giving start-ups and investors green cards provided they create a certain amount of jobs. I searched it and found this:
http://www.usimmigrationlaw.net/green-card-entrepreneur-investor.htm

This shows how desperate the country became.

[Arts4u]

06:50 PM on 05/26/2011

That is pretty pathetic.

Why are we not giving grants to people to start their own small business... and I mean true small business..... not subsidiaries of mega-corporations. If we want to save main street - then we should be focusing our attention there.

[ChrisTT]

07:54 PM on 05/26/2011

As far as I know this has been possible for a very long time and I think it's not desperate. It's very smart. Who wouldn't welcome someone who invests a million and employs 10 people within 2 years? A company with 10 employees is quite valuable to the economy.

The cost of this are almost zero and if the person fails they have at least brought a million to the US.

I don't see any "desperate" or "pathetic" here!

[Charlotte Bonnie]

08:11 AM on 05/27/2011

I think it shows the desperate situation the US got in meaning the entreprene­urship died and they started expecting entreprene­urs from abroad but I agree that it is a good and a smart idea. I support it.