Professor Hart’s Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, or GEM, is launched
today. GEM is an international project involving 54 countries which
seeks to provide information on the entrepreneurial landscape of
countries.
Entrepreneurial activity is key for the growth of our region, says
Professor Mark Hart. “Young people are very positive; when you ask ‘do
you think you’ll start a business in the future?’ they put their hands
up and say yes, definitely.” But, he adds, “almost 70 per cent of young
people say that funding is the biggest barrier, something that older
age groups don’t find as much.”
The GEM UK and Global studies are seen as an important part of the evidence base for policy in the key areas of enterprise and entrepreneurship. Since 2008 the GEM UK project has been located within Aston Business School and co-directed by Professor Mark Hart (Economics and Strategy Group) and Dr Jonathan Levie (University of Strathclyde). GEM UK is one of the largest, longest-running national studies of entrepreneurial activity in the world with over 230,000 individuals interviewed since monitoring began in 1998. In the most recent study GEM UK 2009, the GEM UK project interviewed 30,003 adults aged 16-80 across the UK.
