More than 83% of Poles believe that setting up a company in Poland is easy, but only 43% think that owning a business is a good way to build a career. This is due to the fear of failure, which prevents Poles from starting their own business. This is not unique to Poland, as a similar situation exists in other countries. These are the findings of the recent global report “Entrepreneurship Reality Check” by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). The research in Poland was conducted by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development in collaboration with the University of Economics in Katowice.
Fear of failure hampers business startup
According to the most recent GEM data, the experience of the pandemic and the rise in business costs that it triggered has deepened the fear of failure. In 2019, 44% of respondents declared that although they saw business opportunities, they did not initiate any due to fear of failure, and by 2024, this figure had risen to 49%.
What does entrepreneurship look like in Poland against this backdrop? Nearly half of the adult Poles know someone who recently started a business, and a similar percentage believe that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to run their own business. The majority (83%) think that starting a business in Poland is easy, and almost three quarters see good opportunities for starting a business in their area, but over half (52%) are held back by the fear of failure (ranking 11th in the world out of 51 surveyed countries).
Anxiety about social reactions to failure, which we observed in our other research at PARP, is possibly contributing to the high rate of fear of failure. This stems from an aversion to risk taking and the still favorable employment market. The risk associated with running a business especially became evident during the pandemic, with ensuing events such as wars, energy crises, and rising prices causing uncertainty about the future and a decrease in real disposable income. Market conditions – low unemployment on the one hand, rising employment costs, and the increasing pressure to adapt to the latest regulations and trends on the other – also play a significant role. Against this backdrop, being employed by someone else seems like a much safer choice, Anna Tarnawa, the leader of the GEM Polish research team at the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, says.
Early and mature entrepreneurship
GEM’s indicator of “early-stage entrepreneurship,” meaning the percentage of the working-age population that is in the process of starting a business or running a company for less than 3.5 years, is worryingly low at only 2.5%. This figure puts Poland last in the world, particularly in its plans for hiring workers.
Fortunately,the same cannot be said for mature entrepreneurship – business owners who have been in the market for more than 3.5 years. Their share in the adult population is 12.8% (7th place globally), and hiring plans are similar to the European average, although slightly lower.
Many Poles start businesses primarily not because they want to change the world or continue family traditions, but due to the necessity of making a living in face of limited job opportunities.
Good conditions for business development?
In 2024, Poland’s economy bounced back, achieving, according to Eurostat, a growth in GDP of 3.0%. However, high costs of labour and energy remain the main barrier to business activity. The conditions for the development of entrepreneurship, which the GEM survey analyzes, have not improved compared to the previous four years. The assessment for 2024 was slightly weaker than in 2023, but better than in 2022.
This value of this index is still relatively low and shows that Poland still has a lot to do to improve the conditions conducive to business development. Both the European Commission and the Polish government have announced deregulation measures across the EU. The effects will be observed in future GEM surveys, says Paulina Zadura, director of the Department of Analysis and Strategies at the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development.
In 2024, as in the previous year, only one of the 13 analyzed areas – the openness of the external market – was rated higher than the average in European countries. Improvements are particularly needed in entrepreneurship education (both at the primary and secondary level, and at the university level and vocational training), areas related to R&D and knowledge transfer, easy access to financing, supporting entrepreneurship policies, bureaucracy and tax issues, accessibility and efficiency of public programs that support business development.
“If we want to build a competitive economy, we must not only simplify formalities related to running a business, but also educate and support entrepreneurs so they can better handle challenges”, comments Przemysław Zbierowski, professor at the University of Economics in Katowice and a member of the GEM Polish research team.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is the largest international study of entrepreneurship, conducted annually by over 50 countries worldwide. Its main aim is to compare a broad spectrum of entrepreneurial activities, measure differences in entrepreneurial activity between countries, identify factors determining the level of entrepreneurial activity, and indicate system solutions that increase the level of entrepreneurial activity.
GEM was established in 1997 by Babson College in Boston and London Business School. In Poland, it has been implemented by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development and the University of Economics in Katowice since 2011. Each year, PARP publishes a report presenting a picture of entrepreneurship in Poland against the backdrop of other countries around the world. The results presented in this press release come from the GEM Poland 2025 Report (under preparation).
Source: https://managerplus.pl/przedsiebiorczosc-w-polsce-strach-przed-porazka-wiekszy-niz-chec-dzialania-49754
