Young people in Latvia view entrepreneurship more positively than others
Published: 01.07.2016
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As revealed by Amway’s latest global entrepreneurship study, young people in Latvia aged 29 and under have the most positive attitude towards entrepreneurship. Moreover, the majority would like to see themselves as entrepreneurs in the future, and almost half believe that Latvian society is supportive of entrepreneurs. However, the study shows that enthusiasm for entrepreneurship declines with age.
The AESI index shows that almost 9 out of 10 young people (86%) view entrepreneurship positively, while 7 out of 10 consider owning a business a desirable career path. At the same time, only slightly more than half of young people in this age group admit that they can genuinely imagine themselves starting their own business, and only 48% claim that Latvian society is supportive of entrepreneurs.
At the same time, 60% of young people admit that they are nevertheless deterred by fear of failure. The most common concerns are potential financial problems that could lead to bankruptcy, the possibility of an economic crisis, and legal consequences.
“The challenge is to turn positive attitudes into real activity. This means promoting entrepreneurship at various levels of the education system – developing students’ skills and encouraging the right attitude towards it. Young people need to understand that owning a business is a potential career path and that failure is not a catastrophe – although convincing them of this can be difficult,” says Professor Anders Paalzow, Rector of the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga). “Latvia must also create an environment that gives ambitious and enterprising young people the feeling that this is precisely where they can develop their ideas.”
Categories:
Economics;
Society;
