Values, entrepreneurial attitudes and entrepreneurial activity in the Basque Country

• Observations of employment opportunities in the Basque Country fell sharply in the period 2020-2021 (16.5%).
• Fear of failure has risen. 65% of the Basque population have this fear.
• The level of perceived ability to take action has been maintained (knowledge and skills).
• The level of entrepreneurial activity has coped with the crisis of COVID-19, and has progressed towards the previous year. 5.25% of the Basque population owns a company under the age of 3.5.
• Intentions to create new companies in the Basque Country have fallen over the next three years.
• The percentage of the population of the Basque Country with established companies has also fallen by two points, as has internal entrepreneurial activities.
• Profile and motivations of Basque entrepreneurs

The average age to start in the Basque Country remains 40 years for both men and women.

• In the creation of companies, the gender gap is very small: men represent 52.4% of entrepreneurs and women 46.6%.
• More than 60% of Basque entrepreneurs have a higher and postgraduate education, and a third of their income is higher. The profile of people who want to start in the Basque Country for the next 3 years has the following characteristics: The average age is 36; 51.7% men and 48.3% women; 60% with higher and postgraduate education; only 36.3% have semi-high incomes.
• The average age of people with a established business is 51 years.
• Consolidated female entrepreneurs (52%) outperformed men for the first time (48%).
• The main motivation of the Basque entrepreneurial collective is to make a living, as they have no other job. This has changed compared to the previous year, as the main motivation was to create a very high wealth or income.y

Funding of the entrepreneurial process in the Basque Country

•  The level of financial resources used or requested to undertake has fallen compared to the previous year. It is now 15,000 euros.
• Promoting capital or personal savings remain a common resource. Only 56% of entrepreneurs have used this option.
• One in four projects has secured bank financing, and those who have not have it cover 64% of their financial needs. Fixing the project over time makes it easier to get bank financing.
• The rate of informal investors in the Basque Country, 3.4%, is lower than that of entrepreneurial activity (5.2%). Among those who invested, there was a significant increase in the professional investment / business angels segment (8.2%).

Economic activity, employment, innovation and internationalization

• The relative weight of businesses that provide basic services has declined, and knowledge, industry, energy and intensive sanitation services have taken on greater prominence.
• Entrepreneurial activity has created a significant drop in job creation, and the creation of influential employment has fallen to 0%, with more than 20 employees.
• On the other hand, established companies have increased the average number of jobs created (from 12.7 to 16.3).
• Entrepreneurs ’collective expectations of job creation in the future have also fallen. The proportion of projects with a degree of innovation in the product increased (32.8%) and remained significantly higher than in the consolidated ones (16.7%). However, the weight of the most radical levels of innovation (product, processes and technologies used) has fallen.
• The international orientation of entrepreneurship in the Basque Country has fallen, but in this case it is higher than the figure for consolidated monitoring.