No abstract

Professor Rik Donckels and Betty Dupont are with the Small Business Research Institute, UFSAL, Brussels, Belgium. This paper is based on the first stage of research into new entrepreneurship in Belgium. The results confirm similar findings in this sector in other countries, suggesting, for example, that small firms generate more new entrepreneurs than large firms and that such entrepreneurs often have an entrepreneurial family background. It was also found that in recent years there has been a substantial increase in the number of unemployed starting their own businesses. Start-up capital was mostly low and government support hardly had any importance at all. Almost half of the new entrepreneurs were employed in private industry before starting on their own.