Lack of cash threatens NZ role in entrepreneurship project

By IRENE CHAPPLE

New Zealand will be forced to quit the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor unless the project receives an urgent injection of cash.

The 2003/2004 Gem report, released yesterday, confirmed that New Zealand is one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world.

But Dr Howard Frederick, Unitec professor of innovation and entrepreneurship and author of the New Zealand Gem report, has lashed the Government and private funders for lack of interest in the project.

"We find an active disinterest in the Ministry of Economic Development on this issue ... [and] no interest from the private sector," Frederick said.

Ministry spokeswoman Sian Robyns said the department had provided $62,500 over the first two years and did not think it was appropriate to continue funding the report.

Frederick, speaking after the report's launch, said he doubted the Government "knows how to pronounce entrepreneurship".

He had given the Government several bad marks in a so-called report card that judged support of the monitor's ideas.

Frederick said "the fact is this is the end of the road for the Gem project".

He is seeking $120,000 to $200,000 to fund another Gem report but said he was not hopeful it would eventuate.

Employers and Manufacturers' Association (Northern) chief executive Alasdair Thompson yesterday offered the assistance of his marketing staff to find sponsorship for the project.

He said the report's advocates needed to be able to show commercial organisations how the findings could be used, for example in seminars for current and potential customers.

The Gem report began as a research project at the London Business School and New Zealand has participated for the past three years.

Frederick said he had hoped it would continue "for perpetuity".

This year New Zealand's number of start-ups puts it first in the developed world and fifth overall, behind nations such as Uganda, whose entrepreneurship is driven by necessity rather than opportunity. Maori, once again, are shown to be more entrepreneurial than Pakeha.

But while plenty of New Zealanders start businesses, wealth creation is still the "nut to crack", says Frederick.

New Zealand business owners have again been shown to be happy with "the bach and the boat" rather than wanting to increase the wealth of their business.

The survival rate of New Zealand businesses over the first four to five years was 30 to 40 per cent, which Frederick called "moderate" success.

Frederick said this year's Gem report was funded entirely by Unitec. It cost $60,000, which meant it was produced "on the smell of an oily rag".

Sponsors from the previous year had dropped off and Frederick said he had 80 rejection letters from possible funding sources.