This document summarizes a presentation on barriers to entrepreneurship and e-government in Finland. It discusses the background and goals of studying entrepreneurship barriers when starting new businesses. Interviews were conducted with 36 young entrepreneurs in Finland to understand their challenges. The results showed that access to information, fear of failure due to time and costs, the maturity of e-government services, and communication with authorities pose significant barriers. The discussion concludes that reducing these barriers can promote higher entrepreneurship rates and economic growth by making it easier to start new businesses. It recommends that policymakers seek to understand entrepreneur needs and challenges, share risks, remove barriers, and improve communication and seamless e-government services.

1. Entrepreneurism and E-Government
in Finland: Barriers to Entry
Presenter: Fatemeh Ahmadi Zeleti
Tampere University of Technology
INSIGHT @ NUI Galway
Fatemeh.AhmadiZeleti@tut.fi
Adegboyega Ojo
INSIGHT @ NUI Galway
Adegboyega.Ojo@deri.org
Olavi Uusitalo
Tampere University of Technology
Olavi.Uusitalo@tut.fi

2. Outline
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Background
Goal of the Research Paper
Contribution
Theoretical Framework
Research Questions
Method
Results
Discussion & Conclusions
Recommendations

3. Background
• 2002 to 2007 -> Number of SMEs in Europe has
increased by over 2 million
• 2010 -> Decline in the number of SMEs was
halted
• Performance in EU is mainly affected by:
- Lack of entrepreneurial spirit (obstacles when
registering and formulating a new business)
- lack of skills and labor market flexibility
- lack of training and innovation

4. Background
Registering a new business
Country
Procedures (number)
Time (days)
New Zealand
1
1
Singapore
1
1
Canada
1
2
Australia
2
2
Belgium
3
4
Hungary
4
4
Iceland
5
5
Denmark
4
6
Italy
6
6
France
5
7
Norway
5
7
Finland
3
14
Germany
9
15

5. Registering a new Business in EU 27+
8th E-Gov Benchmark Measurement

6. Registering a new Business WW
OECD Report 2012

7. Background
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Availability of basic online eGov services in ‘Starting a new Business’, per Member State, 2012
(eGovernment Benchmark Framework 2012-2015, 2012)

8. Goal of the Research Paper
• Study of the e-Gov related factors that could contribute to
lowering the barriers to entry for new entrepreneurs.
• To shed some light on the challenges and problems faced by
entrepreneurs
(eGovernment Benchmark Framework 2012-2015, 2012)

9. Contributions
Our contributions are two-fold:
(1) Grounded on earlier work and interview results, we
articulate the real needs and barriers of fresh
entrepreneurs when starting a new business;
(2) Our results helps the Finnish government authorities to gain
insight to entrepreneurs’ needs, requirements and
constraints in order to design and implement effective G2B
services for entrepreneurs.

10. Literature
Theoretical Framework

11. Research Questions
• What are the major entrepreneurship barriers when starting a
new business? What challenges do they face?
• What should government authorities focus on before
designing e-Gov services to support entrepreneurship?

12. Method
• A study of OECD statistics on the rate of entrepreneurship in
OECD countries;
• A review of OECD and World Bank reports plus EU
Commission records;
• A review of the related literatures in the subject area
• Structured and semi-structured interview with 36 young and
fresh entrepreneurs in Finland
Dec 2012 – Feb 2013
Interviews were of a semi-formal nature
Interview entrepreneurs who have started their business no
more than one year

13. Profile of Interviewees
63% female and 37% male
The age range: from 24 to 32, of which most were from 24 to 28 years old
Almost 80% of the interviewees are single and Finnish
Number of
Interviewees
Industry
Percent (%)
19
Software and Game
52.7
7
Food and Beverage
19.4
4
Consulting
11.1
2
Cosmetics
5.5
2
Sport
5.5
1
Transportation
2.7
1
Music
2.7
Profile of Interviewees

14. Results
The following factors have a significant impact on the
entrepreneurial activities (Barriers to the entrepreneurial
when opening a new business in Finland)
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Access to information, network infrastructure and forms;
Saving resources and fear of failure (time, cost and performance);
Maturity level of government online services (e-Gov);
Two-way communication with department authorities.

15. Discussion & Conclusions
Our results confirm previous findings in
the e-Gov literature about...
Our study revealed that
besides the above factors…

16. Discussion & Conclusions
Starting a new business conducive to entrepreneurs requires a broad range of
reinforcing and supportive policies
Barriers to entry lock the opportunity for entrepreneurs to pursue.
Promote the rate of entrepreneurship also boosts the economy of the
country
Many economies should undertake reforms to smooth the starting a new
business. This transformation and data exchange between the
government and entrepreneurs can increase the standardization of data
submitted to the government and makes the interchangeability of data
between entrepreneurs and authorities faster, effective, and efficient that
requires lower cost and effort.

17. Discussion & Conclusions
Before a major e-Gov project is being designed, government
people must have a complete understanding and details of
entrepreneurship needs
Government authorities should study and understand
entrepreneurs as they are the users of the service and
systems
More attention should be paid to hear entrepreneur’s needs
and challenges

18. Recommendation to Policy Makers
• Maximum effort on reusing available resources and removing
risks by sharing risks and removing barriers
• Keeping the service designs and performance inside the
budget of the government
• Communication with responsible office should be well
monitored
• Seamless Services
• My own experience shows that the real time chat has been
very helpful

19. Thank you for your kind attention
G&A
about.me/f.ahmadi