The majority of Hungarians consider entrepreneurship to be a desirable, high-status career option. The global, EU and Central and Eastern European averages for the proportion of people holding this view are almost identical. This is according to the latest GEM Hungary National Report entitled Taking initiative and earning a living - Entrepreneurial motivations and opportunity perception in Hungary.
Based on interviews with over 2,000 Hungarians, the report showed that one in two people know someone who started a business in the last two years, and almost as many (47.4%) believe that it is easy to start a business in Hungary. There has been no change in the proportion of people who believe that they have the necessary knowledge to start a business – it is still low at 36.8%.
The proportion of those who see good opportunities to start a business in the next six months has significantly fallen compared to last year’s results (from 36.5% to 27.2%).
“This is presumably due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian war and other macro-economic events,” said Judit Csákné Filep, lead report author.
Entrepreneurship Education
Hungarians rank second to last in the European Union in terms of willingness to start a business. However, the results show a strong correlation between entrepreneurship and participation in entrepreneurship education, with those who already have a business being almost twice as likely as non-entrepreneurs to have participated in entrepreneurship education.
Csákné Filep explained: “Participation in entrepreneurship education is positively correlated with the entrepreneurial climate characteristic ratings. Those who have participated in such education know more entrepreneurs, are more confident in their abilities and find it easier to start a business.”
The results in the report – published by Budapest Business University – suggest that improving and expanding entrepreneurship education can be an appropriate means of bringing average skill levels in Hungary closer to the EU average.
Based on the 2022 expert evaluations, the National Entrepreneurship Context Index (NECI) for Hungary has increased to 4.7 from 4.5 in the previous year. In the national context, the assessment of the (1) physical infrastructure, (2) commercial and professional infrastructure, (3) government policy: taxes and bureaucracy and (4) ease of access to entrepreneurial finance ecosystem elements exceed the satisfactory level of 5. As in the previous year, entrepreneurship education in the public education system received the lowest score.
A Source for the Hungarian Government
Over the past two decades, domestic company growth in the country has steadily been on the rise. The Hungarian government’s SME strategy aims to significantly increase the value-added capacity of domestic companies by 2030. The government is committed to stimulate entrepreneurial activity to support entrepreneurs so their companies will be the winners in the years to come.
Máté Lóga, Secretary of State for Economic Development and International Financial Services, Ministry of Economic Development, noted the following in the report’s introductory message: “This report is a great tool to help us assess where we are at the moment and where we want to be in the coming years!”
The research is conducted by Budapest Business University's Budapest LAB Entrepreneurship Office. In addition to Judit Csákné Filep, report authors are László Radácsi, Áron Szennay and Gigi Timár.