August 2, 2018
Slovenia joined the GEM consortium in 2002 and since then publishes annual national reports in the Slovenian language with an extensive executive summary written in English. Since inception, GEM Slovenia has established itself as a reliable source of data on Slovenian entrepreneurship, not only because it provides analysis of entrepreneurship in comparison to other countries, but also because policymaking suggestions are communicated in a clear and comprehensive manner. Every year GEM research results are published in numerous Slovenian media outlets. The Institute for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maribor where GEM is based, had nearly 100,000 website visitors in 2017. GEM results are also broadly used within academia in teaching and researching different entrepreneurship topics.
GEM research has brought new and fresh insights about the entrepreneurial process into Slovenian policy discussions. Policymakers and public administrators use GEM research findings when creating new or upgraded measures for enterprises, especially with respect to SMMEs. Today, some of the most important Slovenian policy documents and entrepreneurship support programmes either refer to GEM data or use GEM indicators in the evaluation process of the successfulness of certain policy measures.
Stakeholders who use GEM
In the last decade, stakeholders at different levels of impact (government, ministries, agencies, chambers and other organisations) created many policy documents that use GEM research. The most common GEM indicators exploited are the TEA index, TEA necessity, TEA opportunity, TEA female, TEA male, new and nascent entrepreneurs, established companies, opportunity recognition, self-perception and societal values indicators, and NES indicators.
1. Governmental policy documents
The Slovenian Industrial Policy sets priorities for the development of industry and the economy for the period 2014 to 2020. It contains a range of measures intended to increase the competitiveness in the business environment, to strengthen entrepreneurship and the innovative capability of the economy as well as activities for the sustainable development of industry.
The Operational Programme for the Implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy in the Period 2014-2020 plays a decisive role in encouraging economic development taking into account the specific characteristics of regions, and contributing to the achievement of the national targets for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Among others, the measures are designed to provide support to entrepreneurship.
The Operational Programme for Human Resources Development for the period 2007-2013 was aimed at achieving higher employment, social inclusion, higher quality of life and eliminating regional disparities by increasing investment into human capital.
2. Ministerial policy documents
The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology designed the Programme of Measures to Promote Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness for the 2007 – 2013. More recently, the Programme of Implementing the Financial Incentives 2015-2020 was prepared. The intention is to bind financial incentives of the Ministry by focusing on key development goals to achieve synergies in promoting the development of long-term economic growth.
The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities uses GEM indicators in the policy document Resolution on the National Programme for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men 2015– 2020 to emphasize the need to promote female entrepreneurship.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food used the TEA index in the Rural Development Programme of the Republic of Slovenia from 2007 – 2013.
3. Agencies and chambers’ documents
GEM research has had impact also at the level of different government agencies, chambers and other organisations. Few examples:
SPIRIT Slovenia - Public Agency for Entrepreneurship, Internationalization, Foreign Investments and Technology supports Slovenian entrepreneurship in the named areas. It uses a whole range of GEM indicators when preparing and implementing programmes to facilitate the development of the entrepreneurial sector in Slovenia and to measure the results of the programmes.
IMAD - Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development of the Republic of Slovenia is an independent government office, monitoring, analysing and evaluating current trends, as well as the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. Their analysis uses GEM data to serve as a basis for strategic decision-making and preparing economic and development policy measures.
The Employment Service of Slovenia is the key national labour market institution. It is an independent legal entity with public institute status operating uniformly across the entire country. In the document Evaluation of self-employment and active employment policy measures (2007-2013) a range of GEM indicators was used.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia used GEM data as an argument in the Agenda for Small Businesses 2016 demanding some changes and upgrades of current policy measures.
This is a shortened version of a chapter that first appeared in the publication The Influence of GEM on Policy 2017/18.
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