The latest GEM Scotland report – produced by Dr Jonathan Levie of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship - pointed to young entrepreneurs in Scotland relying on their family for both financial assistance and advice.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2010 found that Scotland's young start-up entrepreneurs rely on family more than any other individuals when setting up a business with 25% seeking funding from close family and 14% from other relatives.
However, despite an encouraging recovery in activity following a negative reaction to the recession, there remains a significant gap in training to better educate the country's future business owners.
The report's author, Dr Levie, said, "About twice as many young entrepreneurs value the advice of friends and family as those who value the advice of professional business advisors, even though most of their family and friends have had no experience of running a business themselves. This raises questions about the quality of advice they are getting."
The report also highlights a 'lost generation' of entrepreneurs with a gap in total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) for people in their thirties – in stark contrast to the trend for the rest of the UK.
Dr Levie commented, "We cannot recover this lost generation, but we can help prevent another through universal provision of training in starting a business in colleges and universities. If we do not, much of Scotland's investment in enterprise education in our schools could be wasted."
Scotland's annual GEM report encourages the Scottish government to look at enterprise policy in an integrated way and fill the gap in third level education. The report proposes that by implementing a comprehensive action plan, the rising level of disinterest in entrepreneurship could be addressed.
Dr LevieSir Tom Hunter, who endowed the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde, said, "Fundamentally, Scotland needs to drive more economic development, both corporately and entrepreneurially, and if we do not drive a definitive strategy to do so – that includes a supportive tax regime, fiscal policies that drive growth and ground level support for start-ups – we will be an economy destined for reverse gear.
"Our new government should take a fresh look at enterprise policy across all the environments through which our young people travel – including further, as well as higher, education. Scotland has led the world in the past; it's time for it to lead again for our national future."