Entrepreneurs from the G20 countries see themselves as the most dynamic source of tech innovation and expect their businesses to achieve growth in the next two years.
This is according to a report by Accenture and the G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance (G20 YEA).
The survey of 1 000 business owners in the G20 countries, aged 40 or younger, revealed that more than 76% believe they are the major source of technology innovation in their countries.
The findings, published in a report titled "Entrepreneurial Innovation: How to unleash a key source of growth and jobs in the G20 countries" were revealed at the G20 YEA Summit in Moscow. Some 41% of respondents expect to grow their businesses by more than 8% annually over the next two years and 81% expect to create new jobs in that period.
According to the survey, young entrepreneurs see their growth increasingly as being dependent on collaboration with larger businesses, with 35% of respondents claiming to collaborate with large businesses and a further 46% intending to do so in the coming two years. These partnerships allow for access to new markets, specialist skills and expensive technologies.
Larger businesses appear less open, however. About 52% of respondents of a survey of larger companies conducted as part of the report said they have not collaborated with entrepreneurs at all or have undertaken just one initiative with a single small company.
"Success requires autonomy and freedom to innovate, but certainly not isolation, and young entrepreneurs are no longer so suspicious of larger companies or intimidated by them," says Bruno Berthon, global MD, Accenture strategy and sustainability services.
"Technology has shifted the balance of power towards small and agile inventors and larger incumbents would do well to bring young entrepreneurs into their ecosystem and benefit from their innovation, creativity and agility," he adds.
According to Accenture, entrepreneurs also demand more support from government. Two thirds are not satisfied with current government policies, Some 18% said that governments take no actions to help entrepreneurs and a further 49% saying that while they do, their efforts are not relevant or effective. Their primary demands are for changes to tax, the development of technology training and education and public finance for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
"The influence of SMEs is significantly greater thanks to new technologies," said Victor Sedov, president of the Centre for Entrepreneurship in Russia, the host of the G20 YEA Summit 2013.
"Governments should do more to ensure that the innovation, power and ambition of young entrepreneurs can help address the problem of structural youth unemployment, and fuel economic growth. But entrepreneurs need governments to develop infrastructure and facilitate market access, improve technology skills, and open up new sources of finance and incentives that encourage riskier approaches to growth and international expansion," Sedov continued.
Although the report shows that respondents see the US as the most innovative country in the next two years, China and India are considered the second and fifth most innovative, respectively.
"These entrepreneurs are in the best position to accelerate the move to mass customisation and to create entirely new categories of products and services through technology. It is vital that policy makers understand that, for young entrepreneurs, all markets are de facto emerging markets and that small digital enterprises have choices as to where they locate and do business," Berthon notes.
Key recommendations for country governments included stimulating demand through the development of digital infrastructures, exporting support schemes, the digitisation and opening up of public procurement to small companies, as well as the digitalisation of public services, including open data policies that encourage companies to create innovative services for the public sector.
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