Entrepreneurship Flourishes In Denmark

03 Nov 2011

Denmark is the best place in the world to start a business because the country has the attitudes, activities and aspirations to encourage business start-ups.

Entrepreneurs thrive in Denmark. A 2010 study from the United States Small Business Administration ranks Denmark as number one in global entrepreneurship out of 71 countries.

Canada was second, the US was third, and Sweden was fourth.

“The Scandinavian countries must be doing something right, because they have big, successful companies and economies, even though they are relatively small,” says Zoltan J. Acs, professor and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy at George Mason University in Virginia, USA, in an interview published in Medicon Valley Magazine – a leading Scandinavian Life Science magazine 

Acs conducted the study with Laszlo Szerb, professor of Business and Management Studies, University of Pécs, Hungary.

They used data from the World Bank and annual surveys from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a nonprofit academic consortium, to develop an index divided into three pillars: attitudes, activities and aspirations.

Attitudes are the population’s feelings about business startups, activities are efforts to improve human resources and technological efficiency, and aspirations are entrepreneurs’ attempts to innovate and globalize.

Nordic countries are strong in all three pillars  

Although the Nordic countries are strong in all three pillars, they should work on improving the aspirations pillar by encourage entrepreneurs to pursue new products and technologies with a high international impact.

In Denmark, much is already being done to create more entrepreneurial opportunities, says Rasmus Beedholm-Ebsen, Regional Project Manager at Invest in Denmark, to the magazine.

"The government recently realized that few people with a PhD- or Master’s-level education, especially in science or medicine, are entrepreneurs who go out and start their own companies," says Rasmus Beedholm-Ebsen, who himself specializes in the biotech and pharma sector and holds a PhD in medicine and a Master’s degree in molecular biology.

This has prompted the business community and the government to sponsor programs that specifically encourage new business development in sectors with highly educated personnel such as biotechnology.

Need to be innovative and have good ideas

Beedholm-Ebsen’s advice to companies is to think big, but think it through carefully.

 "In Denmark, it is very easy to set up a business, but that doesn’t mean you are successful. You have to be innovative, and have good ideas and have something unique to sell," ends Rasmus Beedholm-Ebsen.

Invest in Denmark offers free of charge assistance to foreign companies wanting to set up a business in Denmark.