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surveyed 69 countries from around the world, in which two types of surveys were
carried out: A survey of general adult population (at least 2,000 respondents in
each country) and a survey of experts. Overall, the 2012 Adult Population Survey
surveyed 186,143 respondents. That extrapolated to national populations
represents 74% of the world population and 87% of the world GDP. Both surveys
are carefully constructed to ensure that the obtained data as well as the historical
databases built from the data meet demanding criteria of statistical
representativeness.
Slovakia participated in the GEM project for the first time in 2011. The
national coordinator and representative in GERA since 2010 is the Faculty of
Management, Comenius University in Bratislava. Their principal partner in this
project is the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises.
Cooperation between the two institutions on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
project (GEM) is of great practical importance, assuring direct transfer of research
results into practice. This benefits, in particular, strategic analyses, formulation of
entrepreneurial policy strategies, and the subsequent formation of specific policies.
Obtained data are also further analyzed by academic researchers and their results
are presented in the form of monographs and scientific articles published both
nationally and internationally.
A correct interpretation of the results of any research is not possible without
the knowledge of the relevant theories. For theories of entrepreneurship as well as
management theories, the internationalization of "theorizing" is of great
importance. Therefore, the goal of this monograph is to present an overview of
theories of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs in connection with the GEM
model and, based on the analysis of results for the years 2012 and 2011,
characterize the state and dynamics of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial
environment in Slovakia as well as its international comparison.
The importance of the GEM project for the development of
entrepreneurship in Slovakia, but also for academic research, is unquestionable.
The availability of Slovak data from for two consecutive years (2011 and 2012)
contribute to the understanding of the business environment, behavior of Slovak
entrepreneurs, and to inferring of certain general features that characterize and
generalize this behavior. Although two years is clearly a very short time period, the
characterization of the inter-annual dynamics is a suitable basis for the
formulation of observations and drawing of relevant conclusions.
In 2012, GEM also included surveys of and research on special topics.
Slovakia continued to examine the business activities of employees (EEA or
Intrapreneurship). Slovakia also participated in the research on the value of
networking.
We start the 2012 international comparisons with the V5 countries
(Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia) and Austria. Austria
was included because of its geographic location as well as the volume of mutual