BACKGOUND

As stated in the latest OECD report on “The Missing Entrepreneurs 2019 - Policies for inclusive entrepreneurship”, digital entrepreneurship – the creation of digital businesses and the adoption of digital technologies by existing entrepreneurs – may hold potential for making entrepreneurship more inclusive. Under-represented population groups in entrepreneurship could be more likely to benefit from certain features of digital technologies for business creation and growth, including the lower start-up costs required for many digital businesses and
the wider access to external markets offered by the internet. However, international surveys indicate that women, immigrants, youth and seniors are greatly under-represented among digital entrepreneurs in the EU (Eurostat, Labour Force Survey, 2019). For example, it is estimated that women accounted for only 15.6% of digital start-ups in 2018, which was essentially unchanged from 2016 (14.8%). This is well below their share among entrepreneurs.
As pointed by OECD, these gaps are due to many factors, including a lack of digital entrepreneurship role models and a lack of digital skills, which affects seniors and women. Moreover, several recent studies show that many obstacles to business creation (e.g. lack of skills, access to finance, small and ineffective networks) carry over into the digital economy. Data on computer usage clearly show that women and seniors have gaps in basic digital skills, as do some groups of youth. These skills barriers reinforce the obstacles to start-up financing and networks.
Therefore, the policy recommendations outline the need for actions contributing to address the barriers to digital entrepreneurship through schemes that build digital and entrepreneurship skills, including through education, training programmes and facilitating peer-learning.