- Observatory: EMCC
- Topic:
- Published on: 21 March 2011
About
Disclaimer: This information is made available as a service to the public but has not been edited or approved by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The content is the responsibility of the authors.
Serial and parallel entrepreneurs are neither part of the public debates nor policy discussions. Those particular forms of entrepreneurship are not recognised as such. Therefore no publication on issues concerning them exists. Part-time entrepreneurs as well as self-employed workers are, since many years, part of the public debates. The issues are about improving their status (access to social security benefits, supporting entrepreneurship, etc.).More recently, transfers of a company is part of the public debate and there exist some national studies on this phenomenon.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Part I: Public/policy discussion
General policy discussions and policy approach
Do the public/policy discussions specifically deal with the different forms of business activities, since when and for how long?
Yes, continuously since xx year? (Please indicate year) |
Yes, on and off in the last 10 years (Please indicate yes where it applies) |
Yes, has been on the public agenda, but since xx year it is no longer part of the agenda (Please indicate year) |
No, it has never been part of the public agenda (Please indicate X where it applies) |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
One-person enterprises /self-employed |
X |
|||
Part-time entrepreneurs |
X |
|||
Parallel entrepreneurs |
X |
|||
Serial entrepreneurs |
X |
|||
Business transfers and successions |
X |
For each of the entrepreneurship/business activities covered by policy discussions, which policy domains are they covered in? Please indicate with an ’X‘ where relevant.
Labour policies |
Educational policies |
Economic/Industrial policies |
Innovation policies |
Regional policies |
Other (please specify) |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
One-person enterprises /self-employed |
X |
X |
X |
|||
Part-time entrepreneurs |
X |
X |
||||
Parallel entrepreneurs | ||||||
Serial entrepreneurs | ||||||
Business transfers and successions |
X |
X |
X |
In which media and forum do the public debate and policy discussions about the different types of entrepreneurship take place?
Please indicate whether they are implicitly (e.g. publications are covering entrepreneurs in general with implicit implications for the different forms of entrepreneurs/business activities) covered and/or explicitly mentioned (for instance parallel entrepreneurs are explicitly mentioned in publications) in these publications
Interprofessional medias for independent entrepreneurs and SMEs :
- Z.O. magazine – Het zakenblad voor de zelfstandige ondernemer (UNIZO, the organisation for self-employed & SMEs is a non-profit making and interprofessional employers’ organisation and social partner)
- Union & Action - (UCM, the ‘Union des Classes Moyennes’ is the counterpart of UNIZO for the Walloon self-employed)
Official professional forums:
- Conseil Supérieur des Indépendants et des PME –CSIPME (Federal level)
- Union Wallonne des Entreprises (Wallonia)
- Union des Entreprises de Bruxelles (Brussels-Capital Region)
- Vlaams Economisch Verbond-VOKA (Flemish Region)
Political debates and ‘ad hoc’ legislative acts:
- Federal Ministers for self-employed and SMEs Federal parliament
- Regional Ministers and regional parliament
Public media such as newspapers and magazines incl. electronic media |
Policy documents and analysis |
Proposed legislation and/or business support schemes |
Others, please specify |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
One-person enterprises/self-employed |
X |
X |
X |
|
Part-time entrepreneurs |
X |
X |
X |
|
Parallel entrepreneurs | ||||
Serial entrepreneurs | ||||
Business transfers and successions |
X |
X |
Specific topics to describe the different types of entrepreneurship
What has motivated the public debate?
Please specify for each of the five forms of entrepreneurship:
Type of Entrepreneurship |
Motivator |
---|---|
One-person enterprises/self-employed |
- Balancing the attractiveness of the self-employed workers’ social security with regard to that of employees
- Improving training in management for entrepreneurs (business skills and competences)
- Separating the entrepreneur/family holdings and assets from that of the company
- Promoting women entrepreneurship
- Improving part-time entrepreneurs’ social security
- Allowing lucrative activities for the pensioned-off entrepreneurs
/
/
- Compensating for the demographic effects of the post-war years baby boomers
- Insuring companies’ longevity/durability by a successful transmission
What has been the focus of the policy discussion?
To help you answer question 5, we list some examples of key issues that could be addressed in the policy discussion:
Please specify for each of the five forms of entrepreneurship:
Table 5: The policy focus in the public debate within each of the emerging forms of entrepreneurship
Part-time entrepreneurs | |
---|---|
Parallel entrepreneurs | |
Serial entrepreneurs | |
Business transfers and successions | |
Type of Entrepreneurship |
Policy focus |
One-person enterprises/self-employed |
- Improving self-employed workers’ social security
- Reducing administrative formalities for new business start-ups
- Improving access to finance for SMEs
- Proposing simplified form for legal entities
- Protecting the entrepreneurs’ family house
- Providing indisposed entrepreneurs (sick people or people with disabilities) external assistance- Responding to women entrepreneurship specificities
/
/
Has the public discussion resulted in a concrete outcome/impact?
Yes
Please specify for each of the five forms of entrepreneurship:
Table 6: Outcome or impact of the public debate of the emerging forms of entrepreneurship
Part-time entrepreneurs | |
---|---|
Parallel entrepreneurs | |
Serial entrepreneurs | |
Business transfers and successions |
- Raising entrepreneurs’awarness before retirement - Reducing inheritance taxes - Providing specific financial tools to finance business transfers |
Type of Entrepreneurship |
Outcome/Impact |
One-person enterprises/self-employed |
- Creation of the ‘Banque-carrefour des Entreprises’, an electronic register resuming identification data on for-profit and non-profit companies as well as on liberal professions practicing on the Belgian territory. The European Central Bank supports this Belgian State initiative which aims at simplifying the administrative procedures for companies as well as to contribute to a more effective organisation of the public services.- Creation of the ‘Guichets uniques’ to help new business start-ups (information, relay and support in their obligations) and to simplify the administrative procedures.- Law on ‘SPRL starter’: In force since the 1st June 2010, this new legal form of company allows to create a company with a limited capital from € 1 to 18,550. The aim of this initiative is to encourage the entrepreneurs to cross the step. - Law on the protection of the family house - Programming increase of self-employed retirement benefit
- The reform of the law on the access to the regulated professions
- Law on the status of the ‘substitute entrepreneur’: when a self-employed worker is confronted with circumstances preventing him from pursuing its activity, he can be replaced by another independent from the register of substitute entrepreneurs
/
/
Overall assessment
Within the last couple of years, to which extent has the public and policy discussion been more focused on the following different types of entrepreneurship compared to the business policy/entrepreneurship debate in general?
Table 7: Increased focus at the emerging forms of entrepreneurship?
Part-time entrepreneurs |
- Improvement of the legislation on the maternity leave for women entrepreneurs |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parallel entrepreneurs | |||||
Serial entrepreneurs | |||||
Business transfers and successions |
- Decrease of the inheritance taxes - Creation of electronic platforms of exchanges - Creation of specific financial vehicles (business angels, investment funds, etc.) to finance the transfer of a company. - Laws on companies transfers and on the principle of ‘excusabilité’ (=excuse, that is, offloading part of one’s debts and releasing part of responsibilities) in case of bankrupt. |
||||
To a low degree To a high degree |
|||||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
A. One-person enterprises/self-employed |
X |
||||
B. Part-time entrepreneurs |
X |
||||
C. Parallel entrepreneurs |
X |
||||
D. Serial entrepreneurs |
X |
||||
E. Business transfers and successions |
X |
Please list the main sources of information in the search for the above
Part II: Standardised structural data
Which standardised business statistics are available covering the different forms of entrepreneurship/business activities (explicitly or implicitly, i.e. also data that could be used to describe these forms of entrepreneurship without being published with this specific objective/heading)?
Type of data available Indicate access to data by an ‘X’ in the first column |
First published Indicate year |
Time series of data (Biannually, annually, quarterly, monthly, once only, other) |
Data source for the data |
||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
One-person enterprises/ self-employed |
Number of enterprises |
X |
Long-standing time series |
Annually |
INASTI*: Self -employed INS : one-person enterprises/TVA |
Enterprises by branch (please specify which NACE code digit level is available) |
X (all branches) (4digits) |
Annually |
INS/TVA |
||
Availability of regional data (The 3 Belgian Regions (Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia)) |
X |
Annually |
INASTI & INS/TVA |
||
Type of ownership of enterprises (sole propriety, limited company, publically listed company, etc) |
X |
Annually |
INS/TVA |
||
Economic performance e.g.: |
|||||
Turnover |
X |
Annually |
INS/TVA |
||
Exports |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Employment |
X |
Annually |
INS/TVA |
||
Others: ___________ |
X |
Annually |
INS/TVA |
||
Sustainability: |
|||||
Number of new enterprises (start-ups) by year |
X |
Annually |
INS & INASTI |
||
Number of discontinued enterprises, incl. bankruptcies – |
X |
Annually |
INS/TVA |
||
survival rate of enterprises |
X |
Annually |
INS/TVA |
||
Others, specify: |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Part-time entrepreneurs |
Number of enterprises |
X |
Long-standing time series |
Annually |
INASTI |
Enterprises by branch (please specify which NACE code digit level is available) |
X |
Annually |
INASTI |
||
Availability of regional data (The 3 Belgian Regions (Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia)) |
X |
Annually |
INASTI |
||
Type of ownership of enterprises (sole propriety, limited company, publically listed company, etc) |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Economic performance e.g.: |
|||||
Turnover |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Exports |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Employment |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Others: ___________ |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Sustainability: |
|||||
Number of new enterprises (start-ups) by year |
X |
Annually |
INASTI |
||
Number of discontinued enterprises, incl. bankruptcies – |
X |
Annually |
INASTI |
||
Survival rate of enterprises |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Others, specify: |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Parallel entrepreneurs |
Number of enterprises |
||||
Enterprises by branch (please specify which NACE code digit level is available) |
|||||
Availability of regional data (please specify) |
|||||
Type of ownership of enterprises (sole propriety, limited company, publically listed company, etc) |
|||||
Economic performance e.g.: |
|||||
Turnover |
|||||
Exports |
|||||
Employment |
|||||
Others: ___________ |
|||||
Sustainability: |
|||||
Number of new enterprises (start-ups) by year |
|||||
Number of discontinued enterprises, incl. bankruptcies – |
|||||
survival rate of enterprises |
|||||
Others, specify: |
|||||
Serial entrepreneurs |
Number of enterprises |
||||
Enterprises by branch (please specify which NACE code digit level is available) |
|||||
Availability of regional data (please specify) |
|||||
Type of ownership of enterprises (sole propriety, limited company, publically listed company, etc) |
|||||
Economic performance e.g.: |
|||||
Turnover |
|||||
Exports |
|||||
Employment |
|||||
Others: ___________ |
|||||
Sustainability: |
|||||
Number of new enterprises (start-ups) by year |
|||||
Number of discontinued enterprises, incl. bankruptcies – |
|||||
survival rate of enterprises |
|||||
Others, specify: |
|||||
Business transfers and successions |
Number of enterprises |
||||
Enterprises by branch (please specify which NACE code digit level is available) |
|||||
Availability of regional data (please specify) |
|||||
Type of ownership of enterprises (sole propriety, limited company, publically listed company, etc) |
|||||
Economic performance e.g.: |
|||||
Turnover |
|||||
Exports |
|||||
Employment |
|||||
Others: ___________ |
|||||
Sustainability: |
|||||
Number of new enterprises (start-ups) by year |
|||||
Number of discontinued enterprises, incl. bankruptcies – |
|||||
survival rate of enterprises |
|||||
Others, specify: |
*INASTI: National Institute for the Social Security of the Self-employed (Institut national d'assurances sociales pour travailleurs indépendants/Rijksinstituut voor de Sociale Verzekeringen der Zelfstandigen, INASTI, RSVZ)
**INS: National Institute for Statistics (Institut national de statistique/ Nationaal Instituut voor de Statistiek, INS/NIS)
***TVA
Is it possible to crosstab or merge the demographic data identifying the individual persons running any of the five forms of entrepreneurships/business activities with the company data specified in question 9 in a common database for analytical purpose?
No
Type of data available Indicated access to data by an ‘X’ in the first column |
First published Indicate year |
Time series of data (Biannually, annually, quarterly, monthly, once only, other) |
Data source for the data |
||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
One-person enterprises/ self-employed | Number of enterprises held by each entrepreneur/owner |
X |
INASTI |
||
Gender | |||||
Ethnicity | |||||
Civic status (married, single, children) | |||||
Age |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Geographical location |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Educational background (last registered education) |
|||||
Current/previous employment of entrepreneurs (business experience) | |||||
Sector familiarity of the entrepreneur – branch/NACE |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Working hours of the entrepreneur | |||||
Income of the entrepreneur |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Other types of data (Specify): | |||||
Part-time entrepreneurs | Number of enterprises held by each entrepreneur/owner | ||||
Gender |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Ethnicity | |||||
Civic status (married, single, children) | |||||
Age |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Geographical location |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Educational background (last registered education) |
|||||
Current/previous employment of entrepreneurs (business experience) | |||||
Sector familiarity of the entrepreneur – branch/NACE |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Working hours of the entrepreneur | |||||
Income of the entrepreneur |
X |
INASTI |
|||
Other types of data (Specify): | |||||
Parallel entrepreneurs | Number of enterprises held by each entrepreneur/owner | ||||
Gender | |||||
Ethnicity | |||||
Civic status (married, single, children) | |||||
Age | |||||
Geographical location | |||||
Educational background (last registered education) |
|||||
Current/previous employment of entrepreneurs (business experience) | |||||
Sector familiarity of the entrepreneur – branch/NACE |
|||||
Working hours of the entrepreneur | |||||
Income of the entrepreneur | |||||
Other types of data (Specify): | |||||
Serial entrepreneurs | Number of enterprises held by each entrepreneur/owner | ||||
Gender | |||||
Ethnicity | |||||
Civic status (married, single, children) | |||||
Age | |||||
Geographical location | |||||
Educational background (last registered education) |
|||||
Current/previous employment of entrepreneurs (business experience) | |||||
Sector familiarity of the entrepreneur – branch/NACE |
|||||
Working hours of the entrepreneur | |||||
Income of the entrepreneur | |||||
Other types of data (Specify): | |||||
Business transfers and successions | Number of enterprises held by each entrepreneur/owner | ||||
Gender | |||||
Ethnicity | |||||
Civic status (married, single, children) | |||||
Age | |||||
Geographical location | |||||
Educational background (last registered education) |
|||||
Current/previous employment of entrepreneurs (business experience) | |||||
Sector familiarity of the entrepreneur – branch/NACE |
|||||
Working hours of the entrepreneur | |||||
Income of the entrepreneur | |||||
Other types of data (Specify): |
Is the data freely accessible or does it require registration, payment and/or a special effort to access the data? Please explain the accessibility for each of the forms of entrepreneurs/business activities and datasets referred to above.
List data source/dataset |
Explain the accessibility |
---|---|
INASTI |
http://www.inasti.be/ |
DGSIE |
http://statbel.fgov.be/ |
Kbo-bce |
http://www.kbo-bce.be/ |
Part III: Research
Please describe studies and research available nationally for each of the forms of entrepreneurs/business activities.
List the references (author’s name, title of publication etc, year of publication, organisation) |
A short summary of the contents (e.g. topic covered, methodology applied) |
|
---|---|---|
One-person enterprises/self-employed |
- |
|
Part-time entrepreneurs |
1. Union des classes moyennes (mars 2010), Enquête sur les indépendants à titre complémentaire |
- |
Parallel entrepreneurs |
- |
- |
Serial entrepreneurs |
- |
- |
Business transfers and successions |
1. CEFIP : WPC 07/1: Transmissions des PME belges: le financement (août 07) - En collaboration avec BKCP, CP Banque, le Fonds Bruxellois de Garantie et le Fonds de participation 2. COLOT, Olivier (2006), La transmission des PME familiales non cotées :approche de la transmission en Wallonie et impact sur les performances des entreprises, Thèse, UMH 3. GUYOT, Jean-Luc et VAN CUTSEM Michaël (mars 2010), La Transmission d’entreprise en Wallonie : discours et Enjeux, discussion paper n°1002, Institut wallon de l’évaluation, de la prospective et de la statistique (IWEPS) 4. LAMBRECHT, Johan, PIRNAY, Fabrice, (2008) Transmission du pouvoir dans les entreprises familiales, Rapport de recherche, Institut de l’entreprise Familiale 5. LAMBRECHT, Johan, NAUDTS, Wim (2007), Transmission et reprise en Belgique, Centres d’Etudes pour l’Entrepreneuriat, EHSAL, Bruxelles, Etude commandée par SPF Economie |
Van den broeck Marie, Institute for Labour Studies, Université Catholique de LouvainInstitute for Labour Studies, Université catholique de Louvain
Add new comment