Wealthy Scots are short on admirers

Business is booming for Scotland's young entrepreneurs, according to experts at Strathclyde University. But the whizzkids should beware the resentment of fellow Scots, who love a trier but disapprove of success.

Jonathan Levie and Laura Steele of the university's Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship have just published the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Scotland 2000 report. They interviewed 2,000 people as well as 35 "key informants".

Their findings indicate respect for those setting up a business, but a significant number believe successful entrepreneurs are resented for their wealth, and three-quarters of Scots believe everyone should have the same standard of living. These views are more marked than in the rest of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Israel and Norway.

Dr Levie said that Scots were becoming increasingly aware that starting a business was a good thing, but were affected by the legacy of 19th-century Scottish capitalism, and socialist views. "There isn't an appreciation of the necessary link between risk and reward, and entrepreneurship and economic growth," he said.

Tom Hunter, the entrepreneur behind Sports Division, who gave £5 million to set up the Strathclyde centre, said the study showed the impact of post-school education. "Those youngsters who can neither afford nor qualify for university are more than four times less likely to be entrepreneurial than Scots who benefit from post-secondary education. Education must be available to all," he said.

The study shows that young Scots are significantly more likely than older Scots to agree that in the next six months there will be good opportunities for starting a business in their local area. That is not true for the UK as a whole.

Young Scots with post-school education are more than three times as likely to be entrepreneurial than older Scots, compared with the UK figure of less than two times. The most entrepreneurial are young Scots men who have taken post-school vocational courses, and young women who have been to university.