Generally Russians started to critically assess the conditions for running a business in their communities. Those who are most dissatisfied with the entrepreneurial climate are the residents of small cities and rural areas.

MOSCOW, June 3, 2013. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning how Russians assess the entrepreneurial climate in their communities; whether those who do not have entrepreneurial experience would start up their business; as well as how those who run a business assess their experience.

Nationwide poll results

Over the recent four years more Russians have started to negatively asses the business environment for the development of the private entrepreneurship in their communities: whereas in 2009 the environment was assessed as being bad by 44% of Russians, today this number makes up 55%. Those who negatively assess the situation are residents of small cities and rural area (62%), and Russians aged 35-44 (63%).  One-quarter of respondents assess the business environment in their communities as favorable (25%). They are basically residents of million cities (36%), big cities (34%) and Russians aged 18-24 (31%).

Most of Russians who do not have their business say that they plan to set up their own business in the future (72%); the share of such respondents was 65% in 2011. The share of those who plan to do that is 16% (two years ago – 20%); they are mainly Russians aged 18-24 (38%) and residents of million cities (24%). Seven percent of Russians had an attempt to set up their own business but failed; other 1% currently runs their own business.

A relative majority of Russians who had entrepreneurial experience assesses it as satisfactory (47%). More than one-third of Russians report unsuccessful attempts (35%); they are basically respondents aged over 45 (41-46%). The share of those who are satisfied with their entrepreneurial activity is 15% (in 2009 – 10%); they are basically Russians aged 25-44 (17%).

Results of social media monitoring

According to social media monitoring conducted by the Social Networks Agency, Russians assess a startup and business development opportunities as neutral (77% posts). Negative opinions are expressed rarer - 19%. Four percent of comments are positive.

When discussing the business opportunities, most of social media users referred to prerequisites and organizational perspectives for business (42%). Other topics such as personal experience and desire to start up a business were also discussed (24% and 23%, respectively). Taxation was in the centre of attention in 10% of comments.

The VCIOM opinion polls were conducted on May 18-19, 2013. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 communities in 42 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

The Monitoring of publications was conducted by the Social Networks Agency on May 13-26, 2013. The open source engines and a special search tool were used during the survey. A total of 486 relevant publications were analyzed.

Results of social media monitoring

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!