The study: five themes

Promotion of entrepreneurship
 
Creating a business is often difficult, and this is why promoting a positive - and even an encouraging - message is key to the local pro-entrepreneur policies implemented by territorial authorities. Promotion is therefore the first dimension measured by the ECER-Banque Populaire Ranking.

The first finding is the north-south divide. Northern European cities are generally better ranked than those in the south. This divide is also visible in the overall ranking.

The second finding is the very good result achieved by the German cities, which contribute the top pair for this theme.

Lastly, the analysis also reveals a highly instructive fact: provincial cities are often better ranked than the capitals of their respective countries. Berlin is positioned below the other German cities; Porto is ahead of Lisbon; Lyon, Lille and Marseille beat Paris; Barcelona outstrips Madrid; Turin and Naples lead Rome; Malmo pips Stockholm, and so on. This result can be explained in two ways. A size effect probably works against the capitals, whose promotion policy is thus likely diluted. The entrepreneur fair is a big event in Lyon, but one among many in Paris; entrepreneurial promotion in large capitals is probably less audible. The second explanation is that provincial cities have a greater incentive to develop endogenous development policies than do capitals, whose status makes them more attractive to foreign investors and as HQ locations for big multinationals.

Pre-creation



A crucial phase for entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship specialists well know that the run-up to business creation is crucial.
This is confirmed by the importance survey, which shows how crucially this phase is rated by entrepreneurs themselves.

Furthermore, this is the moment when entrepreneurs are hard to identify and, consequently, to support. Hence the importance of the local-level actions run by cities. German cities occupy the top three places. With the exception of Berlin, which has a lower ranking, like plenty of other capitals (Copenhagen, Rome, Paris…), Germany entrepreneurs declare themselves very satisfied by pre-creation support provision, with satisfaction close to 80%. There are also strong satisfaction ratings for Eastern European cities such as Warsaw (5th) and Budapest (7th), and, to a lesser degree, Riga (12th) and Prague (14th). In recent years, the transition countries have made considerable progress with their entrepreneurship-support policies.

Post-creation


The post-creation theme covers wide-ranging areas such as consultancy services and operational management (sales tracking, cashflow tables, management planning, etc.) but also the duration of support-service provision. The Scandinavian cities lead this ranking, with one notable exception: Copenhagen.*
Regarding post-creation satisfaction, the capital/provincial divide is again relatively clear: Paris, London, Rome and Lisbon rank lower; but Stockholm outclasses Sweden's provincial cities.

* Note: in future editions of the ECER-Banque Populaire Ranking, care must be taken to enrich the selection of Danish cities, so that Copenhagen's own performance can be gauged against Denmark as a whole. This will also make it easier to pinpoint differences in the results of the various Scandinavian countries.