First great study on the start-ups in France

The full results of a study led from about one hundred start-ups, can be downloaded on the APCE site (Agency for the Promotion of the Enterprise).

'From myth to reality' : this is the theme of the first great study on the start-ups in France. The study can be free downloaded on the APCE site, on www.apce.com. As they are very often caricatured before they are positively defined, the new firms already capitalise opinions that are too quickly based on what they represent, on their future, on their differences, it is said. While, the start-up creation is a very small part of the firm creation, at the moment, it reaches opposite proportions in minds. That is why the APCE naturally decided to study the phenomenon.Over myths, realities must be seenTherefore, the APCE tried to answer simple questions in order to carry realities over myths. To make the study, 800 questionnaires were sent to a sample group of firms that were selected according to the following criteria : they must have been created between 1995 and 1999, they had to be innovative firms (branch of industry, marketing methods, way of development) and to experience a fast growth (turnover, capital). About one hundred questionnaires were sent back. As they effectively fit the predefined criteria, they were able to constitute the sample that the study and the analysis required.The study is composed of three parts. A first part describes the start-up phenomenon in a historic, international (Japan, USA, GB, Germany, Israel, Canada) and economic way. A second part sums up the main results of the quantitative and qualitative study and it shows an analysis of the French reality of the 'start-ups'. While it can be considered as the profile of the structure and of its manager, the chapter puts forward some realities that are directly observable. Finally, a third part that comes up as a wide conclusion, makes a list of the different lessons that are drawn from the whole of the study.The first study on the recent phenomenon in France should interest the new cycle of final year on high-tech firms, a cycle that is opened in the Ceram of Sophia Antipolis. With the students of that option, Michel Bernarsconi, who holds the high-tech partnership, also led a study on the start-ups. It has been geographically limited to the Alpes Maritimes and it has focused on around 40 start-ups from the French Riviera. The results must be presented at the beginning of summer.