It's Global Entrepreneurship Week – a celebration of startups, disruptors and job creators who spark innovation around the globe. In the United States, entrepreneurship among middle market companies could be considered an engine of economic growth. The middle market — those companies with annual revenues between $50 million and $1 billion — represents 40 percent of GDP.
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But confidence among these executives has dropped by 32 percent over the past few years, according to Deloitte's new Mid-market Perspectives survey. Only 59 percent of executives consider the U.S. the best country for entrepreneurs. It is important to note that at one time, nearly 90 percent of mid-market executives viewed the U.S. as the friendliest toward entrepreneurs.
Deloitte attributes the drop in confidence to taxes, regulation and the Fiscal Cliff. The tumble in the mid market's sentiment toward U.S. friendliness of entrepreneurs has had an impact on generating new innovation: only 35 percent of respondents claimed their organization was able to become more entrepreneurial.
The ability to innovate is key to growth, they said.
"Those who believed they have become more entrepreneurial generally outperformed the population as a whole in every factor — the growth of their company, productivity, and expectations," said Tom McGee, national managing partner of Deloitte Growth Enterprise Services.
The full Mid-market Perspectives survey can be found here.