88

Businesses and entrepreneurs alike are in the limelight. More than ever, they are at the heart of our concerns and our observations. The rise of the micro-enterprise, the charm of the “startup nation,” the appeal of entrepreneurship for the younger generations . . . everything points to a real, growing attraction for creating or taking over businesses rather than a dream of salaried employment. However, the entrepreneurial adventure is not without some pitfalls. The entrepreneurial process could perhaps even be characterized by the link that the future entrepreneur maintains with risk. This is why, in the spirit of deciphering societal trends, entrepreneurs' relationship to risk deserves to be analyzed. Indeed, the latter reveals the motivations and methods of the entrepreneurial process as well as the societal trends of business creation. To better understand this link, we drew on an up-to-date study describing the key points of this risk-business relationship, based on a survey of more than eight hundred business leaders. The analysis of the results of this study leads us to posit that the desire for independence and autonomy are the main motivations for setting up a business. We also highlight the emergence of social protection issues. These two major trends in entrepreneurship will need to be translated fairly quickly into operational responses to sustain this momentum.