Youth Entrepreneurship Support Model and Youth Business
Associations
OLGA BORIS, VALENTINA PARAKHINA
North Caucasus Federal University, Stavropol, RUSSIA
Abstract: - The relevance of the study of the youth business model is due to its significance in the
entrepreneurial environment, since novice young entrepreneurs will determine the state of our economy in the
future. Nevertheless, modernity poses many specific development problems for the younger generation,
overcoming which is almost impossible without the support of experienced businessmen and the state. Targeted
support for young people in the region will determine the possibilities of sustainable functioning and growth of
small business, and this, in turn, will provide the basis for its economic development and increase its
investment attractiveness. The purpose of the research presented in the article is to build an effective youth
entrepreneurship model as a dynamic process in which a successful transition from one stage to another is
ensured by a combination of competencies and favorable conditions provided at each stage by a certain set of
forming and supporting structures. These structures play an important role in the formation and development
of a young entrepreneur at certain stages of his life cycle, since their educational events, contests, information
platforms increase the understanding of the possibility of using existing support methods and the confidence of
young people in the correctness of the business choice made. The authors have identified the most active
structures in Russia in the field of youth entrepreneurship support. Nevertheless, with all their activity, the
activities of these structures are more focused on the allocation, support, training of young businessmen, which
covers the first two or three stages of the dynamic process of youth entrepreneurship. As a result, youth
organizations stop developing or fail. One of the reasons is the absence of a mentor, an adviser-consultant who
can help to analyze the activities of the enterprise and suggest the direction of its development. It is established
that the formation and development of youth business at many stages of its life cycle is influenced by business
associations (associations of young and significant entrepreneurs for the realization of common goals).In such a
way, the article highlights the most significant factors determining the sustainable development of youth
business. Their integration is currently in in formative stage, and their isolated application does not always meet
the interests of young entrepreneurs. Concerning the analyzed elements of support for the stages of youth
enterprise formation are integrated into a matrix model that ensures the sustainability of the activities of
talented young people who have connected their lives with the business sphere.
Key-Words: youth entrepreneurship, business associations, model, life cycle stages, support structures,
government support, mentoring.
Received: September 14, 2019. Revised: August 25, 2022. Accepted: September 13, 2022. Published: September 29, 2022.
1 Introduction
In unstable conditions complicated by digital
transformation, the value of searching for factors
for the management effectiveness growth of the
organizations and their achievement of stable
competitive positions increases, in which young
competent professionals who understand their field
and subtly feel the smallest changes in the economy
have immediate value. As expected, the period of
the coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected
the functioning of almost all organizations. This
has had a particularly strong impact on the speed of
online technologies introduction and the expansion
of the use of Internet resources. The most pressing
issue of this period was the preservation of jobs and
the involvement of young professionals in various
areas of the economy, including business
organization, since inexperienced young people are
less effective at work, but adapt quickly and allow
seeing the work of the company from the other
side.
The young generation is the basis of the future
achievements of society, its initiative force that
makes positive changes in the dynamics of
economic development and is the bearer of a large
share of innovative potential, therefore it is
unacceptable to rely on the fact that this key social
group will somehow solve its own problems, it is
especially important to help young people to use
their versatile potential to improve efficiency of
enterprise management.An important role in
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organizing business support for young people is
played not only by the state, but also by the system
of integration business associations, that is why it is
necessary to build their interaction within a certain
model, which has not yet been sufficiently
studied.It could be a reserve for obtaining
additional benefits for enterprises created by young
people.
1.1 Literature Review / State–of–Arts
/Research Background
The importance of youth entrepreneurship is
revealed in the works of many authors from
different countries [6],[9],[11],[12],[16],[24].
Youth entrepreneurship is an important sector of
the economy that requires serious attention from
society, business, and government agencies.
Especially considering that entrepreneurship is not
in high demand among young people. Various
authors consider the following as the reasons for
this situation: 1) unstable economic conditions for
business, especially in modern post-pandemic
conditions[4], [5]; 2) lack of necessary information
and knowledge and lack of competencies in the
field of business organization, which requires
improvement of training methods for the
development of entrepreneurial abilities[14], [18];
3) uncertainty of young people in their abilities and
success of a business career[2], [7], [10], [13]; 4)
lack of youth platforms for testing new ideas and
checking the investment attractiveness of
innovations, exchanging information on the
difficulties of their implementation, obtaining
expert assessments of their reality and
significance[1], [19], [20]; 5) low level of financial
support for youth projects [6], [8], [10], [17], etc.
To overcome these shortcomings in youth
entrepreneurship, properly constructed, targeted
support is needed at all stages of the development
of small enterprises newly created by the young
generation. Building a model of such support for
Russian realities was the purpose of this work. Its
implementation will contribute to the fact that
entrepreneurship will become a more
understandable, accessible, and popular activity
among young people.
2 Methodology
The main methods of research of youth
entrepreneurship have become a systematic
analysis of its process, diagnostics of emerging
problems and structures of youth business support,
modeling of its process, based on morphological
analysis of possible solutions for individual
problems of youth entrepreneurship by stages of the
life cycle (as morphological features characterizing
its process) and their subsequent systematic
combination in the form of a model. Specific
problems are both the tasks of youth business
creation (substantiating competitive ideas, finding
sources of funding, forming stable relationships
with suppliers), and the tasks of its formation and
development (providing assistance in gaining a
reliable position in domestic market, as well as
while entering foreign market, solving the problems
of enterprise growth, protecting young people
interests in government, etc.). Formation of an
integrated model provides an answer to the general
question of choosing a structure that can
systematically support youth business. This
approach is based on the search for all possible
variants of private solutions and a functional
decomposition representation of the youth
entrepreneurship support system in the form of an
aggregate having input signals (the impact of
support structures), which are transformed into
output parameters (sustainable development of
youth enterprises). The impact of support structures
is diversified and reflecting the different
entrepreneurial problems of young people (input
signals). All structures representing the state,
business, and educational organizations ensure the
preservation and development of youth enterprises
and the solution of youth unemployment problem
(outputparameters). The approach involves the use
of a large number of parameters characterizing the
support system, but to understand the basic
patterns, it is advisable to simplify and enlarge
them to an extremely abstract model, which at the
same time preserves the main relationships and
allows seeing the whole picture and identifying
development trends. In this regard, the support
forms need to be enlarged and the model presented
in the form of a matrix reflecting their relationship
with the stages a budding youth business
development.
3 Case Studies / Experiments /
Demonstrations / Application
Functionality
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It is difficult for a young person to become a
successful businessman, because entrepreneurship
is a dynamically developing process, all the
contradictions of the modern market are manifested
in it, complicated for young people by poor
awareness about it and misunderstanding of all the
possibilities of a new enterprise being created. For
young entrepreneur to become, grow, and prosper,
it is necessary to have the skills to navigate the
continuum of events and stages that shape his
business, as shown in Figure 1.
Fig. 1: Model of youth entrepreneurship as a dynamic process
Consider the steps shown in Figure 1.
Stage 1. Business idea. The business of young
people begins with the justification, recognition,
and formation of success confidence in the main
idea of the new enterprise. Without this, progress
towards the goal is deprived of the main thing - the
energy and confidence of the young founder that he
or she must do everything possible to implement
the business idea.
At the stage of forming a business idea, it is
initially necessary to find viable, attractive ideas for
creating an enterprise, and then it is important to
correctly assess the prospects of the "born" idea of
a new project, both from the standpoint of its
immediate commercial success and from the
standpoint of the long-term attractiveness of the
product being created for the consumer. In addition,
it is necessary to assess the adequacy of available
resources: financial, material, and competence-
based.
Thus, the path of the young businessman starts
from the stage of the business idea origin, when an
entrepreneurial vocation is manifested, motivation
to create his own business is formed, key
competencies are obtained, and an attractive
business idea is determined.
At this stage, various measures are needed to
promote the emergence of a new business
organizer: introducing successful businesses and
factors of their effectiveness to young people,
teaching the "basics" of creating companies,
business planning, project management. Already at
this stage, it is important to indicate that a new
business and its young organizer are interesting to
big business, the state, and society. All these
functions can and should be performed by
Business idea
Project
Launch
Early stage of
development
Market entry
Market share acquisition
Stages of the dynamic process of starting the
development of youth business
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educational organizations together with unions and
associations of entrepreneurs.
Stage 2. Project. The stage of creating a
project for an attractive business idea. The
qualitative development of a business project
clearly defines and specify the goal, the elements of
the enterprises’ creating process, and the resources
necessary for it. Without this, launching a project
means dooming it to at least low efficiency, and at
most to the termination of the company's existence
even before its creation.
We need the help of experienced entrepreneurs
and experts in assessing the parameters of a
business idea, embedded in the calculations of an
innovation and investment project, as well as the
preparation of a high-quality business plan. At this
stage, educational institutions can provide support
(the development of theses as startups), as well as
experts from associations and unions of
entrepreneurs, various funds to support
entrepreneurs.
Stage 3. Launch. It includes the final project
assessment and implementation, taking steps to
provide all the necessary resources to start a
business. This stage includes the final evaluation
and implementation of the project, taking measures
to provide all the resources necessary to start a
business. At this stage, the most important
assistance is in attracting resources, primarily
financial and investment, as well as competent
personnel. Such support can be provided by
business unions, investment funds, small and
medium-sized business support funds, recruitment
agencies, and educational institutions.
Stage 4. Early stage of development. The
created youth organization begins to function;
internal business processes are being worked out at
this stage. It is characterized by the start of activity,
entry into the market, and the need to eliminate
emerging operational problems characteristic of
newly created firms. Experienced managers and
business unions (through a mentoring system) can
help young managers to overcome crisis
phenomena.
Stage 5. Access to the market. This stage
involves the development of business processes in
the external environment as part of the growth in
product output and the need to expand market
share.
And finally, Stage 6. Gaining market share. This
stage involves the development of business
processes for entering new markets.Young
entrepreneurs who will keep their business and will
function successfully, having taken their market
share, will enter the next stages of growth /
maturity, at which they will already "scale" their
business, acting on equal terms with other market
participants.
A successful transition from one stage to
another requires a different combination of skills
and favorable conditions at each stage.
The educational system plays an important role
in the formation and support of young
entrepreneurs. It is designed not only to form the
cognitive competencies required by a modern
entrepreneur, but also to create interest in business,
which is no less important, since it forms the
motivational component of an entrepreneur's
competencies. Its activities will contribute to the
fact that "young people will no longer perceive
entrepreneurship, business as a field of activity
inaccessible for them"[8].
The whole set of forming and supporting
structures is presented in Figure 2.
Fig. 2: Youth business support
structures
•Bussiness associations
•Large companies
•Banks
Bussiness
•Grants, contests, subsidies
•Support funds
•Infrastructure (bussiness
accelerators, etc.)
State
•Basic education
•Additional education
Educational
organizations
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Each of these structures plays an important role
in the formation and development of a young
entrepreneur at certain stages of his life cycle:
- educational organizations at the stages of
forming a business idea and creating a project for
it; - the state and its structures – at the stages of
launch and commencement of activities;
- banks – at launch and development stages;
- large companies and business associations at
the stages of starting operations and entering the
market, as well as in the further functioning and
scaling of the business.
These structures provide a wide variety of
support for young people to engage in
entrepreneurial activity.
Thus, for example, the State Budgetary
Institution of the Stavropol Territory "Center for
Youth Projects" annually in 2019-2021 conducts:
1) the business game "Entrepreneur's Spirit"
within the framework of the Day of Unified
Actions "Day of Russian Entrepreneurship";
2) regional competition "Young Entrepreneur of
the Stavropol Territory";
3) regional business marathon "Entrepreneur's
Spirit";
4) regional event "Get busy", etc.
In addition to regular measures, one-time
initiatives are carried out: interactive "Business on
air" within the framework of the Day of Unified
Actions "Day of Russian Entrepreneurship" on the
Internet platform; regional competition "Portrait of
an ideal entrepreneur"; regional forum of youth
entrepreneurship initiative "Career 26" and others.
Even the pandemic restrictions have not canceled
the activity in the direction of supporting youth
entrepreneurship.
As a result, the audience coverage is 1,300-
1,400 people annually, the qualitative composition
of which is represented by active entrepreneurs,
interested youth, organizations of the business
environment, as well as schoolchildren, students;
the involvement of young people in activities for
the purpose of learning entrepreneurship,
increasing self-development and rational use of
available resources increase; among the goals
achieved: the intellectual potential of the youth of
the Stavropol Territory is analyzed, the interest in
the implemented activities has been increased, the
problem of involving young people in
entrepreneurial activity has been actualized, and
measures have been organized to minimize the lack
of information in this direction.
University-based student business clubs are an
important element of supporting youth business
initiatives. The name of such clubs may be
different, but in fact these structures organize
discussion platforms; training courses, trainings;
consulting organizations in various fields of
entrepreneurship. Moreover, business clubs can
become an information platform for investors who
are invited to periodically conduct competitive
defenses of business plans, the authors of which are
students.
Thus, the Association of Graduates of the North
Caucasus Federal University has created a League
of Young Entrepreneurs, which holds meetings of
students and successful entrepreneurs, for example,
representatives of the closed business club
"Southern Frontier", where new projects, issues of
state support for small and medium-sized
businesses, strategic development of the region, as
well as the involvement of young professionals in
the field of entrepreneurship, and help for them to
find investors are discussed.
Another form of support is student advisory
communities, which are created by students and
teachers to ensure the development and
implementation of students' business projects, to
help them to solve financial, accounting, marketing
issues.
Nevertheless, stable support from the phase of
"hesitation" of a young person – to become the
head of the business or go on to "study" as an
ordinary employee in an already functioning large
or small company – before making a decision in
favor of his business and successful long-term
implementation, is beyond the power of educational
institutions. Practically no one provides such
support. But this is the support option that can give
confidence to the young generation in the
correctness of their choice and the reliability of
their activities in the future.
Let's consider which of the above structures
(Figure 2) has the ability and motivation to take on
this function.
As noted above, educational organizations are
not suitable for such a role, since their sphere of
influence does not extend to the long-term
existence of business, and their interests are local in
the field of formation and development of
entrepreneurs' competencies. Although they can, on
behalf of the state or large business, create business
associations for certain industries, for example,
business incubators and technology parks, but this
is usually local, not large-scale, and they will not be
able to do this without funding from the state or
business.
The state and its structures (support funds,
business incubators, technology parks) are a
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stronger side in creating systemic support for young
entrepreneurs, but this is in fact only part of the
more global tasks of youth policy, including the
development, employment, and well-being of
young citizens.
Individual enterprises of large business, having
a sectoral specificity, have an interest and will
support those young people who are inclined to
create the enterprises they need, the development of
a specific industry, which is crucial for some
territories with large, city-forming enterprises, but
does not exhaust the opportunities and interests of
the youth in this region.
Banks have a more integrative interest. Studying
their experience shows that they are constantly
creating platforms to support young entrepreneurs.
Center-Invest Bank believes that youth business
needs not only benefits in servicing and lending,
but also systemic support. This Bank conducts free
webinars, trainings and workshops available online.
It not only "shares its own experience of working
with startups, teaching them in Financial Literacy
Centers to draw up a business plan, budgeting, and
marketing, but also invites entrepreneurs who are
ready to share successful cases with aspiring
entrepreneurs in the Bank Accelerator"[15]. The
experience of this bank testifies to the importance
of mentors for the formation of a youth small
business. At the same time, "contrary to
stereotypes, the older generation is quite willing to
share their secrets with future partners and
competitors"[15].
Business associations (associations of young
and significant entrepreneurs for the realization of
common goals) are an important structure that
affects the formation and development of youth
business at many stages of its life cycle. The
creation of business associations testifies to the
maturity of the relationship between business
spheres, shows that their representatives consider
each other as colleagues, take the existence of
common interests that need to be defended together
as an important given.
Business associations create platforms for
communication, coordination of opinions,
discussion of ideas and plans, exchange of news.
Business associations help in the development
and implementation of projects that are both
developing and activating the industry, and uniting
businesses through the definition and maintenance
of a common ideology (in industry journals and
newsletters, exhibitions, training centers, regulatory
documents, etc.).
The Business association carries out contacts
with government agencies, defending the interests
of its members, monitors the indicators of business
stability and security, ensures the formation of its
image in the macro and micro environment.
It is important to note that the "rules of the
game" developed in the business association,
common to its participants, should consider their
interests, and, first of all, rely on their study. For
example, based on a study of the members' needs,
the business community determines what
intellectual services the association will grant,
which enterprises will be provided with benefits or
services will be free (in particular for youth
companies).
The possibilities of integrating businesses are
increasing many times, which manifests the
synergetic effect of combining diverse parties, as a
result, they are able to achieve goals that they
would not even undertake alone.
Suchadvantagesinclude:
- common major image projects (joint
magazines, exhibitions, training centers);
- defending the interests of association
members at the state level;
- assistance in the processes of tenders,
access to external partners, and interaction with the
state;
- consulting support in solving business
problems, advertising, commercial conflicts, and
other issues;
- high-quality training of employees;
- providing information on the state of
competition, market research;
- jointpromotions;
- image support of business associations, etc.
According to A.Zudin, business associations
have a dual institutional status:
1) as "one of the links in the mechanism of
economic system management,
2) as a form of organizing business interests"
[25].
According to the authors of the article, in
accordance with their mission – representation and
protection of the interests of economic entities,
business associations should also represent and
protect the interests of young entrepreneurs.
"Among the specific types of business associations,
it is customary to distinguish three main types:
1) business associations as such,
2) employers' unions,
3) chambers of commerce.
The first two types, in turn, are usually divided
into national and sectoral one. Along with the
"pure" types, there are also "mixed" types:
intersectoral, regional" [25].
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We will present the whole set of the most
popular business associations in the form of a diagram (Figure 3).
Fig. 3: The most well-known business associations in Russia (according to media data [22]) (indicating the
sites viewed by the authors)
Nevertheless, as shown by viewing the websites
of business unions, associations and business
associations that occupy leadership positions in
society, structurally, in the vast majority of them,
youth units and unions are not allocated, only some
of them carry out activities to support youth
entrepreneurship.
The leaders in representation in regional media
are business associations that unite enterprises of
various industries - insurance; business
associations, associations of the tourism industry;
associations of food producers and representatives
of the agricultural complex and others. Viewing
these sites showed that the business community of
the Russian Federation practically does not see
youth entrepreneurship as an independent problem
and a layer of entrepreneurs who have urgent needs
in interaction with experienced entrepreneurs, and
does not single them out as a significant specific
business area.
The international non-governmental Eurasian
business association also has no youth structures:
theFinancial and Business Association of Eurasian
Cooperation (founded in 2013), which until March
Business Associationsin Russia
Nationwide
Mixed: intersectoral, regional
Sectoral
1. Russian Union of Industrialists and
Entrepreneurs (RSPP)
(https://www.rspp.ru/committee/)
2. All-Russian Public Organization of Small
and Medium-sized Enterprises "OPORA
RUSSIA" (https://opora.ru/committees-and-
commissions/komitety/molodezhnomu-
predprinimatelstvu/o-komitete-308/)
3. All-Russian Public Organization "Business
Russia" (https://deloros.ru/komitety1.html )
4. Association of Managers (https://amr.ru/)
9. Russian Fuel Union (RTS) (http://www.rfu.ru/association/history.html)
10. Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers (FRiO) (https://frio.ru/company/index.php)
11. Association of Retail Companies (ACORT) (http://www.acort.ru/assotsiatsiya/kollegialnye-rabochie-
organy-acort/)
12. Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) (https://members.atorus.ru/)
13. Association of Banks of Russia (Association "Russia") (https://asros.ru/about/)
14. Association of Russian Banks (ARB) (https://arb.ru/arb/bureaux-and-committees/)
15. Russian Union of Tourism Industry (PCT) (https://rostourunion.ru/o-nas/rukovodstvo.html)
16. Association of Film and Television Producers (APKiT)
17. Russian Engineering Union (https://soyuzmash.ru/about-us/committees-and-commissions/)
18. Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT) (https://akit.ru/about/about-us)
19. Russian Union of Textile and Light Industry Entrepreneurs (Soyuzlegprom)
(https://www.souzlegprom.ru/ru/o-soyuze.html)
20. Association of Small Format Trade (https://www.souzlegprom.ru/ru/deyatelnost/plan-raboty.html)
21. Association of Marketing Industry "Advertising Council" (https://sovetreklama.ru/)
5. Union "United Association of Agricultural
Insurers - National Union of Agricultural
Insurers" (http://www.naai.ru/)
6. Association of Industrial Parks of Russia
(AIP of Russia) (https://indparks.ru /)
7. Russian Public Relations Association
(RASO) (https://raso.ru/)
8. Rusprodsoyuz - Russian Association of
Producers and Suppliers of Food Products
(https://rusprodsoyuz.ru/)
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2020 was called the "Financial and Banking
Association of Eurasian Cooperation".
Among all business associations, the All-
Russian Public Organization of Small and Medium-
sized Enterprises "OPORA RUSSIA" stands out (it
includes about 450 thousand entrepreneurs, more
than 100 industry unions, associations and guilds
[23], which "actively supports the development of
youth entrepreneurship, contributing to the
formation of a new formation of entrepreneurs
focused on the introduction and development of
innovations and technologies OPORA RUSSIA has
formed a committee on youth entrepreneurship,
which is the largest association of young
entrepreneurs in Russia[23].
Youth committees have also been established in
the regional branches of the OPORA RUSSIA
(there are 33 such structures in operation now),
which serves as an important factor in creating an
ecosystem of domestic business.
OPORA RUSSIA has held more than two
thousand youth events over the past year, in which
about 160 thousand people participated. Media
coverage – 1,860,000 people. Among the most
important events of 2021: the meeting of young
entrepreneurs (the first offline youth forum in the
post-pandemic period, where there were
participants from 31 regions of Russia); the IX
International Business Forum "Gathering of
Successful Entrepreneurs" (more than 700
entrepreneurs from 12 countries participated);
support of the All-Russian student competition
"Your Move" in the direction of "Creating a new
one"; the concept of entrepreneurship ecosystem in
universities has been developed; the first steps have
been taken to implement the project "International
Business Accelerator".
Thus, the most active structures in the field of
youth entrepreneurship support: (banks, including
Sberbank), OPORA RUSSIA, as well as some
business associations. Nevertheless, with all the
activity of the OPORA RUSSIA, which is indicated
by its landmark events of 2021, its activities are
more focused on the allocation, support, training of
young businessmen, i.e. it extends its active
influence on the first two or three stages of the
dynamic process of youth entrepreneurship (shown
above in Figure 1).
There is little representation of such a support
direction, which we consider to be the key one, as
mentoring. There are many examples when youth
organizations have not been developed for many
years. One of the reasons is the absence of a
mentor, an adviser-consultant who has a
comprehensive vision, will help to analyze the
activities of the enterprise and advice the direction
of its development. For a young person to become a
successful entrepreneur, it is important for him
from the first steps to have a mentor who will help
to build an integrated approach that includes a
development strategy.
In the modern world, mentors play an important
role in the formation of a young specialist. Mentor
is not only someone who shares his experience and
turns to the right path, but also someone who helps
to overcome the barriers of self-doubt and doubts in
the business. As a mentor, both a professional of a
similar field and a person not related to it can act.
The most important thing is to help to develop the
personality of a young entrepreneur so that he can
implement his initiatives with minimal and
surmountable difficulties. A mentor can be either
one successful person (individual mentoring, as the
most common option), or a group of strong
entrepreneurs, managers (collective mentoring over
a "pool" of dedicated or "joined" young
entrepreneurs). Neither the first nor the second
option of mentors, as a party that will share
responsibility for the results of the formation and
development of the business of young people, was
not possible to distinguish in the work of these
business associations.
We consider the specially created youth
business association to be the most purposeful
work, which is the implementation of regular
systematic and interested measures in relation to
young entrepreneurs.
The concept of the Association of Young
Entrepreneurs (AMPR) was formed in 2006
initially in the form of a special program for
interaction with the entire business community.
The ideas and tasks of the AMPR from the very
beginning of its emergence were close to the
majority of young entrepreneurs who proactively
went to the AMPR website, asked questions, gave
practical suggestions, provided and support its
work. Then a branch network developed, consisting
today of more than 60 branches in the regions. This
network structure represents various areas of youth
entrepreneurship and continues to expand
throughout Russia. The activities of the AMPR
currently include a wide variety of activities [3]:
1) youth events, among them the most
significant forums: Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum;
Sochi Investment; International Business (city of
Omsk); investment forum "Russia is calling!";
"Small and medium-sized businesses - the basis of
socio-economic development of Russia in the XXI
century", etc.
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2) deepening support for youth entrepreneurship
in the subjects of the Russian Federation by
including it in programs and concepts for the
development of entrepreneurship in the regions;
3) creation of a Public-Private Partnership
Center for Youth Initiatives;
4) publication of the magazine "Young
Entrepreneur";
5) conducting regular free training courses;
6) organization of practical internships for
students, etc.[3].
The activities of the AMPR are diverse, which
reflects the diverse entrepreneurial interests of
young people. As a result, the structure of the
association's committees is also wide. There are
committees on agrarian issues; development;
innovative technologies; culture, education and art;
entrepreneurship development, etc. It is very
noteworthy that all of them are very important for
the development of youth entrepreneurship in the
troubled North Caucasus region, where youth
unemployment has the highest rates. The
Coordinating Council for the North Caucasus has
been established to address these issues.
Based on the generalization of the activities of
various structures to support youth
entrepreneurship, we propose a matrix model of
this system (Figure 4).
Support structures
Stages of the dynamic process of starting the youth business
Group
Type
Business
idea
New
business
project
Launching
a
newbusines
s
Early (initial)
stage of
development
Entering
themark
et
Gaining a
marketpositi
on
Educationalor
ganizations
Basic education
(universities, colleges)
**
**
+
Additional education
(universities, business
schools, centers, etc.)
+
**
+
+
+
+
State
Grants, subsidies,
contests
+
+
**
Support funds
+
+
*
*
*
*
Infrastructure
+
+
*
*
Business
Banks
**
**
**
*
Large (city-forming)
companies
*
*
*
+
+
+
Business associations,
including a mentoring
system
**
**
**
**
**
**
Designation of the structure's participation in the support of youth entrepreneurship:
** proactive participation
* participation as an assistant
+ participation on behalf/by the order of the state and/or a young entrepreneur and/or a business association
Fig. 4: Matrix model of support for youth entrepreneurship development
The new economic reality that has emerged in
today's difficult conditions characterized by the
breaking of economic ties with companies from
different countries. This requires business in
general, as well as young entrepreneurs, to search
for new strategies and approaches to development
within the framework of import substitution, search
for new markets and, as a result, improve
operational and marketing processes for their
implementation.
Small and medium-sized enterprises were
among the most vulnerable, and among them those
created by young people. An effective way to
support them is business mentoring by experienced,
successful entrepreneurs, including assistance in
business analytics, developing business plans and
choosing development prospects.
This conclusion was reached by experts and
participants of the mentoring program "Business
Mentors" at the St. Petersburg International
Economic Forum (SPIEF-2021) [21]. The Business
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DOI: 10.37394/23207.2022.19.149
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Mentors program is free, all representatives of
small and medium-sized businesses can apply for
training and selection of a mentor.
As a result, business mentors are highlighted in
a separate line in the proposed model to draw
attention to the importance and obligation of this
element.
The proposed model can be used as a basis for
the formation of a regional support system for
youth entrepreneurship. It shows the forms of
influence on young people to attract them to
business, the choice of a particular business and its
promotion. The application of the model developed
by the authors will help public authorities to
identify these stages in the process of creating and
developing youth businesses that are not provided
with structures and support measures, and to adjust
the funds allocation to enterprises.
4 Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be noted that there are
difficulties and shortcomings in the existing
support system, which we must try to avoid
building its effective version.
First, the orientation towards the choice of
entrepreneurship prevails as a means of
subsistence. As a result, support programs for
young people lead to the choice of the idea of
"occupying a free niche to minimize competition",
which leads to the formation of micro-
entrepreneurs, often with the occupation of low-
productivity, industries unattractive for large
businesses. The effectiveness of these programs can
be improved if micro-entrepreneurship is directed
to strategic growth sectors, to areas with higher
market demand and high added value.
Second, support for monitoring results,
especially to conduct long-term assessments of
entrepreneurial results, including measuring their
profitability.
Third, it is important to provide comprehensive,
multifaceted, and consistent forms of support that
meet the needs of young business managers:
obtaining special skills, necessary finances, support
for family and friends, which smoothes the barriers
to choosing entrepreneurship as the main (and not
temporary, auxiliary, additional) life path. This is
helped, first of all, by mentoring, as well as grants,
business unions.
Fourth, a combination of support options is
more effective than focusing on one of them.
Research shows that business training programs
will have a greater impact on the results of
entrepreneurial activity of young people in
combination with vocational training, mentoring,
consulting, grant/financial support.
Fifth, the optimal support structure helps young
entrepreneurs (and startups) to grow, ensures the
long-term impact of soft-skills training on
profitability, profit margin. To do this, it is
necessary to form an entrepreneurial mindset even
in high school. Subsequently, to develop creative,
cognitive, and socio-emotional entrepreneurship
skills.
Sixth, business plan contests, which can be held
by various structures, both in an educational
institution and at external competitions of different
levels, help in the early stages of awareness of the
entrepreneurial beginning. This makes it possible to
identify promising young entrepreneurs and offer
them systematic assistance, combined with training,
mentoring, and financing.
Seventh, for the formation of an effective
regional support system for youth entrepreneurship,
the proposed model can be used, which presents
structures of influence on young people to facilitate
their first steps in business and support them in a
difficult situation, among which business
associations with a mentoring system occupy a
central place.
Thus, the article studied the entire set of
forming and supporting structures of youth
entrepreneurship, which focus their efforts mainly
on the stage of idea forming and creating an
enterprise (startup) and do not consider it necessary
to continue support at the stages of the market
conquering and the business scaling. However,
these stages are no less difficult for young
entrepreneurs. In solving these problems (assisting
business development in the domestic market,
assisting firms entering the foreign market,
lobbying the interests of young people in
government at various levels), the integration of the
efforts of government and business associations
will help according to the model proposed in this
paper.
Acknowledgments:
This work was supported by the grant of the
President of the Russian Federation MD-
2787.2021.2 «Transformation of the Regional
System of Youth Entrepreneurship into an
Innovative Model that Effectively Functions Under
Digitalization Conditions (Based on Materials from
the North Caucasus Federal District)».
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DOI: 10.37394/23207.2022.19.149
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Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a
Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself
This work was supported by the grant of the
President of the Russian Federation MD-
2787.2021.2 «Transformation of the Regional
System of Youth Entrepreneurship into an
Innovative Model that Effectively Functions Under
Digitalization Conditions (Based on Materials from
the North Caucasus Federal District)».
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0)
This article is published under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.e
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