The common European market is nothing but a myth. National, in Germany even subnational regulations prevent start-ups to scale-up their businesses across Europe. This is particularly the case in the social and - often interconnected - health sector. Here not only differences in civil, trade, labour, company, and tax law (e.g.) have to be considered, but also totally different social welfare systems with different rules, and regulations, and procedures for remuneration. And regulation is just one aspect. Language and culture may be barriers even harder to overcome. That you may need a lot of time to even understand the peculiarities of given market abroad comes on top.
For start-ups and scale-ups there are two options depending on where they have started and funded their business. If they come from a small European country, they will try to access the “rich and big” markets of Germany, France, and Italy as fast as possible. Or they start internationally in the US or in Asia from the very beginning.
If the young business has started in a country with a big and prosperous market such as Germany, it is very likely that with regard to ‘internationalisation’ they will focus on the German speaking “DACH” region. If you aim to really internationalise your business, it is very likely to move from there to the US or Asia before you cross the Rhine and with it the border to France. Again, it will be not only about market size, but maybe more about language and culture.
When what near is becomes so far in terms of internationalisation of a business even if the market could be big and promising, how about the smaller European countries? Why should I address emerging European national markets so small and so unknown - and so difficult to reach out to - if I aim to scale-up my business fast?
The effect is that there will be no effect - no trickle-down, no innovation effects for these small peripheral markets.
To foster scaling-up any innovative business across Europe we need a supportive structure that help young innovative and economically promising businesses to “hop and build” from country to country, providing information and an expert network to address the regulatory, cultural, and economic challenges of a given country.
With EBN | EU|BIC Innovation Community - Community of certified EU|BICs, the European Innovation Ecosystem there is already a network of highly competent and supportive regional BSOs in place that could and is willing to address this European challenge.
On the long term the task at hand is the further unification and standardisation of intra-European national regulations - well...
