Award for Long-Term Contribution to GEM Research
The award was accepted by Prof. Anna Pilková at the annual conference of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project, held on February 24–28, 2026, in Monterrey, Mexico.
The international Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project presented the results of its 2025 entrepreneurship survey in Monterrey, Mexico. The main global themes this year are the growing fear of failure in entrepreneurship, the need to support start-up entrepreneurs, and artificial intelligence.
From February 24 to February 28, 2026, the annual conference of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) – the world’s largest and most significant study of individual entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems at both global and national levels – took place in Monterrey, Mexico.
The Faculty of Management, Comenius University Bratislava (FM CU) was represented by Prof. Anna Pilková and Mgr. Ján Rehák, PhD, a member of the Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at FM CU and of the GEM team. He has worked at Tecnológico de Monterrey for the past 11 years and currently serves as the national director of the Entrepreneurship Across the University program.
The main focus of the conference is the presentation of the 2025 results (for more details, see www.gemconsortium.org). Slovakia continues to maintain a stable – and, by European standards, high – level of early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA), with 11.4% of adults engaged in start-up entrepreneurship (up to 42 months in business).
However, in terms of established business activity (5%), Slovakia has for several years reported low sustainability of start-up businesses, placing it among the countries that contributed to this negative global trend in 2025. This lack of sustainability can be explained by the country’s long-term weak entrepreneurial environment, which is also reflected in the 2025 National Entrepreneurship Context Index (NECI), where Slovakia scored 3.8 (on a 0–10 scale), ranking 51st out of 53 countries.
Likewise, a year-over-year increase of more than 20% in fear of failure – reported by 67% of our start-up entrepreneurs – contributed to the second identified negative global trend in 2025. As many as 33% of start-up entrepreneurs in Slovakia currently consider the use of artificial intelligence in business to be very important, which is above the European average.
There is also good news: nearly 73% of our start-up entrepreneurs prioritize social and/or environmental impact over profit or business growth, and this trend has been increasing year over year for the past five years.
This year, FM CU celebrates the 15th anniversary of its membership in the GEM project. Since 2011, the faculty has served as Slovakia’s national coordinator of the project. The faculty’s main partner in the GEM project is the Slovak Business Agency (SBA). At this year’s annual meeting, the GERA Board recognized the activities of the Slovak team and awarded it for its “valuable long-term contribution to GEM research.”
Over the past 15 years, GEM research results have found broad application both domestically and internationally in professional settings. The results have been used most extensively in the preparation of strategic documents within the SBA, as well as in the work of the OECD, the European Commission, and several ministries of the Slovak Republic.
In addition, GEM data are used by the faculty’s academic staff and PhD students in research projects and scientific publications, as well as by students in the preparation of their bachelor’s and master’s theses.