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A recent study of entrepreneurial activity (available at www.gemconsortium.org) paints an interesting picture of the way entrepreneurship develops in different countries. Studying more than 40 countries across the world, the project highlights how certain environmental factors play a significant role in the development of an aspiring entrepreneur.

A couple of years ago, I was at a conference in Finland where a government minister was on stage bemoaning the fact that Finland was not an entrepreneurial country. He said the reasons for this were that the economy was very stable, jobs were good and the unemployed were well looked after. This, he argued, meant that people were not willing to take risks.

I suspect the fact that it was freezing at the height of summer, which might have stopped peoples' creative juices from flowing.

It turns out that Thailand is the most entrepreneurial of all the countries in the study. While that seems to confirm my theory that warmer weathers lead to creativity, the study actually shows that it is more often necessity that leads to people trying new things. This is not the first of my theories to be slightly wrong.

However, while more than a quarter of the population in Thailand is involved in entrepreneurship, the nature of that activity is very limited. The majority of all businesses being started are in the service and retail sectors. With 95 per cent of all wealth in the world being at a wholesale level, that means that these companies are all fighting for a very small part of the same financial pie.

Moreover, in the world of "me-too" businesses, often the only way to stand out is through price wars, which make it more difficult to grow.

However, this is not all bad. The dotcom collapse proved that being innovative just for the heck of it does not guarantee success. But starting a "me-too" business can be a successful way for an entrepreneur to learn the ropes of business.

As the current crop of Thai entrepreneurs get frustrated with the crowded retail marketplace, a natural evolution will lead to consolidation and a move toward more wholesale activities, where the opportunities are more exciting.

I am still not ruling out my weather theory though. The least-innovative countries in the survey were Austria and Russia. Need I say more?