Rôle de l’accompagnement amont sur la poursuite du projet d’affaires : résultats d’une enquête empirique

While incentives for entrepreneurship are increasing (in light of the government plan of June 2015 for the promotion of entrepreneurship among the unemployed and young people), support for creators is attracting attention and questions are being asked about the value added to the creation by the support structures. The purpose of this contribution is to identify the influence of an upstream support to the creation in terms of the continuation of the business project. We wish to emphasize the importance of support in this sensitive phase and its role, which is dual in our opinion. Its implementation allows for the consolidation and validation of projects and the reinforcing of entrepreneurs when the project enables them to meet their expectations. It also helps to underline, in some cases, the important discrepancy between the perspectives of the entrepreneurial project and the personal expectations and entrepreneurial skills of the nascent entrepreneur. The research is based on the literature on entrepreneurship, in particular that of the current entrepreneurial support, and mobilizes data collected within a support structure between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2012, involving more than 600 entrepreneurial projects in a French region. The research confirms the importance of support for the evaluation of the entrepreneurial project in the upstream phase of the actual creation of an activity. As a facilitating process, support in the early phases of creation offers entrepreneurs the possibility of specifying their project. By providing them with a framework for reflection, it strengthens them in the setting up of their company or allows them to be aware of their personal limits. This study shows that, in terms of supporting the creation of a company, success may also, sometimes, take the form of pointing out the inadequacy of the project, the person, or the dialogic bearer of the project / project activity. Thus, an effective form of support can result in the awakening of doubts and allow the supporter to move on, if necessary, to other professional careers.