THE poverty that blights much of the Caribbean economy has one big upside — it has created a huge pool of people rich with entrepreneurial spirit, says a leading expert in the field.

Conditions such as inequality and poverty “awaken entrepreneurial spirits in efforts to survive”, Professor Arnoldo Ventura said in a presentation to the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s regional conference on investment and capital markets.

“They’re the most innovative group in Jamaica,” the Mico University College academic later told Caribbean Business Report. “The middle and upper classes don’t have that entrepreneurial spirit.”

The Jamaican market women who import goods for sale are an example of this, he said. Some of them now travel as far away as China to look for new products.

“They have to be fully aware of what will give them that little margin,” he said. “They do so by being informed about products and techniques available abroad. They reach out for information.”

More established businesses often just wait for management consultants to advise them or pick up ideas from business magazines, he said. “Many of the main productive enterprises are not nearly as creative.”

However, spirit alone is not enough, Ventura argued at the JSE conference in the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston, yesterday. For the entrepreneurial poor to be successful, they also need information.

A tomato farmer, for example, who wants the best price for his produce when he takes it to market, needs to know if there is a glut of salads at Coronation and a shortage at Linstead.

He also needs to know about how well different fertilisers and herbicides work and where to buy them at the best price.

But in today’s rapidly changing technological environment, the information that could turn small-scale entrepreneurs into the founders of more successful enterprises is often scientific. “The technological ferment of today is a fertile environment for entrepreneurial opportunities.”

Ventura argued that many of the psychological characteristics of entrepreneurs are also present in scientists, such as creativity, self-motivation and a drive to achieve.

“The mindset is similar, although the ultimate goal may be different,” he said. “A heavy reliance on logical reasoning is the pivot of science, as it is the crucial step in entrepreneurship.”

Jamaica has started to build on this relationship with its National Science and Technology Commission, he said. That network is complemented regionally by the Barbados-based Caribbean Science Foundation.

Ventura warned policy makers and investors not to be risk averse. “They do not realise that the status quo is often more dangerous than the unknown.

“Science is the dynamo behind worldwide socio-economic progress,” he added. “A society with limited scientific capabilities and literacy, as exists in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean, diminishes the scope for entrepreneurship.”

“There is no doubt that entrepreneurship is now a required element for Caribbean economic progress.”

Since the region has tried every other development strategy available, he said, perhaps now is the time to give science a chance.