Switzerland

This chapter consists of sections on Introduction, Historical Overview, The Environment for Entrepreneurship and Toward the Future. Introduction, as follows:Covering 41,285 square kilometres, the Swiss Confederation is landlocked between Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Liechtenstein. Four languages have equal status here: French, German, Italian, and Romansh. Bergmann noted substantial entrepreneurship disparities among the three largest language areas and wrote, “The different start-up propensities in the three language areas can be explained by structural characteristics of the regional economy” (2011, p. 543).The 1848 constitution made Bern (Exhibit 21.1) the federal capital; this city is home to the Federal Palace (Exhibit 21.2) and to the central bank (Exhibit 21.3) that decides the republic’s monetary policy. The largest city in the country is Zurich (Exhibit 21.4). The largest French-speaking city in Switzerland is Geneva (Exhibit 21.5); this is where Lake Geneva — the country’s largest — also known as Lac Léman (Exhibit 21.6) flows into the Rhone River, one of few to drain into the Mediterranean Sea.Among prominent Swiss entrepreneurs was the Swiss chocolatier and industrialist Philippe Suchard (1797–1884), who opened a chocolate factory in 1826. In 1901, his firm introduced the Milka brand (Exhibit 21.7), acquired in 1990 by Kraft Foods — now Mondelēz International…