Hong Kong executives consider themselves highly entrepreneurial, but few regard their staff that way, according to a survey commissioned by Accenture, a U.S.-based consulting firm. In fact, chief executive officers of Hong Kong companies say that, for the most part, they rely on themselves to get things done -- and they aren't happy with the results. The challenge for companies in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia is to change those attitudes, says Graham T. Henry, managing partner, Asia Strategy & Growth, for Accenture.

"The individual entrepreneur doesn't exist in large corporations," said Mr. Henry, who is based in Hong Kong. Rather, Mr. Henry said, entrepreneurship is "more a concept, with a range of people who exhibit entrepreneurial characteristics."

The Hong Kong survey, conducted for Accenture by market researcher Opinion Leader Research, is part of a global study by the management and technology-consulting firm. The study says that companies will have to become more entrepreneurial in order to survive in the 21st century. The initial study of 22 countries was researched from January 2000 to June of this year. Three additional surveys -- Hong Kong, Hungary and Slovakia -- were conducted from August to September. The study is based on research including interviews with more than 900 board-level executives from organizations of varying sizes within the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

Most Hong Kong executives who responded to the survey didn't see a need for partnerships or collaboration as a way to encourage entrepreneurial behavior, and they didn't put much faith in training.

While Hong Kong executives saw themselves as lone wolves, executives in other Asian countries were somewhat more amenable to collaboration as a way to foster an entrepreneurial culture within their organizations. Among executives in Taiwan, for example, while 73% viewed staff as lacking innate entrepreneurial abilities, 90% said they were communicating pro-entrepreneurial values to employees.

Asian leaders saw risk aversion as a major barrier to entrepreneurial behavior within their organizations, especially in Singapore, where 85% of respondents cited it as a barrier. Although almost half (48%) considered Singapore to be a highly entrepreneurial country, rating it close or fairly close to the country they regarded as the most entrepreneurial, mainly the U.S.

Hong Kong executives expressed a mixed view of entrepreneurship within their organizations, as well in Hong Kong in general. Almost all (98%) said entrepreneurship is a positive force for society, creates jobs (93%) and will help improve the overall global economy (93%). Only 13% of respondents said that Hong Kong has a negative view of entrepreneurs, while the global average was 41%.

But more executives (58%) thought that entrepreneurship causes job insecurity and social division (43%), compared with the global average of 36% and 33% respectively.

Respondents in both the U.S. and Hong Kong, rated No. 1 and No. 4, respectively, as the most entrepreneurial countries, put a low priority on the importance of entrepreneurship to their organizations. Only 50% of respondents in Hong Kong rated entrepreneurship as very important. In the U.S., 48% thought it was very important. The global average was 73%.

That could be attributable to the basic entrepreneurial character of Hong Kong and the U.S. In both places, said Mr. Henry, "It's just part of the fabric."