ENTREPRENEURSHIP:Characteristics of entrepreneurship, Advantages of Entrepreneurship

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Human Resource Development (HRM-627)

Lesson 35

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organizations, particularly new businesses generally in

response to identified opportunities. Entrepreneurship is often a difficult undertaking, as a vast majority of new

businesses fail. Entrepreneurial activities are substantially different depending on the type of organization that

is being started. Entrepreneurship ranges in scale from solo projects (even involving the entrepreneur only

part-time) to major undertakings creating many job opportunities. Many "high-profile" entrepreneurial ventures

seek venture capital or angel funding in order to raise capital to build the business. Angel investors generally

seek returns of 20-30% and more extensive involvement in the business. Many kinds of organizations now

exist to support would-be entrepreneurs, including specialized government agencies, business incubators,

science parks, and some NGOs.

The Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs have many of the same character traits as leaders. Similarly to the early great man theories of

leadership; however trait-based theories of entrepreneurship are increasingly being called into question.

Entrepreneurs are often contrasted with managers and administrators who are said to be more methodical and

less prone to risk-taking.

Although such person-centric models of entrepreneurship have shown to be of questionable validity, a vast but

clearly dated literature studying the entrepreneurial personality found that certain traits seem to be associated

with entrepreneurs:

· David McClelland (1961) described the entrepreneur as primarily motivated by an overwhelming need

for achievement and strong urge to build.

· Collins and Moore (1970) studied 150 entrepreneurs and concluded that they are tough, pragmatic

people driven by needs of independence and achievement. They seldom are willing to submit to

authority.

· Bird (1992) sees entrepreneurs as mercurial, that is, prone to insights, brainstorms, deceptions,

ingeniousness and resourcefulness. They are cunning, opportunistic, creative, and unsentimental.

· Cooper, Woo, & Dunkelberg (1988) argue that entrepreneurs exhibit extreme optimism in their

decision-making processes. In a study of 2994 entrepreneurs they report that 81% indicate their

personal odds of success as greater than 70% and a remarkable 33% seeing odds of success of 10 out

of 10.

· Busenitz and Barney (1997) claim entrepreneurs are prone to overconfidence and over generalisations.

· Cole (1959) found there are four types of entrepreneur: the innovator, the calculating inventor, the

over-optimistic promoter, and the organization builder. These types are not related to the personality

but to the type of opportunity the entrepreneur faces.

Characteristics of entrepreneurship

· The entrepreneur has an enthusiastic vision, the driving force of an enterprise.

· The entrepreneur's vision is usually supported by an interlocked collection of specific ideas not

available to the marketplace.

· The overall blueprint to realize the vision is clear, however details may be incomplete, flexible, and

evolving.

· The entrepreneur promotes the vision with enthusiastic passion.

· With persistence and determination, the entrepreneur develops strategies to change the vision into

reality.

· The entrepreneur takes the initial responsibility to cause a vision to become a success.

· Risks; Entrepreneurs take prudent risks. They assess costs, market/customer needs and persuade

others to join and help.

· An entrepreneur is usually a positive thinker and a decision maker.

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Human Resource Development (HRM-627)

Contributions of Entrepreneurs

Develop new markets. Under the modern concept of marketing, markets are people who are willing and able to

satisfy their needs. In Economics, this is called effective demand.

Entrepreneurs are resourceful and creative. They can create customers or buyers. This makes entrepreneurs different

from ordinary businessmen who only perform traditional functions of management like planning, organization,

and coordination.

Discover new sources of materials. Entrepreneurs are never satisfied with traditional or existing sources of materials.

Due to their innovative nature, they persist on discovering new sources of materials to improve their

enterprises. In business, those who can develop new sources of materials enjoy a comparative advantage in

terms of supply, cost and quality.

Mobilize capital resources. Entrepreneurs are the organizers and coordinators of the major factors of production,

such as land labor and capital. They properly mix these factors of production to create goods and service.

Capital resources, from a layman's view, refer to money. However, in economics, capital resources represent

machines, buildings, and other physical productive resources. Entrepreneurs have initiative and self-confidence

in accumulating and mobilizing capital resources for new business or business expansion.

Introduce new technologies, new industries and new products. Aside from being innovators and reasonable risk-takers,

entrepreneurs take advantage of business opportunities, and transform these into profits. So, they introduce

something new or something different. Such entrepreneurial spirit has greatly contributed to the modernization

of our economy. Every year, there are new technologies and new products.

All of these are intended to satisfy human needs in more convenient and pleasant way.

Create employment. The biggest employer is the private business sector. Millions of jobs are provided by the

factories, service industries, agricultural enterprises, and the numerous small-scale businesses. For instance, the

super department stores like SM, Uniwide, Robinson and others employ thousands of workers. Likewise giant

corporations like SMC, Ayala and Soriano group of companies are great job creators. Such massive

employment has multiplier and accelerator effects in the whole economy. More jobs mean more incomes. This

increases demand for goods and services. This stimulates production. Again, more production requires more

employment.

Advantages of Entrepreneurship

· Every successful entrepreneur brings about benefits not only for himself/ herself but for the

municipality, region or country as a whole. The benefits that can be derived from entrepreneurial

activities are as follows:

· Self-employment, offering more job satisfaction and flexibility of the work force

· Employment for others, often in better jobs

· Development of more industries, especially in rural areas or regions disadvantaged by economic

changes, for example due to globalisation effects

· Encouragement of the processing of local materials into finished goods for domestic consumption as

well as for export

· Income generation and increased economic growth

· Healthy competition thus encourages higher quality products

· More goods and services available

· Development of new markets

· Promotion of the use of modern technology in small-scale manufacturing to enhance higher

productivity

· Encouragement of more researches/ studies and development of modern machines and equipment for

domestic consumption

· Development of entrepreneurial qualities and attitudes among potential entrepreneurs to bring about

significant changes in the rural areas

· Freedom from the dependency on the jobs offered by others

· The ability to have great accomplishments

· Reduction of the informal economy

· Emigration of talent may be stopped by a better domestic entrepreneurship climate

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