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Human Resource Development (HRM-627)
VU
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)
VU
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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