Entrepreneurship Research Paper
This can be looked at from many perspectives and there is little agreement on what it means in different contexts. (Keo (1989) “ ...... There seem to be as many definitions of Entrepreneurship as there are pundits or practitioners of the art” “Entrepreneurship is doing something new for the purpose of creating wealth and adding value to society". For example, does the term entrepreneur and small business owner manager refer to the same category of person? Carland et al and Ginsberg and Buchholz say no. Others point to the demarcation lines between the behaviorist perspective based on external factors which can be altered to change the behavior of the actor coupled with identified training systems, and the psychological perspective based on some sort of innate attitude Making a reduction in absurdam this could be called the “Entrepreneurial Gene”
Here we look at the personality traits of what we call an Entrepreneur. This is an amalgam of a number of authors outlines but is centred on the work of Gibbs . A summary overview is presented in Stanworth and Gray .
It used to be based on a mixture of the following traits:- extrovert, decision maker, problem solver, positive, self reliance, needing control, networker, single minded, acceptance of responsibility, able to focus on the customer, opportunist, ambitious, self confident, commitment to achieve and a visionary. (See more on innovation later).
We could also look for additional softer traits such as: Holistic manager, a facilitator coach/mentor, having a sense of family, delegator, flexible, continuous learner, having self awareness, persuasive, acceptance of ambiguity and uncertainty, intuitive, personal networker, sense of humour, able to focus on staff, having negotiating skills and an information gatherer.
These are not exclusive. Both types overlap substantially. However, the current (1995) “designer” traits are clearly shifting from the model of a lone rugged tiger hunting for survival in a hostile jungle towards a model based on a concept more akin to a growing family homesteading in a frontier town. ie an example of characteristics of the former would be along the following lines. “The mark of an entrepreneur is .......the relentless pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled” This view is extremely reckless for any notion of business growth, development or even existence! Other authors have pointed out that their research has demonstrated that entrepreneurs take the smallest possible risks and on an incremental basis Quinn and Chel when deemed necessary.
One piece of research studies behavior patterns of only highly successful entrepreneurs who have made a distinctive difference. A very broad spectrum of source material was used to gather information—interaction, observation, informal interview, research studies, concept books and papers, conference presentations, autobiographies, biographies, novels, and reports from the popular business press such as The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and Business Week.
Personal factors and patterns that led to significant results were noted, analyzed, and eventually categorized. The conclusions reached were that most highly successful entrepreneurs: Actively Bank Experiences; Systematically Think and Act; Continually Test Limits; Embrace Competence; Commit to a "Cause"; Are Situationists; Take Fast Action; and Seek Significant and Enduring Change. These "backdrop patterns" are what make the entrepreneur's cognitive behavior successful. These are the behavioral forces that make entrepreneurs entrepreneurial. They should help too in determining just how they differ from "non-entrepreneurs," whoever they might be.
Followers of Schumpeter (see below) today, would still exclude, as did Schumpeter, small business and life-style "proprietorships". They constitute a noble and useful group, but their impact and behavior patterns do not warrant them being in the entrepreneurship domain. Most can't behave like entrepreneurs nor do they want to if they could. Many small business people may learn entrepreneurial behaviors in-the-firm through their experiences, and move out of their class into entrepreneurship. From this perspective significant individual performance, not aggregate performance is the key.
Hart et al suggest that Entrepreneurs see both the forest and the trees and how variables impact on each other; they continually conceptualize and adjust ends, means, values, and circumstance. They have an intrinsic awareness that all four of these decision dimensions are variables—that each is a partial determiner of the others. They bring all four variables into harmony in a universal perspective for proper functioning. This universal perspective is the basis of vision, its implementation and modification. It's this fluid view of the variables that allows entrepreneurs to function so well. They are expert at determining ends, in fashioning means, in shaping circumstance, and understanding their value limits. They can pencil their mission on the back of an envelope.
They put environment, resources, people, events, information, and technology into an understandable perspective. They comprehend the policies, procedures, and rules of a system— and know when and how to stretch beyond given limits, and when to strictly adhere. In short, they understand how the system works, and how to work the system. Their global view opens up horizons where they see an opportunity-filled environment presenting choices rather than restrictions. All systems are "go". Therefore, they operate with an eye on the future with confidence and optimism. The truly great understand that their actions create a climate of means for all others in their domain. They manage a positive image to keep total integrity positive.
This grand view perspective, more than anything else, separates the family store from Microsoft, Hewlett Packard or Dyson.
The entrepreneurs who are behind these organisations continually test their own abilities and willingness to act. They test to see how far they can. They push allies to test their abilities for development and to know their limits of support. Further, they test the level of the playing field to determine which way it slants, and how to slant it in their direction. They need to know all the elements and limits of play .
It's important to remember that entrepreneurship is not the usual game, with rules that establish fairness. One of the basic determinations of developing businesses is not only taking advantage, but also taking unfair advantage. It's generally recognized that unfairness can be established by control of critical resources, patent protection, trade secret, or trade mark. Entrepreneurs know that they can establish their organisations by post position, jumping the gun, and outsmarting the market place.. They want to be first; they want to be right; they want to have the winning team. They also know that besides being very able and very willing, there is still plenty of discretion in the values that can really make or break the outcome .
Earlier research on the concept of cooperative entrepreneurship, in which a group which shares a common goal works together, in distinction to individual entrepreneurship, or the idea of the lone hero showed that this Darwinian idea did not hold currently (if it ever did). Reich suggests that this no longer applies, due to the new global, technologically driven economy
It should also be stated that there is very little hard quantitative data to support most of the above views. Dangerously it is based more on anecdotal and some qualitative evidence.
Quantitative data on the issue of new business formation as outlined by Storey suggests that the only variables that seem to have any significance are those of higher education and unemployment - both of which are positively associated with the birth of new businesses.
Many other factors that had appeared to have significance such as the family, experience, age, ethnicity, gender social class or even personality traits as a whole he suggests are not significant in the attempt to isolate who does or does not make an entrepreneur in the 80's and 90's.
It is noteworthy that so many current writings on Entrepreneurship refer back to Schumpeter for a definition of Entrepreneurship. Another way of looking at the issue is briefly outlined in a paper by Herlau and Guedalla (1995) in terms of how Entrepreneurship research was developed based on the work of Vesper and Kent (1984) in three waves.
What is interesting is that no such concepts as honesty, taking the long view, listening to the customer and speed of action and re-action come into the general lists used by most researchers from the West. This is in sharp contrast to examples from Asian backgrounds. ie nearly 800 years ago there are documented stories about the need for a good reputation in developing a small business. “Next comes reputation. A good reputation is indispensable to a successful business” and “ If you are honest and fair in business, customers will come flocking to you”
The psychological characteristics used to describe successful entrepreneurs have frequently included: the need for achievement, propensity for risk-taking, personal and interpersonal values and innovativeness . However, business owners themselves have a slightly different view of the characteristics which they believe result in enterprise success or failure. Watson, Ponthieu and Doster isolated the following top five constructs which they assigned to successful entrepreneurs; Commitment to Business, Leadership Qualities, Self-Motivation, Customer Service and Business planning and Organisation. In contrast, the top five constructs they assigned to unsuccessful entrepreneurs were Ineffective Planning and Organisation, Lack of Commitment, Poor Ethics, Poor Money Management, and Lack of Business Knowledge and Skills.
Attempts to characterise successful entrepreneurs has raised a number of issues. Brandstatter suggests that, although there are many reasons why so many new business ventures fail within the first five years, misfit of personality structure and task structure may be one of the most frequent causes of failure . Moreover, it is emotional stability and independence that foster the skills necessary for business success, especially during the initialisation phase when entrepreneurs need to (a) have the courage to take risks and (b) have the flexibility and persistence to purse their goals. However, Chell et al concluded: "The skills necessary to ensure the growth and development of an enterprise may well be different from those required to conceive and launch a business." This view of the entrepreneurial process as a dynamic one is becoming more widely recognised, for example it has been argued that as an organisation enters a growth phase there is an increasing need for entrepreneurs to have `managerial skills'.