Introduction
Entrepreneurship refers to the activities involved in setting up a business or business that require financial risk-taking to gain profit. It entails creativity in building from scratch by utilizing the opportunities presented with zeal regardless of the limitations (Coad & Storey 2021). The person involved in these entrepreneurship initiatives is known as an entrepreneur. Why do people choose entrepreneurship? It is due to pull and push factors. For pull, the entrepreneur is lured into the venture due to personal drive or the beauty of the idea. At the same time, for the push, the entrepreneurial motivation arises from the negative impacts may it be personal or external, which causes the need to rectify it, such as unemployment or retirement. An entrepreneur can either be born or made. Born entrepreneurs have inborn personality traits, while driven entrepreneurs are socially influenced.
To be an entrepreneur, they must possess certain qualities—the first one being able to take risks which are having the courage to overcome the premonition failure. Innovation is proven to be a priceless quality for an entrepreneur in a world where much is already in place, hence the need to develop new ideas that can be profit-making. An entrepreneur should also be visionary to achieve success, while the quality of leadership will guide the vision since a business cannot work independently.
Confidence and being well-informed are other critical qualities. The entrepreneur needs knowledge of policies and environment influencing the company, which is complemented by the confidence that is, the confidence must inspire people working for the entrepreneur in their ideas (Orlandi 2017). Various factors contribute to entrepreneurial behaviors, one being antecedent factored by the background that is genetics, family influences, and experiences from the previous career. Incubator organizations arise from experience from career, while the environmental factors arise from economic conditions and factors affecting business set up.
Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Activities, and Enterprise
As clearly depicted above, an entrepreneur is an individual who would instead assume all the risks and rewards in running a small business but not work as an employee in another business venture. To achieve successful entrepreneurship, there is a need to enact good business management regarding dealing with risks and uncertainties and a personal approach towards matters (Evans & Gawer 2016). Developing a business strategy is critical in guiding the decision-making complemented with a strong vision and intent.
Entrepreneurial activities refer to the innovation processes carried out by individuals utilizing the opportunities created by them. It showcases many manifestations that entail innovative startups required to have fast growth and employees (Eijdenberg 2019). The two major entrepreneurial activities are risk-taking and innovation. Under risk-taking, there are practical risks like thefts, fire, and accidents an entrepreneur seeks to minimize.
Putting money on the line is another risk factor that an entrepreneur seeks to reduce the risk involved by choosing the best venture. On the side of innovation, an entrepreneur seeks to establish the correct type of products and services sold, ensuring the business is kept up to date with its climate and competition while deploying proper management techniques. Furthermore, marketing and selling is another segment that needs innovative intervention since the products and services need to be marketed. It calls for a need to innovate suitable active networks to reach potential customers amid competitors, summing up the entrepreneurial activities.
A business enterprise is a project undertaken in a business world to achieve gains operating as an organization, company, or firm. The difference between a business and an enterprise is that a business is recognized within the legal parameters. In contrast, an enterprise is a business and its means of formation, and an entrepreneur is a source. There are different types of enterprises, one being a sole proprietorship. It occurs in trades, businesses, and ownership of a single retail unit, and the sole proprietor(s) is involved in all matters of decision making and running the enterprise. A partnership enterprise is one in which a small group of individuals shares ownership, decision-making, and profit rights.
In some cases, it may depict hierarchy, while in others, specialty by each partner is considered. Private limited companies are a free enterprise that has achieved legal incorporation within their own identities, having a set of shareholders responsible for the limited liabilities (Veblen & Dowd 2017). Lastly, the public limited company is another type of enterprise that differs from the private one in selling shares since they can be sold to the general public. To mention, public corporations and not-for-profit organizations are other types of enterprises that are not common.
Serial Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs, and Owner-Managers
On the same discussion of an entrepreneur, a serial entrepreneur appears on the table. Such an entrepreneur is one who consistently comes up with new business ideas setting up multiple companies. Their drive comes from several factors, such as struggling in their earlier prospects and not finding the product that perfectly fits the market. Serial entrepreneurs are highly creative and are not only fixated upon a single idea. Their in-depth knowledge and experience to recruit, manage, and build an organization is the backbone to their success (Lafontaine & Shaw 2016). To be a serial entrepreneur, optimism, dislike of bureaucracy, and flexibility should be focal. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, is the epitome of serial entrepreneurship.
Who is then an intrapreneur? An individual launching new projects and initiatives within their organization by utilizing their entrepreneurial skills to achieve a transformational change towards an operation in existence. It happens in individuals who lack resources to run their ventures but instead project their innovation to buoy their organizations to further success (Adachi & Hisada 2017). The difference between entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs is that the latter takes less and has less freedom, unlike the former, but they both converge at the point where they both assume leadership roles.
Picking a few examples, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, by following the suggestion of a guard to move inmate pictures from paper files to digital form, efficiency was improved. At the same time, expenses were reduced, saving $56,000 the year it was implemented. In the Apple company which produces Macintosh computer lines, intrapreneurship is at the center of its success. On the demerit side, if the idea fails, the company could collapse as the individual remains on the dead end.
Owner managers are workers holding job positions in incorporated enterprises. Only they, their families, and partners hold complete control of the enterprise and have the power to conduct relations with other organizations and control every employment scheme within the business (Velu & Jacob 2016). These entrepreneurs can be classified as self-employed or paid employees since they have high responsibility and authority like employers. At the same time, still, they are employees who get paid.
Typology of Entrepreneurship
In the entrepreneurial setup, typology refers to the classification types regardless of their basis. It entails the study and analysis based on the entrepreneurial constricts and having a look. Typologies can be deduced: lifestyle and growth firms and entrepreneurship in a corporate or public sector context (Elo 2016).
Lifestyle and growth firms are two business firms that differ in terms of their setups regarding the ideologies followed in setting up the business plans. The willingness to act upon an idea stands to be the prime motivation rather than profit-making. In growth enterprises, the founders are obsessed with growing their companies as fast as possible hence relentless laboring. A point reaches where the enterprise attracts funding and is looking forward to more growth so that the business reaches greater heights quickly and in a better way. Focus is mainly on the marketplace, which requires innovation and technical knowledge to charge the rapid growth concerning the customer needs in all dynamics (Vieira 2017).
The founders pursue a specific lifestyle for lifestyle firms while having earnings that can sustain them as artists and sports instructors. The businesses are not meant to make the owner lots of money but to provide a decent amount that can sustain their life while having freedom, achieving a good work-life balance (Hsu et al., 2017). They are started mainly based on the owner’s hobbies complementing their values, which will help them achieve enjoyment and satisfaction. An excellent example of a lifestyle business is the online business which is self-funded and independent from funders or shareholders.
Entrepreneurship in a corporate or public context brings to light the fundamental differences between enterprises: some benefit from public ownership while others benefit from private ownership. In public enterprise, the public, mainly the government, assumes its control since the government serves as the agent to its people, who are the public. Theoretically, this depicts the citizen to have ownership of the government-possessed company hence legitimized interests. The government assumes control in employment, policy-making, and regulating the profits made, either used by the government or injected back into the company.
The public entrepreneurs operate within the government, portraying two different figures: a public servant and an entrepreneur. For the private enterprise, the private citizens assume the ownership hence control. The Owners resort to assigning a board of directors to run the enterprise, and the profit-sharing is conducted equally among the members. It is also known as free enterprise since the government has no say in any matters.
Social Enterprise
For a social enterprise, the primary aim is to achieve specific social objectives that entail profit-making while also maximizing benefits to society and the environment by helping the needy through several programs (Besley & Ghatak 2017). Social entrepreneurs are, therefore, business individuals mandated to build social worth. The funds are majorly from the goods and services sold while from grants, and since profit-making is not the ultimate goal, it differs from the standard company (Kay, Roy & Donaldson 2016). Sustainable revenue draws the line between a social enterprise and traditional charity, obtaining outside funding to implement its goals.
Listing some examples, one is developing mobile apps that speak with relevance to the needs of specific communities, like dictating faults in powerlines and alerting the authorities. Another is companies that manufacture soft drinks that tend to fund sports activities in institutions and provide attires to the community. In underserved areas, social entrepreneurs seek to offer banking services.
Environments Hindering Entrepreneurship
On the setting of mobile apps that can speak, we understand that the idea is good but is an obstacle by the physical and technological environment. The terrain of an area consequentially influences internet connection. A community situated in a hilly place has reduced access to the internet, which will render the entrepreneurial venture meaningless and cannot thrive (Sun et al., 2016). On the prospect of setting up a soft drinks company and helping the community, the political and legal factors may act as a hindrance. In most cases, such large companies cannot be set up near residential areas to protect the community against the health risks posed by such companies. Regarding setting up banking services, the social and cultural factors serve as the main hindrance to some communities (Ibrahim & Mas’ud 2016). In some communities, monetary value is overlooked at the expense of items such as livestock and, in some cases, gold serving as the main currency.
Conclusion
In conclusion, both an entrepreneur and intrapreneur are essential components in any country. The various skills and knowledge they possess are crucial in developing ideas concerning numerous business activities that increase entrepreneurial activities within a nation. The business activities created by entrepreneurs are critical in creating employment, increased productivity and service delivery, and general growth of a country’s gross domestic product. Because businesses are started and run with the primary aim being profit creation, the living standards of individuals involved in entrepreneurial activities are expected to rise.
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