New Business Venture Issues - Essay Example

One of the critical aspects of entrepreneurs is their ability to take risks and most of the literature on the subject of entrepreneurship focused on making a distinction between those who are risk averse and who were risk lovers. This approach, therefore, highlighted entrepreneurs as someone with the ability to take on excessive risk as compared to others (Schwartz & Teach, 2000). This also suggested that internal motivation, high energy as well as a higher tendency to take risk as the main individual character traits of the entrepreneurs which make them different from others.

A closer analysis of the evolution of the research over the period would suggest that the entrepreneurs were typically characterized with the words such as risk bearing, innovation, initiative, source of formal authority, local of control as well as tolerance for ambiguity. These characteristics therefore may indicate that the entrepreneurs are born rather than are being made (Welsch, 2003). To some extent, it may be right that entrepreneurs are born because some of the characteristic traits are peculiar to them however, it is relatively impossible to develop the ability of entrepreneurship until and unless some skills and capabilities are developed with conscious effort. This is based on the argument that entrepreneurs need to develop a particular mindset before they can succeed as entrepreneurs and develop successful businesses which are sustainable and enduring.

It is critical to discuss that historically there has been confusion over the definition of entrepreneurship. This is also critical because traditionally researchers argued that to discuss the subject it must have a precise definition. Despite the such emphasis on the definition, entrepreneurship is often viewed from different perspectives and includes a diverse range of subjects and themes. Themes such as social entrepreneurship, the relationship between women and entrepreneurship, immigrants, and their new zeal for setting up businesses have been extensively discussed by the researchers (Berglund & Johansson, 2007).

In its traditional sense, entrepreneurship is often connected with the idea of starting new businesses and running them successfully. However, over the period, entrepreneurship has also emerged in the form of social as well as political frameworks. It is also now been discussed within the perspective of the large corporations when they spinoff their businesses and treat them as new and separate businesses. Thus today, entrepreneurship is not just limited to the new start-up businesses but encompasses a variety of existing and new business ideas which are manifested into reality through the careful application of the concepts of entrepreneurship. Thus entrepreneurship is not just limited to the creation and failure of new businesses but also includes the development and failure of the new businesses from the existing ones (Cassis & Minoglou, 2005).

The new dimensions provided to the process of entrepreneurship by the recent research suggest that it is the process of creating and enhancing value not only for the owners but for other groups of stakeholders also. What lies at the heart of this process is the ability of the entrepreneurs to create and recognize the opportunities and necessarily the will and ability to take up these opportunities. This, therefore, suggest that the persons who have the necessary will and the zest to spot the opportunities and subsequently realize them and transform them into real possibilities (Terrell & Troilo, 2010).

What is important however is to understand that entrepreneurship is often described as the act of being an entrepreneur and entrepreneurs are individuals who show certain characteristics and traits while dealing with their businesses. Two important aspects are often repeatedly discussed by most researchers on this topic. Innovation and risk-taking are two of the important concepts which are often connected with the term entrepreneurship. This is because entrepreneurs are considered the key drivers of the strategies which are based on innovation and risk-taking to steer through their problems and use their limited resources to their optimal use (Morrison, 2000). What is behind this optimal use of the limited resources, however, is the creative imagination, tenacity to the details, vision, passion, and stretch of ideas of the entrepreneurs which develop and create new ideas and businesses.