Types of Entrepreneur and Highly-Functioning Entrepreneurial Team - Literature review Example

A Personal View of Entrepreneurship Introduction In the present time entrepreneurship can be considered as one of the flourishing field of study. Entrepreneurship is a process which influences an individual or a group of people to undertake a set of actions to initiate a start-up business or any other organisation. Entrepreneurial development now a day has been considered as a key to the economic development of various countries and regions (Neck and Greene, 2011). The study and practices of entrepreneurship is an important phenomenon as it not only allows individuals to contribute in the economic growth of any country but also assists them to develop their managerial capabilities. Hence, it acts as a catalyst to develop insight in terms of discovering and creating entrepreneurial opportunities (Drucker, 2014). I have chosen this topic for discussion as it will enable me to evaluate and analyse my own characteristics and traits along with the understanding of various theories, trends and practices regarding entrepreneurship across the world. This study will also enable me to design my career path in the field of sales and marketing as per my understanding of practices of entrepreneurship. Theoretical Aspects of Entrepreneurship Over a period of time a number of researchers have offered different views regarding entrepreneurship. Few researchers view entrepreneurship from an economic, psychology and sociology perspectives. Alternatively, other researchers have explained entrepreneurship from the perspective of management development (Anderson, et al., 2012). As per the analysis of Dorobat and Topan, (2015) entrepreneurship activity influences individuals to evaluate the previously-unperceived profitable opportunities within the market. The theory of Cantillon, (2013) has described entrepreneurship as the functions and process of entrepreneur to equilibrate demand and supply within the economy through properly handing the risks and uncertainties within the market. Characteristics of an Entrepreneur An entrepreneur needs to posses, develop and demonstrate specific characteristics and traits to successfully implement and establish the entrepreneurship activities. The major characteristics and traits of a successful entrepreneur includes high motivation and enthusiasm, passion and inner drive for success, strong self-assessment capability, innovative and creative attitude, openness to change, competitive nature and ability to accept rejection and criticism (Conrad, et al., 2015). The achievement motivation theory of McClelland, (2013) has evaluated the specific characteristics of an entrepreneur in terms of enthusiasm, motivation and drive to achieve success. According to this theory, the motivation and enthusiasm for higher achievement is essential for effective entrepreneurship. This characteristic assists entrepreneur to undertake new and challenges. These characteristics analysis has also enabled me to assess my potential and capability as a future entrepreneur. I am a deep believer that challenges make life much more rewarding. I always undertake challenges in a healthier way and act enthusiastically to solve different tasks and problems. Cassar, (2014) has explained the theory of creative personality to illustrate the essential characteristics of an entrepreneur. As per the author, an entrepreneur needs to be open and acceptable towards the changes within the social, economical, cultural as well as technological environment of business. This characteristic assists them to easily and rapidly adopt the changing business environments that also allow them to achieve success while eliminating the market risks (Cassar, 2014). As a student of business management I am also quite acceptable towards changing environment of any industry or organisation. My learning and understanding has educated me regarding the demand and importance of changes within any business location. I am quite adaptive to social changes while rapid changes in technology cause me anxiety due to lack of adequate knowledge. Chan, et al., (2015) have explained that entrepreneurs must be open and acceptable in terms of rejection and criticism. These traits allow the entrepreneur to learn from their failure while accepting the criticism of peers and colleges as the motivation for the future betterment. This is another area where I sincerely required more development. I am quite open in terms of criticism and I treat them in a healthier way. I believe that criticism is an essential part of success which teaches us the areas of improvement. On the other hand, I easily get demotivated due to rejection. As my future aspect to lead sales activities, I need to work on my adaptability of rejections. Baum and Locke, (2004) have illustrated another trait of entrepreneur such as capability of self-assessment. The author has evaluated that entrepreneurs need to indulge in continuous self-assessment program to analyse their capabilities. The proper self-assessment also assists them to analyze their strengths and weaknesses to handle any specific project. I am quite efficient in assessing my self-esteem and capabilities. This attribute has allowed me to undertake big decision of my life in a successful manner. Schumpeter, et al., (2011) have described the innovative and competitive traits of entrepreneur. According to the researchers, the innovative trait allow entrepreneur to continuously search for a better and more advance way to perform any task or project. This characteristic allows them to create a competitive position within the ever changing marketplace. This trait also enables them to develop new and smart ways to perform any task that influences flexibility and efficiency while reduces required time. I can totally relate myself with these traits of entrepreneur as my motive is “if it ain’t broke, search for a way to make it better.” This characteristic can assist me in administrative processes, cost savings and quality improvement. Types of Entrepreneur Conrad and Cates, (2015) have evaluated that the analysis of the characteristics also describes the possible types of entrepreneurs such as builder, opportunist, specialist and innovator. Builder demonstrates the urge and enthusiasm to build a high scalable business within a short span of time. Builders are highly driven to achieve success and very competitive in nature. These types of entrepreneur demonstrate strong self-assessment and self-estimation capabilities. The opportunist is very optimist and they believe is utilizing all the available opportunities. Therefore, this type of entrepreneur displays their characteristics in terms of openness to challenges. These entrepreneurs are highly motivated and creative in attitude. They are also very receptive in terms of criticism and rejections. These entrepreneurs tend to successfully undertake the responsibilities of sales and marketing (Conrad and Cates, 2015). The specialist generally eliminates the risk taking attitude. Hence, they mainly focus on the specialized areas of job. They are generally quite creative in nature and possess very good ability in terms of self-assessment and evaluation. On the other hand, innovators are the great risk taker and they prefer to evaluate new opportunities within the market (Abu-Saifan, 2012). Highly-Functioning Entrepreneurial Team The highly functioning entrepreneurial team needs to adequately consider and efficiently follow the economic theory, sociological theory, psychological theory and innovation theory of entrepreneurship (Alvarez, 2010). As per the economic theory the growth and success of entrepreneurship highly depends on the favourability of economic conditions. The economic incentives are the major motivators in terms of initiate a successful entrepreneurial activity. A high-functioning entrepreneurial team requires adequate source of raw material and finances to properly grab the market opportunities along with proper infrastructure, technology and market access (McMullan and Kenworthy, 2015). Economic theory also describes that the proper understanding of the economic condition, such as industrial policies, taxation policies, is essential to establish a successful entrepreneurial team (Alvarez, et al., 2005). My proper understanding towards the economical condition of the external environment will allow me to efficiently utilize the available opportunities in the market. My networking skills will assist me to attract investors in terms of proper supply of finances and raw materials. My in-depth academic knowledge regarding business management will enable me to analyse and evaluate significant business policies that can assist me to achieve success for my entrepreneurial team. Sociological theory evaluates the importance of religious beliefs and social changes on the success of the entrepreneurial team. The Webrian Theory of Spirit of Capitalism has evaluated the importance of entrepreneurial culture in the religious beliefs of any country. According to this theory, a successful entrepreneurial team needs to consider the religious beliefs of their operated market and customers (Audretsch, et al., 2013). Hagen, (1960) has evaluated that the theory of social changes which explains that economic development do not considers the integration of different social and technological norms. Hence, entrepreneurial team needs to provide proper importance towards the social changes and technological upgradation in terms of achieving and maintaining the successful position. My creative skills and adaptability to changes will assist me to properly analyze and adopt the social and religion aspects of the market. It will also allow me to maintain integrity within the diversified workforce of organization. Therefore, it will increase the team bonding and productivity which will subsequently increase the success ratio of the entrepreneurial team. The psychological theory of entrepreneurship describes that the success of any entrepreneurial team requires adequate supply of essential psychological characteristics such as ability to face opposition, long-term goal and urge for achievement. The availability of this characteristics and continuous motivation of these attitudes can assist an entrepreneurial team to become successful in any domain (Kuratko, 2013). My skill and characteristic to set long-term and achievable goals as well as grabbing the available opportunities will enable me to build a successful entrepreneurial team. On the other hand, I need to reconsider my rejection handling tendencies to strengthen the moral of my entrepreneurial team. Innovation theory evaluates the importance of openness and innovative as well as creative attitudes to achieve a highly-functional entrepreneurial team (Schumpeter, et al., 2011). My skills and competencies to adapt the continuously changing business environment and upgrade my skills accordingly will enable me to motivate my entrepreneurial team to achieve their desired goals. Role and Impact of Women Entrepreneurship in Hong Kong As my future goal is to evaluate and explore the entrepreneurial career objectives in the market of Hong Kong. It is essential for me to analyse the opportunities of women entrepreneurship within the marketplace. It is also important for me to assess the opportunities in the entrepreneurship in terms of small and medium business sector in Hong Kong (Chua, 2002). In the current era Hong Kong has secured the second position in terms of women entrepreneurship. In the current business scenario of Hong Kong only 10% of women can be seen in the director and top management position of organisation while over 45% of entrepreneurship of the country has been handled by women entrepreneurs (Rey-Martí, et al., 2015). The small and medium sized organisational sectors mainly demonstrate the effort and success of women entrepreneurship within Hong Kong. The country possesses 290,000 SMEs that covers 98% of the local enterprises. A huge portion of the SMEs are handled by women entrepreneurs. As per the data of 2001, there are 45,100 self-employed women along with 26,700 female entrepreneurs. Female entrepreneurial activities have highly influenced the e-business, clothing businesses and manufacturing businesses within Hong Kong (Lee, 2011). Observation, Findings and Conclusion The study of different traits and characteristics of entrepreneurship and the theories of successful entrepreneurship has assisted me to analyze my area of innovation creativity and entrepreneurial skills, characteristics and traits. The analysis has educate me that the success of an entrepreneurial set-up and team hugely depends on the openness to challenges and changes, innovative approaches to old procedure and functions as well as creativity in the work procedure and activities. As per my entrepreneurial goal in the field of sales and marketing, I need to indulge in the process of introducing and utilizing different innovative communication and networking procedures. My innovative approach needs to concentrate on the gradually increasing e-business and e-marketing segments. To properly develop these skills I need to undertake a number of practical experiences and training within the local SMEs of Hong Kong. I can also conduct research procedure to analyse the utilization of the e-marketing and e-business procedures. I also need to evaluate different creative approaches to introduce my entrepreneurial activities which will integrate the cultural and social aspects of the UK and Hong Kong. I can utilize my social and religious knowledge of the UK and Hong Kong to introduce creative and innovative approaches in my business activities. Before the integration of both the cultures in my organisational perspective and business activities I also need to analyse the cultural tolerance of the market and society I am planning to operate. I must work on my rejection handling capacity and I need to focus on the learning of my drawbacks from each and every rejection. Hence, I will properly review all my steps after every rejection as well as success in my entrepreneurial activities to assess my strengths and weaknesses. This process will enable me to utilize all my strong points to neutralize and eliminate the weaknesses. Reference List Abu-Saifan, S., 2012. Social entrepreneurship: definition and boundaries.Technology Innovation Management Review, 2(2), pp. 21-79. Alvarez, S. A., Audretsch, D. and Link, A., 2005. Theories of Entrepreneurship. Hanover: Now Publishers, Inc. Alvarez, S., 2010. Theories of entrepreneurship: alternative assumptions and the study of entrepreneurial action. Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, 1(3), pp. 22-31. Anderson, A. R., Drakopoulou Dodd, S. and Jack, S. L., 2012. Entrepreneurship as connecting: some implications for theorising and practice. Management Decision, 50(5), pp. 958-971. Audretsch, D. B., Bönte, W. and Tamvada, J. P., 2013. Religion, social class, and entrepreneurial choice. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(6), pp. 774-789. Baum, J. R. and Locke, E. A., 2004. 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