Nerys Fuller-Love - The Absolute Essentials of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is defined as being alert to opportunities, willing to take risks, being creative and innovative and starting a new business. The original meaning of the word entrepreneur is someone who takes between, i.e., buys goods at one price and sells at another, with the aim of making a profit. Other aspects include vision and leadership, independence and being proactive, as well as organising the factors of production. The contributions to the economy includes job creation, innovation and new forms of production and organisation. Entrepreneurship has developed over time from the merchants who took enormous risks to establish trade routes to the very successful technology entrepreneurs today. The entrepreneurial process includes identifying the problem, assessing the market potential and organising the finance and other resources required to start a new venture. The meaning of the term entrepreneurship has widened over time to describe anyone who has new ideas and can make things happen in the public and not-for-profit sectors.

This book is intended to provide the reader with a short textbook with the essential elements for the study of entrepreneurship. It includes a simplified presentation of the relevant theories and concepts. Topics included in this text include entrepreneurship theories, entrepreneurial behaviour and personality, female and minority entrepreneurship, enterprise culture, opportunity recognition and entrepreneurial strategies.

The essentials of entrepreneurship are presented in short form by introducing the main themes and concepts in a condensed way. Students, in particular, will appreciate being able to use a short textbook to study for examinations. The structure and scope fits in with the way that the subject is taught in that it is in short sections with tables and illustrations. All the chapters include an executive summary at the beginning and references for additional reading. Other resources, including presentations, are available for lecturers. There are examples/mini case studies in each chapter. Online support is available, including PowerPoint presentations, longer case studies and teaching activities.

Why do we need to study entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurs can contribute to the prosperity of a region and there are many examples of large multinational companies that were started as small enterprises. Entrepreneurship is one of the fundamental elements in all economies. The majority of large multinational companies have started as small enterprises, the vision of one or two entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs can reap financial rewards, as well as being recognised for their achievements and contribution to society. However, there are also many entrepreneurs who operate on a very small scale, barely making a living. Successive governments in the UK and all over the world have policies to encourage and support entrepreneurship. The motivation for making a region or a country more entrepreneurial is to create employment and innovation. Entrepreneurs can also reinvigorate an economy and bring in new ideas and developments.

What is entrepreneurship? There is a general consensus that it is about being innovative, taking a risk and starting a new business. Gartner (1988) defined entrepreneurship as the creation of a new organisation and said that research on entrepreneurship should focus on the behavioural, rather than the personality, aspects. One of the fundamental questions is the relationship between small businesses and entrepreneurship. Although today entrepreneurship has been widened to include large organisation in both the public and the private sector, the main focus is on the creation of a new enterprise. In a small firm, only one person or a small group of people are in control and it is this role that is defined as entrepreneurship.

There is some discussion as to whether lifestyle entrepreneurs, i.e., those who only want to create an income for themselves, are entrepreneurial. Drucker (1993) drew the distinction between small business and entrepreneurship and said that not all small businesses could be considered entrepreneurial. He acknowledged that someone opening a new business such as a restaurant is taking a risk but they are not creating something new, whereas McDonalds created a new method of delivery and a new market.

The meaning has developed over the years. The word entrepreneur comes from the French and, literally translated, means take between. This is the original concept of the entrepreneur, as one who buys at one price and sells at another and makes a profit on the exchange. However, the entrepreneur will not necessarily make a profit every time and, therefore, there is an element of risk in each transaction.

However, there has been some consensus of what entrepreneurship entails including those shown in .

One of the reasons for looking at entrepreneurship is the contribution to economic development. These include the creation of new jobs, innovation in developing new or improved products and services and new markets. Governments target the small-business sector in the hope that they can reduce unemployment. From the economics perspective, there is equilibrium when supply equals demand at a particular price, and markets are based on this premise. This leaves little room for entrepreneurship and small businesses, as the market would be dominated by large firms, which are more efficient. Economists see entrepreneurship as a response to the inefficiencies of the large firms and the entrepreneur as the co-ordinator of production.

Over the centuries, entrepreneurship has thrived in different parts of the world and at different times. Merchants who crossed the oceans in search of commercial exchange were responsible for building empires and developing regions. Cities were built around the important ports and these traders were richly rewarded for the risks. Parts of the world developed at different times and from the 17th to the 20th century it was the growth of the cities that provided opportunities for growth. The Low Countries in the 17th century focused on international trade and art, Britain in the 18th century with the Industrial Revolution, East Asia in the 20th century and the US in the 21st century with the developments in computer technology and social media.