The Entrepreneur - How much we know?

In a wake of new way of business workings due to COVID-19, most business have changed their way of conducting businesses. While many have closed their operations, a quite a few have set up system for their key workforce to work remotely. This also has made many folks who have few funds for rainy days, look for other ways to make money besides their jobs. This goes along with the famous saying of one of the entrepreneurs of our century, late, Jim Rohn, which goes like this: "Work full time on job to make a living, and work part time on your side business, to build wealth".

Here are some of the traits of entrepreneurs from our history of past 200+ years:

Adam Smith (1776) considers entrepreneur as a proprietary capitalist who supplies capital and works as a manager intervening between labor and the consumer.

Francis A. Walker (1870) calls the entrepreneurs as engineers of progress and the chief agents of production.

F. H. Knight (1921) propounds that entrepreneurs are a specialized group of persons who bear risks and deal with uncertainty.

J-A. Mill (1848) advocates for using the word entrepreneur in the sense of an organizer who is paid for his non-manual type of work.

J.B. Say (1824) defines an s entrepreneur as “an economic agent who assembles factors of production, see the s price of produce in such a way that ensures the cost and profit, re-accumulates capital and possesses administrative and productive knowledge.”

The definition emphasizes the economic activities of an entrepreneur.

This concept is also supported by Hagen Se Robinson (1942). The emphasis on socio-economic contributions and characteristics of entrepreneurs.

The innovation here is conceived as the introduction of a new product or new utility of the old product, new market, new production methods, a new source of raw materials and new organization.

Herberton G. Evans (I957) defines, “Entrepreneur Is the person or group of persons who have the task of determining the kind of business to be operated.”

Evan’s entrepreneur only engages m setting the nature of the business, the good to be produced or the service to be served and the type of customers to be catered.

H. Cole (1959) observes, “The entrepreneur is the individual who initiates, maintains, or aggrandizers a profit-oriented business salt for the production or distribution of economic goods and services.”

Cole believes that the person who engages in any economic activity to earn a profit is the entrepreneur. Therefore, profit earning is the focal point to identify an entrepreneur.

This definition centers on the concept of managership and implies that an entrepreneur is a manager too.

The entrepreneur has been understood differently under the contemporary condition in a seminar held on entrepreneurship in Delhi in 1981.

The consensus was “Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenges, gives emphasis on production for development, exercises vigilance about success and failure at the time of taking standard risks and considers, carefully and significant stove conditions before arriving at any decision.”

The concept has taken us to the idea of efforts and ventures that contribute to the advent of facial progress leading to human welfare; it constructs upon physical activities involved with the generation of products as writ as the psychological aspect associated with entrepreneurial success.

Their entrepreneurs as strong achievers of goals and risk-takers for any desired action for attaining the success of the ventures’ John G. Burch (1986) says, “The entrepreneur is the one who undertakes a venture, organizes it, raises capital to finance it, and assumes all or a major portion of the risk”.

Burch’s entrepreneur is not only a venture but also a risk-taker and capital provider too. Entrepreneur brings talents, product -service venture ideas, know-how and usually, provides finance with taking necessary risks.

Characteristics of an Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is a person who is action-oriented and highly motivated to take a risk and to achieve such a goal dot brings about a change in the process of generating goods or services or re-initiates progress in the advent of creating new organizations.

Therefore, experts have nine characteristics for the entrepreneur from different conceptual viewpoints.

10 characteristics of an entrepreneur are;

1. Entrepreneur is an agent.
2. Entrepreneur is a risk-taker.
3. Entrepreneur is a profit maker.
4. Entrepreneur is an achievement motivator.
5. Entrepreneur is a capital provider.
6. Entrepreneur is the determinant of the nature of the business.
7. Entrepreneur is an innovator.
8. Entrepreneur is a reward receiver.
9. Entrepreneur is a challenge taker.

The characteristics that encompass the concept of the entrepreneur are discussed below:

1. Entrepreneur is an agent

An entrepreneur is perceived as an economic agent who assembles materials for producing goods at a cost that ensures profits and re-accumulation of capital.

He is also understood as a change agent who brings about changes in the structure and formation of the organization, market and the arena of goods and services.

2. Entrepreneur is a risk-taker

Many experts – old and new, have emphasized this characteristic. Back I955, Redlich pointed out that an entrepreneur is a person who identifies the nature of risk and takes a decision.

Later on, Burch, Meredith and other experts have agreed that an entrepreneur is a risk-taker while undertaking a venture.

3. Entrepreneur is a profit maker

An entrepreneur is an individual who establishes and manages the business for the principal purpose of profit and growth.

4. Entrepreneur is an achievement motivator

David C. McClelland has initiated this concept of the entrepreneur by calling him “as per sun with a strong desire for achievement.”

Later on, Meredith and others have expressed the same concept while they termed “entrepreneurs are action-oriented, highly’ motivated individuals.”

Therefore, entrepreneurs have to have a deep-rooted need for achieving their goals.

5. Entrepreneur is a capital provider

Entrepreneur a person who operates a business by investing his or her capital. Abbett first pointed out this characteristic in 1967.

It supported by Nadkami (l97S) and Sharma (1981). They perceived entrepreneur as the founder of an enterprise who assembles necessary resources for the operation of the enterprise.

6. Entrepreneur is the determinant of the nature of the business

This characteristic /concept of the entrepreneur was promoted by Evans in 1957 It says that an entrepreneur is the person or group of persons who perform the task of determining the kind of business to the operated.

Therefore, entrepreneurs promote diversified and distinct types of business in society.

7. Entrepreneur is an innovator

Joseph A. Schumpeter {1934) characterized entrepreneur as an innovator of a new combination in the field of production Later on Robinson (1962) and Hagen (1962) have described entrepreneurs as a person who lakes a small venture to the edge of success by his efforts, innovation and motivation.

Innovation is perceived by Schumpeter as an action that introduces a product, a new quality, a new method of production, a new market and a new organization.

Therefore, an entrepreneur innovates something that brings about disequilibria in the industry.

8. Entrepreneur is a reward receiver

An entrepreneur is a person who creates something new of value by devoting time and efforts and in tum receives monetary and personal rewards. Max Weber, Hartman, Hisrich and Peters have recognized this distinct phenomenon of entrepreneurs.

9. Entrepreneur is a challenge taker

It perceives an entrepreneur as a person who accepts challenges for developing and exercising vigilance about success and failure to take a risk and to generate products.

The above-mentioned characterizes an entrepreneur show’ that an entrepreneur is a dynamic person who promotes society and civilization by taking ventures that give an enormous variety of goods and organizations to bring about changes in the arena of industrial activity.