Entrepreneurial Characteristics and Its Extent of Support to Career Ambitions, Assessment Example

1 Introduction

International Labor Organization defines entrepreneur as “those people who have the ability to see and evaluate business opportunities, together with the necessary resource to take advantage of them and to initiate appropriate action to ensure success”. According to Akhouri entrepreneur is a “character who combines innovativeness, readiness to take risk, sensing opportunities, identifying and mobilizing potential resources, concern for excellence, and who is persistent in achieving the goal” (Mohanty, 2005).

Character of an entrepreneur includes various factors that can be consolidated to smaller profile dimensions. Few among them are Drive for growth and achievement, Determination, commitment and perseverance, goal orientation and opportunity, sense of humor and realism, persistency in solving problems, reliability and integrity, seeking feedback and using it, taking personal responsibility and initiative, low need for power and status etc. (Kuratko, 2008). According to Stevenson and Gumpert (1985) these characteristics are of flexibility, willingness to risk acceptance and imagination.

2 Factors affecting entrepreneurship

Growth of an entrepreneur is determined by various factors and these factors can be categorized as economic and non economic conditions. Economic factors include capital, labor, raw material and market. Non economic conditions include social, political and psychological factors. Social conditions are socio cultural values and norms, degree of disapproval or approval to entrepreneurial behaviour, educational standard, family background, information and technological knowledge, religious affiliation and financial stability. Psychological conditions are role played in society, high need achievement, impact of training programs and achievement motivation. Political factors are socio economic setting, economic development of society, and availability of basic facilities, services, utilities, concessions and incentives from government. These factors play a major role in development of an entrepreneurship. These factors are mutually reinforcing and dependent and at the same time interlocking (Kumar, et. al., 2008).

2.1 Motivation

In order to attain organizational objectives an entrepreneur is to secure maximum performance. This is dependent on an entrepreneur’s ability and willingness to perform. Ability is determined by experience, skill, knowledge and education. Willingness is based on motivation and for that an entrepreneur will have to understand his needs, ambitions and aspirations and satisfy them (Kumar, et. al., 2008).

2.1.1 Maslow’s Need of Hierarchy theory

According to Maslow needs can be arranged in a progression from lower to higher starting from psychological and ending at self actualization. In between are safety and security, social and status need. For an entrepreneur self actualization and social esteem are the needs that motivate them to achieve higher in their area of business and to achieve success for satisfaction (Moran, 2010).

2.1.2 Mcdelland’s acquired theory

According to this theory a man has three types of needs and this arises out of his life experience. They are need for affiliation, power and achievement. Mcdelland finds need for achievement as the motivating factor for an entrepreneur. It is according to need for achievement that an entrepreneur decides his goals, prefers situations, analyze feed backs, achieving personal accomplishment and take challenges (Jelencic, 2011).

2.2 Types of entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs vary according to personal traits, career and vacation and functional characteristics. Those coming under personal traits are serial, lifestyle and social and under career seller, innovator, investor and technical expert. According to characteristics there are four types of entrepreneurs and they are innovative, imitative or adoptive, Fabian and drone.

Serial entrepreneur has numerous brilliant ideas and uses his energy for innovations and plans. He is enthusiastic and good and is not afraid of risking money or reputation and his rate of success depends on his capability to implement his ideas. He might jump from one plan to another and this will risk his chances of success but usually accomplishes a single goal at a time (Misra and Kumar, 2000).

Lifestyle entrepreneur is much attached to his job and is not only concerned about making money and becoming rich. He takes only those jobs he feels passionate about with out considering the payment. He always keeps his relations and keeps hi heart at first position. What drives him is the life purpose. Though he is very passionate to what he does he need not become successful in any thing he does.

Social entrepreneur performs according to his ambition and has his own view about the world. He never accepts situation as it is and always keeps relationship with people and outside world to help them come out of bad situation. He is the one who finds an opportunity in any thing and always thinks of doing some thing for society. He always tries to change bad situation and is mostly from poor background. This type always inspires others to change their state and tries to do the same in their case also (Rose et al., 2006).

An entrepreneur can be called as a seller if he uses his talent of getting with people for his advantage. He keeps relations only for business purpose and is always thinking of his business. He related every thing to his business and loves competition in his field. Achievements are also important for him.

An innovator is an entrepreneur who is concerned about making money with his innovations. He is talented and can find new concepts on his own. He will have a unique thing which he only can work with and this is his strength. He makes sure that other knows about his achievements and is proud of his achievements. He will work hard to make his idea become a reality and this is achieved through determination and focus. They are mostly motivators.

2.3 Characteristics of entrepreneur

Investors are those who are interested to invest money in others projects and are usually not creative. He might take other persons innovations and make it his and is usually very social and likes to talk about career and ideas. He is a good listener and is very keen on environment around him (McClelland, 2011).

Technical expert is the one who is skilled and specially trained and is selling this skill. They are finding their skills as valuable and are usually forming businesses like consultancies. They only sell their skills for highest price.

Innovative entrepreneurs are those who introduce new products or ideas to their business. They are mostly aggressive and can work only when some developments have already occurred. They can improve a business with new ideas.

Adaptive entrepreneurs adapt the technologies and ideas of other people. They are ready to adapt successful innovations and are most suitable for underdeveloped economy. They can reduce expense towards trial and error.

Fabian entrepreneurs are those who are skeptic and cautious about making changes in his enterprise. They adapt changes only when there is a threat to the existence of their business.

Drone entrepreneurs are those who never adopt any changes and are even ready to suffer loss (Manjunath and Nagendra, 2010).

3 Characteristics and support for future

I find myself as a disciplined person which is an important character for an entrepreneur. This character has helped me to start a new business and develop it to a certain stage. This was achieved by developing innovative tactics and strategies for achieving goals. Being focused in my goals I am able to eliminate any distraction coming in achievement of my goals. I am innovative to the extent that new ideas are practical and are not likely to cause any harm to my business. New ideas are used for improving my business.

I am a self starter and never hesitate to do some thing innovative for achieving business goals. I am confident enough to start some thing on my own and never wait for others to give permission. I can set parameters for ensuring that parameters are met for achievement of goals. I can realize new situations that are likely to provide a new opportunity. I am creative and can relate situations and events that are seemingly unrelated. I am also capable enough to repurpose products and find new target markets for them or start new industries.

Social entrepreneur performs according to his ambition and has his own view about the world. He never accepts situation as it is and always keeps relationship with people and outside world to help them come out of bad situation. He is the one who finds an opportunity in any thing and always thinks of doing some thing for society. He always tries to change bad situation and is mostly from poor background. This type always inspires others to change their state and tries to do the same in their case also.

I have my own view of the world and perform according to my ambition. I always try to keep relation with others and find an opportunity in any thing. I am interested in well being of society and try to change bad situation by inspiring others. I find an opportunity in every event and constantly develop ideas of efficiency, workflow and skills of people and find potential for a new business. I am capable of changing my environment in a favorable manner for achieving my goals.

I am much attached to what I do and am not only concerned about money. I take my job with confidence and passion and am always keen to keep relations. Thus I can be called as a lifestyle entrepreneur. I am skilled and confident and am having the talent to get with people for my own advantage and thus can be considered as a seller. I am competitive in nature and achievements are important for me. I am determined with strong work ethics and passion to what I am doing.

All these characteristics of mine are helpful for me to achieve success in my business and I believe myself to be a successful entrepreneur capable of future growth.

References

Jelencic, M. (2011) Motivation Theories – an overview. Santa Cruz, CA. GRIN Verlag.

Kumar, S, A., Poornima, S, C., Abraham, M, K and Jayashree, K. (2008) Entrepreneurship development. New Delhi. New Age International.

Kuratko, D, F. (2008) Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, Practice. Eighth Edition. Mason. CENGAGE Learning.

Manjunath, V, S and Nagendra, S. (2010) Entrepreneurship & Management. Bangalore. Pearson Education India.

McClelland, D, C. (2011) Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. The Journal of Creative Behaviour, 21, 3, 219 – 233.

Misra, S and Kumar, E, S. (2000) Resourcefulness: A Proximal Conceptualisation of Entrepreneurial Behavior. Journal of Entrepreneurship 2000, 9, pp. 135.

Mohanty, S, K. (2005) Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship. Eastern Economy Edition. New Delhi. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd

Moran, J. (2010) Business Management for Tropical Dairy Farmers. Australia. Landlinks Press

Rose, R, C., Kumar, N and Yen L, L. (2006) The Dynamic’s of entrepreneurs’ success factors in influencing venture growth. Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, II, 2.

Stevenson, H, H and Gumpert, D, E (1985) The Heart of Entrepreneurship. Harvard Business Review, March/April, pp. 86–87.