Entrepreneurship Characteristics and Types

Section 1: The Entrepreneur

• An entrepreneur is someone who identifies a business opportunity, develops an idea, and gathers the resources to execute it. They are also willing to take risks.
• Entrepreneurship is more about attitude than skill.
• Creating a business isn't required to be an entrepreneur.
• Other individuals work for an established business entity.
• Attitudes are prioritised over skills.

Section 2: Entrepreneur Characteristics

• Creativity and positive attitude.
• Initiative and empathy.
• Risk-taking and adaptability to change.
• Communication and teamwork skills.
• Negotiation skills.
• Assertiveness and leadership.
• Self-confidence and assertiveness.
• Perseverance and resilience.

Section 3: Types of Entrepreneurs

• Visionary: Foresees opportunities before others.
• Necessity-driven: Started businesses due to circumstances.
• Investors: Individuals who finance businesses.
• Casualty or opportunity-driven: Recognises an unmet need.
• Specialists: High skillset in a particular area.
• Persuasive: Influences others to pursue a mutual goal.
• Social: Businesses with a positive social impact.
• Intrapreneurs: Individuals within an organization who produce new ideas.

Section 4: The Entrepreneur vs. The Businessperson

• Entrepreneur: Identifies, develops, and creates a new business idea, taking on risks.
• Businessperson: Manages an existing company, fulfilling goals.

Section 5: Functions of the Businessperson

• Planning: Defining goals and strategies.
• Management: Directing resources to meet objectives.
• Organization: Coordinating tasks and responsibilities.
• Control: Ensuring adherence to plans and objectives.

Section 6: Importance of Entrepreneurial Activity

• Improves people's lives by creating and enhancing goods.
• Creates job opportunities for employees and entrepreneurs.
• Fuels economic growth and expands markets.

Section 7: Women and Entrepreneurship

• Financing limitations: Difficulty securing loans and investor interest.
• Wage gap and the glass ceiling: Lower earning potential creates limitations in savings, making starting a business more difficult..
• Work-life imbalance: Significant disparity in time spent on household responsibilities.
• Low self-esteem: Women sometimes undervalue their capabilities to start a business due to societal expectations.
• Lack of mentors and role models : Limited visibility of successful women entrepreneurs creates fewer guides for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Section 8: Innovation in Business

• Innovation differentiates from creativity in the production of new products, processes or business models which improve solutions for our needs, unlike just creating the possibilities.

Section 9: Types of Innovation

• Product innovation: Introduction of new or improved products in the market.
• Process innovation: New manufacturing/distribution approaches.
• Marketing innovation: New methods of promoting or selling products.
• Organizational innovation: Improved ways of running the company.
• Incremental innovation: Small improvements on existing products.
• Radical innovation: Significant, revolutionary changes.
• Social innovation: Products aimed at addressing societal needs.
• Environmental innovation: Products which reduce environmental impact.
• Technological innovation: Use of new technologies in products/processes.

Section 10: Theories of Innovation

• Schumpeter's Theory: Entrepreneurs drive innovation by seeking to enhance profitability.
• Drucker's Theory: Innovation is a process where entrepreneurs identify business possibilities and design solutions.
• Rogers' Theory: Innovation adoption follows a defined pattern characterized by early adopters, followed by the majority.
• Christensen's Theory: Business needs to consider the impact of disruptive innovations on their most loyal customers.
• Porter's Theory: Innovation occurs in three key areas: Product differentiation, improved production processes, and new business models.

Section 11: Strategies of Innovation

• Offensive strategy: Aims to maintain leadership in the market by constantly introducing new products.
• Defensive strategy: A business that wants to emulate the features of a company that is currently successful.
• Imitative strategy: Builds on existing, successful products, usually at a lower cost.
• Opportunistic strategy: Takes advantage of specific market niches or unmet customer needs.
• Traditional strategy: Businesses that have been around for a while but still manage to adapt.

Section 12: Digitalization and Emerging Trends

• Digitalization converts analogue information into digital format for analysis, storage and transmission.
• Advancements in technology (like internet of things, cloud computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence) have accelerated digitalization.
• Real-time data, advancements in communication, new work models, business transformation.

Section 13: Digitalization in the Economy

• Advantages of digitalization include efficient communication, new methods of working, technological transformation, and expanded business.

Section 14: Challenges of Digitalization

• Digital crime, mass surveillance, fake news, changing workforce skills, and digital inequality are some of the main challenges to digitalisation.

Section 15: Research, Development, and Innovation

• R&D&I is the investment by enterprises and states in research and innovation with the goals of producing new goods, services, and processes. R&D&I encompasses three main areas of work (Research, Development and Innovation).

Section 16: The Role of R&D&I in Social Development

• R&D&I generates knowledge and improves quality of life, also produces solutions to social and environmental issues. It builds competitiveness, new business opportunities, productivity increases and technology advances which are all valuable aspects of societal development.

Section 17: Self-Assessment Activity

• This section contains questions to test knowledge on the concepts discussed. It evaluates the understanding of the information presented.