1) What is entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship =
the creation of something new with value
by dedicating sufficient time and effort
and by taking financial, psychological and social risks
and receiving rewards, consisting of monetary rewards, personal satisfaction and
independence
Difference with managers?
Managers:
o Follow trends in the environment and preferences of customers
o Assess the implications for the company using established planning cycles
o Pursue opportunities
Entrepreneurs:
o Actively look for opportunities
o Take full ownership of their products
o Motivate other people, defending any opportunity towards other
stakeholders, such as investors, customers and employees
o BUT need to master management skills such as planning, organizing,
coordinating and controlling
2) What does a typical entrepreneur look like?
Entrepreneurship is NOT genetically determined
Personality traits typical of entrepreneurs: Self-confidence, dealing with risk,
flexibility, strive for success and independence, high energy levels
Shane: “White, married, 40-50yrs old, unemployed, having lower wage levels, with a
higher education, who frequently changed jobs”
o Necessity-driven = the entrepreneur founds a company in order to make a
living
o Opportunity-driven = the entrepreneur founds a company because he/she
spotted an excellent opportunity (komt vaker voor in ontwikkelde landen)
Shane: “Low tech venture, only one founder, run from founder’s home, founded in a
sector the entrepreneur has been active in for many years, funded with own means
of a bank loan (starting capital less than 25,000$, ceasing to exist within the first 5
years after founding”
The average entrepreneur works harder than the average employee given the
amount of time he invests in his business, he doesn’t make more money than an
average employee
CONCLUSION:
o Entrepreneurship is hard work
o Most companies don’t survive the first 5 years, and income is moderate
3) Special types of entrepreneurs
Life style vs growth-oriented entrepreneurship
Independent vs dependent entrepreneurship
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o Academic vs corporate spin-offs
o Profit-oriented vs social entrepreneurship
4) Role of entrepreneur + enterprise in society
Economic importance of social entrepreneurship:
o In USA: employed +10 million people in 2011 & turnover of +$500 billion
o In UK: employed 800.000 people, turnover of £24 billion
o In BXL: number of social enterprises ↗ by 6% (2008-2014), employed 18.400
people (in 2015: +25% compared to 2008)
Entrepreneurship: the result of different forces = societal + individual perception
o Negative forces in Flanders: media-attention + self-efficacy and fair of failure
o Positive forces in Flanders: successful entrepreneurs have status and respect,
personally knowing an entrepreneur, opportunity detection
5) Determinants of success and failure
Statistical evidence shows that firm performance can be explained by:
o Industry and market characteristics: explaining up to 35% of the variation in
firm performance
o Strategic group membership: explaining up to 15% of the variation in firm
performance
o Firm specific characteristics, and in particular resources and capabilities:
explaining up to 45% of the variation in firm performance
Additionally, there is a lively debate on the importance of (financial) planning for
entrepreneurial success
For external purposes: communicating to external parties, with the purpose of attracting
capital, loans or other support
For internal purposes:
o Defining the business and checking the feasibility
Gaining an understanding of the conditions and assumptions that drive
profitability
Evaluating how much investment is needed
Assessing the value of a new venture
o Comparing different strategic options and selecting the one with the highest
expected value
o Managing the organization and controlling it through the different stages:
Facilitates faster decision-making
Introduces controls for personal bias or subjectivity
Uncertainty
Certainty (zekerheid): uitkomst/situatie is gekend
Risk (risico): distributie van uitkomsten is gekend
Uncertainty (onzekerheid): distributie van uitkomsten is NIET gekend
Risk planning and focus
Uncertainty experimentation, fexibility and pivoting
Causation (cfr. you feel like ‘eating spaghetti bolognaise’ go to store) vs. Effectuation (cfr. ‘smoked
salmon, cream, pasta make a dish with those ingredients from your cupboard)
a. Basis for taking action
Causation Effectuation
Start by setting a goal Start from the set of individual
Map the environment by analysing means available to the
competitors, market trends, and entrepreneur
perceived competitive advantage Work towards possible effects that
Devise a strategic plan to mobilize can be created with these means
the right resource to achieve the set
goal
b. Attitude towards unexpected events
Causation Effectuation
Aiming to carry out a strategy as Seeking feedback (adaptive)
planned Incorporating feedback
Reacting negatively to any Being open to and leveraging
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unexpected events, which are seen unexpected events for the benefit
as interruptions to the execution of of the venture
the strategy
c. Attitude towards outsiders
Causation Effectuation
Protect knowledge from outsiders Consider other people and
Use knowledge to build a organizations as potential
competitive advantage (e.g. IP stakeholders
protection strategies) Partners bring access to resources
Select partners based on Partners reduce uncertainty
complementary competencies to Partners shape the very goals and
fulfil the venture’s goals direction of the venture
Alliance contracts judiciously specify Draft products, for example, are
responsibilities exposed to potential clients to
elicit feedback, and potentially
attract new stakeholders
d. View on risk and resources
Causation Effectuation
Typically seeks large investments Focus is on the current situation
that allow maximizing expected and on assets under the control of
returns, based on the calculation of founders and partners
different possible scenarios Investments should be no larger
than what each individual can
afford to lose
Typically ‘small step’ investments
are made, and available resources
in the local environment are
mobilized or re-purposed (cfr.
Bootstrapping’)
Bootstrapping
= starting a business without external capital, making do with what you have
Fund company development through internal cash flow
Be cautious with your expenses
Be creative with your (internal and external) resources
Does this mean that planning is no longer necessary?
Entrepreneurs combine effectual and causal decision-making
Under uncertainty, the financial plan can be used as a continuously changing benchmarking
instrument
Similarly, entrepreneurs operating in a relatively safe and certain environment, also benefit
from keeping their eyes open towards additional opportunities
both planning and flexibility are needed, with the relative focus on either of them
depending on the level of uncertainty the entrepreneur is confronted with
2) Assessing industry attractiveness
Determinants of success and failure
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