what is entrepreneurship in essay

Essay on Entrepreneurship

Introduction

Entrepreneurship is a term that is widely applicable in the world of business. There are different definitions of the term entrepreneurship. The first definition identifies entrepreneurship as the process of creating a new business, with a view of making profits while bearing in mind all the risks that are involved. Different scholars have had their opinions about the description of the term entrepreneurship, including Stevenson, a renown expert in the topic. He defined entrepreneurship as the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled. His definition is still widely applied by many in the world of business (Venkataraman, 2019). The second definition is linked to one Frank Knight, who defined it as the bearing of uncertainty and responsibility for risks within the financial market. Joseph Schumpeter also contributed significantly by defining entrepreneurship as the creation of new things in search of profits. Schumpeter also asserts that the role of creating new things is not only left to companies and other businesses but also individuals who make efforts in the area. The researcher introduced the concept of creative destruction to mean creation and invention of a new idea in the market that calls for the demise of the existing competitor. For instance, the emergence of Smartphones killed use traditional means of communication, such as telephone boots and regular use of letters. As such, Joseph Schumpeter contributed significantly as the term creative destruction is universal in the marketing. Marketing is a lucrative field that requires creativity for one to make an impact in the market. Fourth is Israel Kirzner who defined entrepreneurship as the process that led to discovery. It is important to note that most of the definitions by various scholars share a familiar concept, risk-taking and opportunity exploration.

A venture is considered as a small business that is started by one individual or groups with a view of gaining financially. The profits from the investment benefit all the backers of that particular project or business. There are many different ventures that an individual can offer to invest in. An enterprise should aim to make a financial gain to the individual or group that invested. The risk-taking tendency by entrepreneurs and the idea of profit making coincides with the typology of entrepreneurship. Examples of entrepreneurship ventures that many can get into include gazelle, microenterprise, small/lifestyle and medium enterprises.

A gazelle enterprise is a business venture that experiences rapid growth annually for period of over four years. Revenues of such an enterprise increase yearly by over 20% and must have a base capital of at least $100,000. Such companies experience high sales growth rates regardless of their size. However, most of such business ventures operate on the lower end of the scale. Company growth can be measured by the turnover or the number of employees working for the enterprise.

The second entrepreneurial venture is a microenterprise that employs a small number of people, usually less than 10. Microenterprises are started by small amounts of capital and they specialize in providing goods and services within its locality. All microenterprises venture into simple product lines and operate on small scale. Microenterprises contribute largely to the economy as they create employment. Business owners in such ventures enjoy small profits, which they use to improve their standards of living. As such, microenterprises agree to the typology of entrepreneurship by making profits for those who invest.

Small or lifestyle enterprises are business ventures started with aim of sustaining or maintaining a certain level of income. Such enterprises aim at sustaining a certain level of lifestyle for the entrepreneur. They employ a small number of people and maintain certain level of assets for owners. Lifestyle enterprises play a key role in employing people at the same time maintains a particular lifestyle for the owner, thereby, complying with the typology of entrepreneurship.

Medium size enterprises employ between 50 and 500 employees depending on the legislation in that specific nation. Such enterprises have a specified value of assets and in the UK, they have less than 250 employees. In the year 2013, there were over 5.2 million medium sized businesses, which comprised of over 99% of enterprises in the country. The aim of medium business enterprises is to make profit like any other entrepreneurial venture. As such, medium sized business enterprises agree to the typology of entrepreneurship.

According to Wennekers and Thurik (1999), a Schumpeterian entrepreneur is one who aims at capitalizing on the existing entrepreneurial abilities to make profits. In other words, a Schumpeterian entrepreneur will assess the current businesses that are operating and think of better services to people. The Schumpeter concept is Austrian. Existing product and service lines in the market require improvements for better service delivery (Wennekers & Thurik, 1999). A Schumpeter entrepreneur is an individual who capitalizes on such opportunities with a view of providing better services while making profits. An intrepreneur is a person who works for a particular organization and identifies better ways to improve quality and service delivery to customers. Innovative product development and marketing is the role of a manager working for that specific organization. As such, the manager is referred to as an entrepreneur. Managerial business owner is an individual who invests in a venture and entirely owns the business. Administrative business owners are not responsible for innovation and creative destruction in the market as these remains the work of managerial entrepreneurs. The main difference between the three terms described is that an administrative business owner is responsible for financing the venture while the rest work for the owner to ensure innovation and product development. A similarity known among the three types of entrepreneurs is the fact that they all aim to make profits for the owner of the business.

Miles & Snow (2009) classified organizations into four types, including prospector, defender, analytical and follower businesses. A prospector implies an organization that has difficulties in locating and exploiting a new product in the market. Such ventures require constant examination of the continually changing business world to succeed. The element of unpredictability makes a continuous check-up of the market a necessity to establish strategic production. According to the two researchers, prospector organizations have comprehensive product and service lines. Production in such cases prefers to promote creativity to efficiency. Defender organizations are defined as those entities that cannot survive in unstable environments (Miles, Miles, Snow, Blomqvist & Rocha, 2009). Their worry is how to maintain their current market share hence the need for them to operate in a relatively stable business environment. Cost leadership and specialization in a specific product line can well help solve the problem. Analyzer organizations refer to those that have both prospector and defender organization characteristics. They face a challenge of establishing in new markets and at the same have a problem of maintaining their current market share. Follower organizations refer to organizations that do not make long-term plans for business but instead ensure that managers study the dynamic world fast enough to cope with the changes.

Steve Blank in 2010 asserts that there are four types of entrepreneurs, namely small business owners, scalable, large business owners and large entrepreneurs. Small business owners face known risks in the market as they venture into product lines and services that are already known. A scalable business idea digs into the existing opportunity and turns it into a larger business through the expansion of its business activities. The aim of setting up such business entities is to take over the existing market and turn it out to make huge profits. On the other hand, a large business is an entity that has over 5000 employees or has a high financial turnover of over 1.5 billion Euros in a year (Blank, 2010). Any venture that does not feature any of the two characteristics or both of them cannot be termed as a large business. Social entrepreneurship involves start-up companies raising funds to solve cultural, social and environmental problems.

The data presented is indicative of the importance of having small businesses and startups within the economy. The data is extracted from the office of national statistics in the United Kingdom. Moreover, the data presented include information regarding micro-businesses and small businesses contribution to the economy of the region that they operate. For instance, from the year 2010 to 2017, the country has been registering an increasing trend indicating that such businesses play a crucial role. On employment, micro-business ventures employed over 4,618,315 people in 2010, and by 2017 (“Employment – ONS”, 2019), the number of those depending on such businesses rose to 5,491,009. On the other hand, small businesses employed over 3,785, 801 people in the year 2010 to a whopping 4,450, 716 by 2017. As such, micro and small businesses within the economy play a key role in ensuring increased employment opportunities as indicated by statistics from the national office in the UK.

Another vital aspect presented in the data provided is the turnover involved annually in the event of operating such businesses. Like the data on employment, the turnover for both micro and small businesses has been fluctuating from the year 2010. It is also critical to note from the data that in some years, the turnover reduced instead of increasing. For instance, in 2010 the turnover for both micro and small businesses was 589,871,148 and 549,139,326 billions of Euros, respectively. In the following year 2011, the turnover reduced to 552,345,550 and 508,579,840, respectively. However, the figures have increased as of 2017 to 791,771,342 and 616,807,735 respectively. The growth in the turnover of micro and small businesses is a clear indication that they contribute positively to the growth of the economy in the United Kingdom.

In terms of inventory and general count, micro and other small businesses have significantly contributed and have seen an expansion. This is indicated by the data provided as the numbers have changed from 2010 to 2017. In the year 2010, micro-businesses had a count of 1,861,590, which increased to 2,386, 740 by 2017. Additionally, small businesses increased their count from 196, 520 in the year 2010 to a whopping 231, 715 in the year 2017. The graphs provided indicates the trend that has been experienced in the economy in regards to micro and other small businesses. Such ventures are contributing positively to the economy of the United Kingdom.

Small businesses and start-ups play a crucial role in the growth of the social economy. Social economy comprises a diversity of enterprises and organizations sharing common values and features. Such may include cooperatives, mutuals, associations, foundations, paritarian institutions and social enterprises who value social objectives over capital. The first and most important role that the businesses play is the creation of employment (Burns, 2016). For instance, in the United States in the year 2015, small businesses and startups created over 1.9 million jobs. There are over 30.2 million small businesses in the United States who employ approximately 58 million people. As such, small businesses contribute primarily to the growth of the economy by creating jobs.

Second, small scale businesses and start-ups contribute by ensuring that the GDP of the country grows. Social economy contributes to the overall GDP sum and its growth projects more taxes to be paid. A small business thriving locally will have more to give as taxes to the local government and hence a contribution to the GDP. Such money can be used locally to develop infrastructure within the community. As such, small businesses play a vital role in ensuring that the well-being of the community improves in the long run.

Small businesses quickly adjust to changes in the economic environment and act as a cushion to the local economy in cases where large businesses have failed. This is because in cases of unpredictability in the market, small business owners are customer-oriented and can flex quickly to suit the needs of the market. Large businesses have few options in case of a similar predicament and may not help the local economy as anticipated. As such, all small businesses around the world contribute positively to the growth of the social economy as their interest is not capital-driven.

Blank, S. (2010). What’s A Startup? First Principles.  Steve Blank .

Burns, P. (2016).  Entrepreneurship and small business . Palgrave Macmillan Limited.

Employment – ONS. (2019). Retrieved 23 July 2019, from https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105164129/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Employment

Miles, R. E., Miles, G., Snow, C. C., Blomqvist, K., & Rocha, H. (2009). The I-form organization.  California Management Review ,  51 (4), 61-76.

Venkataraman, S. (2019). The distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research. In  Seminal Ideas for the Next Twenty-Five Years of Advances  (pp. 5-20). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Wennekers, S., & Thurik, R. (1999). Linking entrepreneurship and economic growth.  Small business economics ,  13 (1), 27-56.

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Essay Samples on Entrepreneurship

What is entrepreneurship in your own words.

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What is Entrepreneurship: Unveiling the Essence

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Social Entrepreneurship: Harnessing Innovation

Social entrepreneurship is a transformative approach that merges business principles with social consciousness to address pressing societal challenges. This unique form of entrepreneurship goes beyond profit-seeking and focuses on generating innovative solutions that create positive change in communities. In this essay, we explore the concept...

Evolution of Entrepreneurship: Economic Progress

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Entrepreneurship as a Career: Navigating the Path of Innovation

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Best topics on Entrepreneurship

1. What is Entrepreneurship in Your Own Words

2. What is Entrepreneurship: Unveiling the Essence

3. Social Entrepreneurship: Harnessing Innovation

4. Evolution of Entrepreneurship: Economic Progress

5. Importance of Entrepreneurship: Economic Growth and Societal Transformation

6. Entrepreneurship as a Career: Navigating the Path of Innovation

7. Corporate Entrepreneurship: Fostering Innovation

8. Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs: Innovation and Success

9. 300 Words About Entrepreneurship: Navigating Innovation and Opportunity

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So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?

• Emily Heyward

One founder’s advice on what you should know before you quit your day job.

Starting a business is not easy, and scaling it is even harder. You may think you’re sitting on a completely original idea, but chances are the same cultural forces that led you to your business plan are also influencing someone else. That doesn’t mean you should give up, or that you should rush to market before you’re ready. It’s not about who’s first, it’s about who does it best, and best these days is the business that delivers the most value to the consumer. Consumers have more power and choice than ever before, and they’re going to choose and stick with the companies who are clearly on their side. How will you make their lives easier, more pleasant, more meaningful? How will you go out of your way for them at every turn? When considering your competitive advantage, start with the needs of the people you’re ultimately there to serve. If you have a genuine connection to your idea, and you’re solving a real problem in a way that adds more value to people’s lives, you’re well on your way.

When I graduated from college in 2001, I didn’t have a single friend whose plan was to start his or her own business. Med school, law school, finance, consulting: these were the coveted jobs, the clear paths laid out before us. I took a job in advertising, which was seen as much more rebellious than the reality. I worked in advertising for a few years, and learned an incredible amount about how brands get built and communicated. But I grew restless and bored, tasked with coming up with new campaigns for old and broken products that lacked relevance, unable to influence the products themselves. During that time, I was lucky to have an amazing boss who explained a simple principle that fundamentally altered my path. What she told me was that stress is not about how much you have on your plate; it’s about how much control you have over the outcomes. Suddenly I realized why every Sunday night I was overcome with a feeling of dread. It wasn’t because I had too much going on at work. It was because I had too little power to effect change.

• EH Emily Heyward is the author of Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One (Portfolio; June 9, 2020). She is the co-founder and chief brand officer at Red Antler, a full-service brand company based in Brooklyn. Emily was named among the Most Important Entrepreneurs of the Decade by Inc.  magazine, and has also been recognized as a Top Female Founder by Inc. and one of Entrepreneur’s Most Powerful Women of 2019.

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Entrepreneurship: Who Is Entrepreneur? Essay

Introduction, professor wangari maathai: a social entrepreneur, opportunity filled by professor maathai, conception of her ideas, works cited.

An entrepreneur is an individual who uses ideas to identify opportunities and undertake the process of acquisition and allocation of resources for the creation of value. This paper seeks to give an overview of an entrepreneur. The paper will identify an entrepreneur and illustrate a specific entrepreneurial process undertaken by the individual.

Professor Wangari Maathai is a widely recognized leader for her involvement in social investments and her environmental concerns. Her recognition was acclimatized by her Nobel Prize award which she won in the year 2004. This particular award made her an outstanding figure owing to the fact that Nobel peace prize is a globally coveted award that is associated with globally celebrated leaders such as president Barrack Obama of the United States.

Her award however came as a result of her entrepreneurial initiatives in environmental conservation. Maathai started her tree planting initiative as a local move that later spread to be a national movement in her country Kenya before spreading to other African countries in the name of Green Belt movement (Nobelprize 1).

Entrepreneurial opportunities are defined as circumstances through which “new goods, services, raw materials, markets and organizing methods can be introduced through formation of” (Eckhardt and Shane 336) new initiatives. The opportunities can thus be identified as situations that drive the move to undertake entrepreneurship.

Professor Wangari Maathai was an established leader in a nationwide organization in her country of which she was a member in the period ranging from the year 1976 to the year 1987. In this time frame, Wangari became the chairperson of the organization, national council of women of Kenya, in the year in the year 1981 and served for about six years. It was during her service as the organizations chair that she established her initiative into tree planting.

Her leadership in the organization is particularly identified as her opportunity in her move since members of the organization, women, were the initial tools that were used to spearhead the initiative. The other opportunity that the entrepreneur identified was the depletion of the natural vegetation that was calling for voluntary investment into its restoration.

Her country, having suffered from the impacts of colonial inversion that cleared the natural vegetation for agricultural land had led to vast deforestation of the region. Her academic background that was based on biological and environmental studies must have also prioritized her interest in the move to ensure environmental restoration and conservation (Greenbelt 1).

The idea to the initiative of planting trees as was established by Wangari was based on the social issues that people especially women were faced with in her immediate society. Factors such as availing firewood for fuel consumption, controlling soil erosion and establishment and preservation of water catchment area were her key issues besides fighting poverty and moves for women’s rights.

The conception of her ideas into investing on tree planting was thus based on her environmental and social concerns. The key to her success was her leadership ability that saw her influence women at grass root levels and even outside her country for the success of her project and the international adoption of the greenbelt movement (Clinton 1).

The development of the successful tree planting initiative that was later globally recognized illustrates Wangari as an influential leader, an attribute that I personally choose to emulate.

Clinton, Bill. Stories from Africa . Clinton Foundation, n.d. Web.

Eckhardt, Jonathan and Shane, Scott. Opportunities and entrepreneurship . Waetherhead, 2003. Web.

Greenbelt. About Wangari Maathai . Green Belt Movement, 2011. Web.

Nobelprize. The Nobel peace prize 2004: Wangari Maathai . Nobel Prize, 2004. Web.

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What Is Entrepreneurship? Definition, Meaning, and Tips (2024)

While the definition of entrepreneurship has stayed constant for decades, the possibilities for aspiring entrepreneurs have come a long way. 

Think about it: 100 years ago, what options did an entrepreneur have? If you weren’t skilled enough to make something or didn’t have the capital to buy wholesale products to resell, you were out of luck. 

Fast forward to 2024—there are now 582 million entrepreneurs in the world. There’s a simple reason behind this growth in entrepreneurship: the opportunities have exploded. 

Today, we’ll take a closer look at what it means to be an entrepreneur. You’ll also get insights from successful entrepreneurs on how they launched their businesses, along with tips to help you start your own.

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What is entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is the practice of launching, running, and growing a business venture. It requires a combination of innovation, skills, and clear vision to create products, services, or ideas that meet market demands and offer value to a target audience. Those who choose this path are ready to face the risks that come with starting a new business .

Entrepreneurs work hard to make their ventures successful, whether it’s a small business or a larger company. This effort boosts economic development and creates new job opportunities. Additionally, entrepreneurs contribute to society by solving problems and meeting the needs of the people around them.

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What is an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur is someone who pursues a new business venture, often embracing the risks and challenges that come with it. However, this definition barely scratches the surface of what it means to be an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs embody passion, grit, and a desire to bring ideas to life. They want to solve real-world problems and improve lives through their endeavors. Being an entrepreneur means embracing a journey of innovation, resilience, and adaptability.

The term ”entrepreneur” encompasses a wide spectrum of entrepreneurial ventures, from side hustles and product development to freelance work and content creation. Anyone who earns independently through their own initiatives can rightfully be considered an entrepreneur.

What is entrepreneurial mindset?

Entrepreneurial mindset is a way of thinking that empowers people to pursue ideas, overcome challenges, and succeed in a variety of settings. Anyone can adopt this mindset, regardless of their inherent knowledge and strengths. Continuous learning and personal growth are key to developing and nurturing your entrepreneurial spirit.

Types of entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs can be categorized by their motivations, personality type, or nature of business. Here’s a look at the different paths you can take as an aspiring entrepreneur to forge your own success:

Side hustler entrepreneurs

Side-hustler entrepreneurs start their own businesses on the side while keeping their day jobs. They might be chasing a passion, looking to earn some extra cash, or just trying out a business idea before diving in full-time. Plenty of them have turned these side gigs into their main business.

Creator entrepreneurs

“Creator” is a term used to describe influencers, social media personalities, and online media personalities who earn money via self-employment. They have multiple streams of income, including sponsorships, merchandise sales, and subscriber-only content.

Maker entrepreneurs

Maker entrepreneurs are the crafty individuals who turn their hobbies into a business . They are the ones behind the handmade goods you love and the online courses teaching different DIY techniques.

Innovator entrepreneurs

Innovators are entrepreneurs coming up with fresh ideas, services, or products, or making existing ones better. These ideas can turn into new companies or patents, or could be sold off to other businesses.

Small business owner entrepreneurs

These are the people you usually think of when someone says “entrepreneur.” They might be going it alone or managing a small team while running all sorts of businesses, from a bespoke SEO agency to an online dropshipping store .

Consultant entrepreneurs

Consultant entrepreneurs are experts in their field who choose to work independently. They make their living by offering advice to companies and people on areas they know best, like decorating homes or smart investing.

What are the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs?

Certain traits are common among successful entrepreneurs, but no two are the same. Each has their own unique strengths that play a major role in how they manage and envision their business.

Top entrepreneur traits include:

Discipline means sticking to a plan. Entrepreneurs with this trait focus hard every day. They set goals, follow plans, and work tirelessly toward their objectives.

Passion 

Passionate entrepreneurs are guided by their strong love for what they do. This intense enthusiasm is like a powerful engine that keeps them going. It motivates them to overcome challenges and turn their dreams into reality.

Entrepreneurs with vision look beyond the horizon. They imagine what’s not yet seen, crafting a future that’s both ambitious and inspiring. This foresight also guides their business decisions and draws others to their cause.

Self-reliance 

Being able to count on yourself is huge. Entrepreneurs who stand strong on their own make decisions confidently, steer through tough times, and keep pushing forward, no matter the circumstances.

Risk tolerance 

Being OK with taking chances is risk tolerance. Entrepreneurs ready to take risks often find new paths. They’re not afraid to try, even if it means failing at first.

Pros and cons of entrepreneurship

When considering entrepreneurship, it’s crucial to weigh the pros and cons. This step helps you grasp the risks and rewards involved. By doing so, you can make an informed decision about whether this path is right for you.

Pros of entrepreneurship

• Work flexibility: When you run a small business, you can set your own hours. Work wherever and whenever suits you best.
• Be your own boss: You’re in control. Make decisions quickly without needing someone else’s approval.
• Unleash creativity: Without big company bureaucracy, you can solve problems in creative ways and try out new ideas often.
• Make money from passion: Turn what you love into your career. No need to wait until after work to do what you enjoy.
• Unlimited earning potential: Your income isn’t capped. The more your business grows, the more you can earn.

Cons of entrepreneurship

• Financial risk: Putting your money into your business is a gamble. If your idea doesn’t take off, you’re the one who has to deal with the fallout with investors and lenders.
• Long hours: Starting a business means there’s always more work to do. You’ll often find yourself working late and tackling various tasks at once.
• More responsibility: Being in charge means all decisions—and their impacts—rest on your shoulders, which can be quite stressful.
• Stiff competition: No matter the field, you’ll be up against established businesses and other entrepreneurs eager to make their mark.
• No steady income: While there’s a chance for big earnings, they won’t come quickly. Expect to reinvest a lot into the business and face some tight financial times early.

Understanding these challenges is crucial for anyone thinking about starting their own business. Every successful entrepreneur has faced hurdles. If you’re aiming to bring an innovative idea to life through entrepreneurship, knowing what lies ahead is key to preparing for success.

Why do people become entrepreneurs?

Every entrepreneur has their own “why” that drove them into being their own boss. Whether entrepreneurs need more freedom or to make an impact, they all take control of their lives by living on their own terms. 

Here are a few of the reasons why people become entrepreneurs :

Build your skills

Starting a business usually means you’re the jack-of-all-trades, handling marketing, product making, customer support, and even website tweaking. Those early days are like a crash course in business 101. What you learn not only helps you then but sticks with you, ready to be used wherever you go.

Earn a sustainable income

Starting a business doesn’t always go smoothly at first, but keep at it, and you might just create a steady money stream for years to come. This hits home for folks gradually setting up their own thing while moving away from a 9-to-5 job.

Mixing up where your money comes from is a big deal in the FIRE movement —which is about smart saving and investing to become financially independent. A lot of entrepreneurs are in it for the chance to clock out early or the freedom of earning as much as they can on their own terms.

Achieve work flexibility

The flexibility to choose your working hours is a significant advantage of starting your own business. You could be up working at 4 a.m., take your dog out when the sun’s up, or work whenever you feel most switched on. Entrepreneurship allows you to shape your business to fit the life you dream of, not the other way around.

💡 Tip: If you love traveling, think about a seasonal business that gives you the freedom to explore for months at a time. If family time is your priority, schedule your work around your kids’ activities and vacations.

Boost community engagement

Start your business and watch how you can help your community thrive. Every $100 spent at a local small business puts $63 back into your local economy, way more than the $14 that stays when you shop at big chains. Across the US, entrepreneurs are responsible for creating more than 1.1 million jobs in their local areas. Your business success can inspire and facilitate success for others too.

Create social impact

Entrepreneurs historically have been catalysts for change. They challenge the status quo, introduce innovative solutions, and inspire shifts in how industries operate. By engaging in social entrepreneurship, you can pursue your passion for a cause and make a broad impact.

Define your own success

A successful business doesn’t mean only making a lot of money. As an entrepreneur, you decide your goals and what success means. Success might be about your brand getting noticed, grabbing more market share, building a loyal customer base, or being able to help out a charity you care about.

How do you become an entrepreneur?

Let’s take a look at the top tips shared by startup entrepreneurs, and how you can use these tips to become successful.

If you’re drawn to starting a new business, bringing an innovative idea to fruition, or aiming for financial freedom, congrats on making the first move! That entrepreneurial spirit of yours is gearing up, and you’re on the brink of embarking on the entrepreneur’s journey.

Prerequisites for becoming an entrepreneur

To kick things off, there are a few crucial things you’ll need—and the rest you’ll pick up along the way.

• A solid idea: First off, you need an idea. It’s important to ensure your idea is viable by conducting thorough market research .
• Passion: The road to entrepreneurial success is filled with highs and lows. Believing in your idea and vision is key to overcoming any obstacles you encounter.
• Start-up capital: Depending on your business concept, you might manage to start small from your home with minimal initial costs. If not, figure out the amount required to launch your business properly.
• A learning mindset: Remember, many successful entrepreneurs didn’t start with business degrees. What you really need is a willingness to learn from your experiences and persist through failures.

First steps to kickstarting your business

• Craft a business plan: Jumpstart your venture by drafting a business plan . Using a template can guide you through assessing your idea’s potential, figuring out funding, and planning how to reach your audience.
• Refine your idea and business model: Once your idea and business model are clear, and you know who your market is, it’s time to look for funding. While some dip into savings to launch side businesses, others explore options like venture capital, crowdfunding, small business loans, or investor funding.
• Set up the logistics: Depending on your business model, you might need to stock up on inventory, find a space to rent, hire a team, or organize how you’ll send products to customers. The exact steps vary for every entrepreneur.
• Build your brand and online presence: With your brand strategy in place and your website up and running, you’re all set to introduce your business to the globe and start attracting customers.

Embracing these fundamentals sets the stage for your entrepreneurial journey, paving the way toward achieving the success that many entrepreneurs strive for.

Examples of entrepreneurs

Let’s take a look at some examples of entrepreneurs.

Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney became one of the most well-known names in the world. You know him from the Walt Disney Company and theme parks like Disneyland and Walt Disney World. His brand started with Mickey Mouse and eventually expanded to include thousands of characters and whimsical fantasy worlds.

But it wasn’t always smooth sailing. He faced challenges like loads of commercial failures, but he kept pushing through and stayed committed to his vision.

Mark Zuckerberg 

Mark Zuckerberg created several products before building Facebook. He created an instant messaging tool that his father used in his dentistry practice to communicate with his receptionist. 

Zuckerberg also created music software that Microsoft and AOL were interested in buying, even though he was only a teenager. Within a year of Facebook’s founding, it already had one million users. Today, Zuckerberg has a net worth of $65.7 billion.

Sara Blakely 

Sara Blakely first started the Spanx brand in 1998. Her brand specializes in shapewear and includes items like bras, panties, and hosiery. 

She’s also the inventor of arm tights, which allow women to wear their summer clothing year-round. At one point, Blakely was the youngest self-made female billionaire.

Entrepreneurship ideas for 2024

As a startup entrepreneur, there are so many ideas you can pursue, depending on the business skills you already have and what you’re willing to learn. Here are a handful of business ideas to get you started:

• Ecommerce store owner
• Freelancer ( write a blog , accountant, designer)
• Teaching (online courses, author)
• App creator ( chatbots , social media apps)
• Service-based business (food delivery, cleaning, dog walking)
• Consultant-based business (wedding planner, life coach)
• Apartment rentals (Airbnb)
• Marketing businesses ( influencer marketing , SEO brands, PR firms)
• Affiliate marketing ( Amazon Affiliate , Clickbank, etc.)
• Blogger (Product reviews, niche blog, magazine)
• Vlogger ( start a YouTube channel , Twitch)
• Flipper ( domain name , website, house)
• Gig economy (driver, Fiverr)
• Real estate agent (condos, houses, commercial)
• Photographer ( product photography , sell photos)
• Stock Broker (buying and selling stocks)
• Website flipper
• Reseller business

How real entrepreneurs define entrepreneurship

Let’s take a look at what real entrepreneurs have to say about the meaning of entrepreneurship, and what it means to them on a personal level.

Founder and CEO of NeuroFlow Christopher Molaro says, “Entrepreneurship means being the one who is willing to take a leap and work hard enough to sacrifice everything else around them, all in the name of solving problems, because no one else is capable or possesses the desire.”

The meaning of entrepreneurship is slightly different for Jolijt Tamanaha , VP of growth at Fresh Prints, who shares, “Entrepreneurs make their way down a never-ending list of problems with grit, passion, and energy. While intense, being an entrepreneur means you get to live life learning an incredible amount and maximize your impact on the world because you have to tackle the hardest problems.”

According to James Sandoval, founder, and CEO of Measure Match , “Being an entrepreneur means diving headlong into a [likely very risky] venture of your own making, working hard, long hours, often alone, to carve out a path to success and never, ever giving up.”

Entrepreneurship quotes for inspiration

Need some inspiration? Here are some popular entrepreneur quotes to keep you lit up and ready to go.

“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” —Peter Drucker

“Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.” —Niccolo Machiavelli 

“From my very first day as an entrepreneur, I’ve felt the only mission worth pursuing in business is to make people’s lives better.” —Richard Branson

“A person who sees a problem is a human being; a person who finds a solution is visionary; and the person who goes out and does something about it is an entrepreneur.” —Naveen Jain 

“An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down.” —Reid Hoffman

“The number one reason why people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors.” —Napoleon Hill

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” —Scott Belsky 

“There’s lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there’s only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what it is: it’s to change the world.” —Phil Libin

“Being an entrepreneur is a mindset. You have to see things as opportunities all the time. I like to do interviews. I like to push people on certain topics. I like to dig into the stories where there’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer.” —Soledad O’Brien 

For more quotes about entrepreneurship, check out our post of best motivational quotes for entrepreneurs .

The future of entrepreneurship

In recent years, a lot of people have turned to entrepreneurship for various reasons. Some were looking for a way to make extra money, while others wanted to pursue a passion or saw a chance to meet new demands in the market. As a result, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of small businesses.

Technology has played a pivotal role in this entrepreneurial boom. New and emerging technologies like AI are allowing entrepreneurs to make data-driven decisions, automate processes, and personalize customer experiences. This accessibility is empowering entrepreneurs to launch more sophisticated, scalable, and customer-focused businesses than ever before.

Additionally, technology has facilitated the rise of the gig economy and remote work, which has been a blessing for many aspiring entrepreneurs. People can now leverage their skills and talents from anywhere in the world, providing services, creating content, or selling products without the need for a physical storefront.

Overall, the integration of technology into the fabric of entrepreneurship has catalyzed economic growth and spurred the creation of new businesses across various sectors.

Are you ready to be an entrepreneur?

There’s no single right way to be an entrepreneur. These people come in all shapes and sizes and can influence virtually any aspect of life as we know it.

In a sphere with so much diversity, there are a few things that all entrepreneurs have in common: they’re full of passion and ambition, and they use these as a driving force to build empires that solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

If you’re looking to make your mark on the world or advance society—or even break free from the exhausting and inflexible 9-to-5 job—you just might be an entrepreneur in the making. 

Trust your gut, follow your instincts, and always keep your mind open to learning and exploring new opportunities that come your way.

What is entrepreneurship FAQ

What is the meaning of entrepreneurship.

The meaning of entrepreneurship involves an entrepreneur who takes action to make a change in the world. Whether startup entrepreneurs solve a problem that many struggle with each day, bring people together in a way no one has before, or build something revolutionary that advances society, they all have one thing in common: action.

It’s not some idea that’s stuck in your head. Entrepreneurs take the idea and execute it. Entrepreneurship is about the execution of ideas.

What are the different types of entrepreneurship?

• Small-business entrepreneurship
• Hustler entrepreneurship 
• Creator entrepreneurship
• Innovative entrepreneurship
• Social entrepreneurship

What is the entrepreneurial mindset?

The entrepreneurial mindset is a person’s attitude to building an independent business. It means having an open mind and questioning everything in the hopes of creating something unique and innovative.

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What Is Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is the foundation of capitalism, and is generally known as the process of creating a business to bring a product or service to the market, managing, assuming risk, but also bearing the financial rewards. While business owners can be considered as entrepreneurs, the concept has various meanings attached to it including creation of value, innovation or creativity, and being an agent of change. Most commonly an entrepreneur creates a firm to bring their idea into fruition, aggregate capital and labor in order to produce goods or services (Hayes, 2021). Entrepreneurs are seen as innovators to their respective industries, bringing new ideas or goods, or potentially changing or reinventing the industry or business processes as whole.

The word ‘entrepreneur’ originates from 13th-century French verb entreprendre , meaning ‘to undertake.’ By the 16th century, it was used to describe someone who undertakes a business venture. It has been since defined as someone who takes on personal financial risk, creates value by moving resources, and a person who assumes risk and management of a business. In the 20th century, economists Joseph Schumpeter and Israel Kirzner redefined the understanding of an entrepreneur by emphasizing the individual’s role an innovator, a disruptive force in the economy (Sobel. n.d.). It can be done through various paths: by introducing completely new products or creating new industry (Netflix with online streaming), drastically improving existing products to push the industry further (Steve Jobs and Apple with both computers and smartphones) or changing management or production processes drastically (Ford with his motor vehicle assembly line).

Entrepreneurs seek to exploit a commercial opportunity through bringing a new product to the market or sustainably improving an existing good, service, method of product. It has been in recent years especially strongly associated with the American identity, as the country and its capitalistic society is based on entrepreneurial undertaking in the spirit of freedom, self-reliance, and commitment to values of fairness, innovation, and cooperation. That is why entrepreneurs, both currently and in the past, have played a strong role in driving the economy while also being a part of popular culture as the concept of ‘making it on your own’ has been highly respected in the nation’s social fabric.

Cunningham & Lischeron (1991) present six approaches for describing entrepreneurship. The first is the ‘Great Person’ approach which suggests entrepreneurs have inborn intuition and vital traits to succeed in the industry and be good businessmen. The ‘psychological characteristics’ approach argues that in order to be an entrepreneur one needs to have unique skills, values, and attitudes which drive one’s character and decision-making. The ‘classical perspective’ emphasises innovation, focusing on progress and doing rather than owning and attempting to money, which are secondary to discovery and creativity. The ‘management’ model presents entrepreneurs as great managers, organizers, and evaluators of risk, which can be trained in technical functions of management, planning, and budgeting. The ‘leadership’ model emphasises entrepreneurs as leaders which can easily adapt to the needs of the people and motivate others to support their ideas. Finally, there is the ‘intrapreneurship’ approach that suggests entrepreneurship can be used in complex organization and organizational building in to create markets and expand services (Cunningham & Lischeron, 1991).

While definitions of entrepreneurship can be broad, there are four key elements to each one which are innovation, organization, risk, and vision. Innovation describes how the entrepreneurship contributes to the economy in terms of variation and uniqueness and the extent that these ensure success of the business. Entrepreneurs implement innovative ideas based on available opportunities to bring something new such as product, service, technology, manufacturing process, or even marketing strategy (Lounsbury et al., 2018). Organization is absolutely vital in entrepreneurship, not just from the perspective of running a business, but the entrepreneur typically has to manage multiple channels of communication, employees and stakeholders, and supply chains simultaneously. Organization is necessary to achieve strong output and efficiency, validate one’s product, and develop a solid business model to set the firm up for success (Hjorth et al., 2015). The common adage is that entrepreneurs work 24/7 and based on the accounts of many, especially at starting stages of the business, it requires maximum output and organization.

Risk is also an expected element of entrepreneurship, as it consists of building something new. Opening a new business in itself is usually considered risky due to the many economic factors at play, but building firm around an idea which is inherently innovative, presents an even greater risk since nobody has done it before with that specific product (Antoncic et al., 2018). Finally, there is the prospect of vision, which is generally expected in all modern organizations, but takes on a different meaning in entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur and their firm must have a strong vision, with a direct purpose and objectives, with the foresight on how the business and industry will move forward. It is around this vision that the organizational culture is formed, and business decisions are made (Kreiser et al., 2019).

There are a range of factors both internal and external that can either contribute to or inhibit entrepreneurial success. Business sustainability is a critical aspect for society, so creation of new business ventures must consider the four key domains of environment, behavior, human relations, and business activity that can serve as drivers or barriers to sustainable entrepreneurship. The environmental and business factors typically cover the three eleemnts of economic prosperity, environmental integrity, and social sustainability. Economic prosperity focuses on financial strength and differentiation, as well as an environment that is beneficial for new businesses. Environmental integrity encompasses protections to safeguard the environment and protect needs of future generations while social sustainability focuses on ensuring social and organizational wellbeing (Tur-Porcar et al., 2018). These elements are regulated by external aspects such as policies, regulations, social awareness, business-friendly environment but also internal elements of profit, business management, sustainable practices, and CSR.

Furthermore, there are also behavioral and human relations factors of entrepreneurship. There are also three categories of cognitive and motivational factors, values and ethics, and emotional factors. Based on the social cognitive theory, entrepreneurs are active contributors to the development of circumstances surrounding their lives and business. Based on this belief, motivation and self-efficacy are formed which regulated cognitive, motivational, and decisional processes, it is what allows entrepreneurs to initiate and fulfill innovative actions. Another aspect to consider are value and ethics, particularly when it comes to sustainability, these are factors which contribute to the development of necessary behaviors in the entrepreneur, which is then reflected in the firm’s actions. Finally, there is the element of emotions, which can be both a powerful drive and inspiration for the entrepreneur, but also create instances of helplessness, anger and despair, emphasizing the need to cope with both types of emotions and failure, as entrepreneurship rarely succeeds immediately or on the first attempt (Tur-Porcar et al., 2018). Based on these human and emotional factors, the concepts of organizational motivation and leadership emerge. A business needs strong but transformative leadership with a congruence and dependable reputation to achieve business success.

Elon Musk is most likely the name that is synonymous with entrepreneur in the modern-day. He is an engineer, business magnate, and entrepreneur that has played a role in creating or growing several highly successful and innovative companies across a variety of industries, most associated with technology in some form. Elon Musk was born in South Africa and immigrated to the US to attend college. He was able to come up from being poor, to now being the richest individual on the planet by net worth. Musk is well-known not only as the creator and business genius of the various companies, but as a highly charismatic, intelligent, and eccentric individual that has a unique way of approaching problems and generating ideas.

In the early 2000s, Musk both started a company called SpaceX and joined one at the early stages called Tesla. SpaceX was inspired by the vision that Musk had for space exploration and Mars colonization, given how expensive space flight was, he wanted to develop affordable and reusable spacecraft. After years of failures, Musk and his team were able to develop and then perfect the technology, now being a primary partner for NASA, developing new spacecraft, pioneering space tourism, and being essentially at the forefront of human space exploration. Meanwhile, Tesla, perhaps Musk’s most famous entity, is known for the production of fully electric vehicles. Starting as a small company, with bare capital, hindered production, and underdeveloped technology, Tesla is now the most expensive car brand by valuation and has transformed the automotive market by pushing it towards fully electric vehicles, not only by making the technology viable and affordable, but also creating an infrastructure (charging network) to support it (Wong, 2021). Musk is also involved in a series of other ventures such as the Boring Company by attempting to create new transportation networks via underground tunnels, Starlink which is attempting to provide high-speed internet from space, and even highly improbable technologies such as Neuralink that is attempting to develop methods to control technology using just brain signals.

A combination of factors makes Elon Musk a successful entrepreneur, ranging from personality traits to the way that he creates and manages his companies. In itself, Musk is a strong and charismatic leader. His intelligence combined with a unique quirkiness is appealing to many, he is both self-confident but also demonstrates humanity. However, his most admired traits as an entrepreneur are his work ethic and perseverance (Garn, 2021). Musk has faced failure and denial many times, starting with his first ventures when he was attempting to become CEO, eventually achieved the position at PayPal but was quickly ousted due to difference of opinion and lack of strategy. While he did make significant amounts of money from those sales, the time at the companies brought many valuable lessons to Musk as a manager and leader, which he did not have before due to lack of experience (Lazatin, 2020).

Musk is highly focused, often driven by a specific vision for each of his companies, as key trait as emphasized earlier for entrepreneurs. This is what allowed him to succeed with Tesla and SpaceX, developing technologies that no one thought were remotely possible in the near future. To support his vision, Musk also puts in the work, known for working everyday of the week, at times 16 or more hours per day, especially in times of crisis. An example of this is when starting Zip2, he would sleep in the office, and code at night until the website was built. Similarly, as Tesla was facing multiple production issues, he would notoriously sleep in the factory offices, spending all his waking hours to manage the crisis, until Tesla reached a point of profitability (Matousek, 2018). Throughout his ventures, Musk and his entrepreneurship are not only innovative, but adaptable. Musk does seem to recognize niches in the market and create or improve innovative solutions to solve them, driven by humanitarian and sustainable vision as can be applied to virtually every one of his companies.

Musk is a highly admired entrepreneur because he is a visionary. He creates entrepreneurships when there is a need. Online systems need a payment system, he helped co-found PayPal. Space launches were extremely expensive, he created technologies to reduce the costs multiple times over and popularize commercial investment in the industry. Recognizing that climate change is a serious issue, but understanding that people need cars, he developed Tesla which not only produces electric cars but also invests heavily into developing various solar panel and renewable technology (i.e. his other ventures such as SolarCity and solar roof panels for private households). Musk is the example of the American dream, by coming from zero wealth, creating his own, and pushing the status quo to achieve the best potential outcomes based on his vision (Clifford, 2017. Some have succeeded, some failed, and others have only seen moderate progress, but entrepreneurship is at the core of Musk’s approach, and he is adamant that instead of settling down, one should push the boundaries of what is possible.

Antoncic, J. A., Antoncic, B., Gantar, M., Hisrich, R. D., Marks, L. J., Bachkirov, A. A., Li, Z., Polzin, P., Borges, J. L., Coelho, A., & Kakkonen, M.-L. (2018). Risk-taking propensity and entrepreneurship: The role of power distance. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 26 (01), 1–26. Web.

Center for American Entrepreneurship. (n.d.). What is entrepreneurship ?  Web.

Clifford, C. (2017). There’s one thing that motivates Elon Musk above all else. CNBC . Web.

Cunningham, J.B., & Lischeron, J. (1991). Defining entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business Management, 29 , 45-61.

Garn, R. (2021). Why is Elon Musk so successful? It all comes down to these 5 key personality traits. Entrepreneur . Web.

Hayes, A. (2021). Entrepreneur . Web.

Hjorth, D., Holt, R., & Steyaert, C. (2015). Entrepreneurship and process studies. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, 33 (6), 599–611. Web.

Kreiser, P. M., Kuratko, D. F., Covin, J. G., Ireland, R. D., & Hornsby, J. S. (2019). Corporate entrepreneurship strategy: extending our knowledge boundaries through configuration theory. Small Business Economics, 56 , 739-758. Web.

Lazatin, H. (2020). Before Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk was fired from PayPal and dropped out of a Stanford PhD programme – 5 facts about the outspoken South African tech entrepreneur before the billions. SCMP . Web.

Lounsbury, M., Cornelissen, J., Granqvist, N., & Grodal, S. (2018). Culture, innovation and entrepreneurship. Innovation, 21 (1), 1–12. Web.

Matousek, M. (2018). Elon Musk said he slept on the floor of Tesla’s factory because he wanted to suffer more than any other employee during Model 3 ‘production hell.’ Business Insider . Web.

Sobel, R.S. (n.d.). Entrepreneurship . Web.

Tur-Porcar, A., Roig-Tierno, N., & Llorca Mestre, A. (2018). Factors affecting entrepreneurship and business sustainability. Sustainability, 10 (2), 452. Web.

Wong, W. (2021). Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is Time’s Person of the Year. NBC News . Web.

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1.1: Chapter 1 – Introduction to Entrepreneurship

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• Lee A. Swanson
• University of Saskatchewan

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Whilst there is no universally accepted definition of entrepreneurship, it is fair to say that it is multi-dimensional. It involves analyzing people and their actions together with the ways in which they interact with their environments, be these social, economic, or political, and the institutional, policy, and legal frameworks that help define and legitimize human activities. – Blackburn (2011, p. xiii)

Entrepreneurship involves such a range of activities and levels of analysis that no single definition is definitive. – Lichtenstein (2011, p. 472)

It is complex, chaotic, and lacks any notion of linearity. As educators, we have the responsibility to develop our students’ discovery, reasoning, and implementation skills so they may excel in highly uncertain environments. – Neck and Greene (2011, p. 55)

Learning Objectives

• Examine the challenges associated with defining the concepts of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship
• Discuss how the evolution of entrepreneurship thought has influenced how we view the concept of entrepreneurship today
• Discuss how the list of basic questions in entrepreneurship research can be expanded to include research inquiries that are important in today’s world
• Discuss how the concepts of entrepreneurial uniqueness, entrepreneurial personality traits, and entrepreneurial cognitions can help society improve its support for entrepreneurship
• Apply the general venturing script to the study of entrepreneurship

This chapter provides you with an overview of entrepreneurship and of the language of entrepreneurship. The challenges associated with defining entrepreneur and entrepreneurship are explored, as is an overview of how entrepreneurship can be studied.

The objective is to enable you to apply current concepts in entrepreneurship to the evaluation of entrepreneurs, their ventures, and the venturing environment. You will develop skills, including the capability to add value in the new venture sector of the economy. You will acquire and practice evaluation skills useful in consulting, advising, and making new venture decisions.

Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship

Considerations influencing definitions of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship.

It is necessary to be able to determine exactly who entrepreneurs are before we can, among other things, study them, count them, provide special loans for them, and calculate how and how much they contribute to our economy.

• Does someone need to start a business from scratch to be called an entrepreneur?
• Can we call someone an entrepreneur if they bought an ongoing business from someone else or took over the operations of a family business from their parents?
• If someone starts a small business and never needs to hire employees, can they be called an entrepreneur?
• If someone buys a business but hires professional managers to run it so they don’t have to be involved in the operations, are they an entrepreneur?
• Is someone an entrepreneur if they buy into a franchise so they can follow a well-established formula for running the operation?
• Is someone an entrepreneur because of what they do or because of how they think?
• Can someone be an entrepreneur without owning their own business?
• Can a person be an entrepreneur because of the nature of the work that they do within a large corporation?

It is also necessary to fully understand what we mean by entrepreneurship before we can study the concept.

Gartner (1990) identified 90 attributes that showed up in definitions of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship provided by entrepreneurs and other experts in the field. The following are a few of these attributes:

• Innovation – Does a person need to be innovative to be considered an entrepreneur? Can an activity be considered to be entrepreneurial if it is not innovative?
• Activities – What activities does a person need to do to be considered an entrepreneur?
• Creation of a new business – Does someone need to start a new business to be considered to be an entrepreneur, or can someone who buys a business, buys into a franchise, or takes over an existing family business be considered an entrepreneur?
• Starts an innovative venture within an established organization – Can someone who works within an existing organization that they don’t own be considered an entrepreneur if they start an innovative venture for their organization?
• Creation of a not-for-profit business – Can a venture be considered to be entrepreneurial if it is a not-for-profit, or should only for-profit businesses be considered entrepreneurial?

After identifying the 90 attributes, Gartner (1990) went back to the entrepreneurs and other experts for help in clustering the attributes into themes that would help summarize what people concerned with entrepreneurship thought about the concept. He ended up with the following eight entrepreneurship themes:

1. The Entrepreneur – The entrepreneur theme is the idea that entrepreneurship involves individuals with unique personality characteristics and abilities (e.g., risk-taking, locus of control, autonomy, perseverance, commitment, vision, creativity). Almost 50% of the respondents rated these characteristics as not important to a definition of entrepreneurship (Gartner, 1990, p. 21, 24).

• “The question that needs to be addressed is: Does entrepreneurship involve entrepreneurs (individuals with unique characteristics)?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

2. Innovation – The innovation theme is characterized as doing something new as an idea, product, service, market, or technology in a new or established organization. The innovation theme suggests that innovation is not limited to new ventures, but recognized as something which older and/or larger organizations may undertake as well (Gartner, 1990, p. 25). Some of the experts Gartner questioned believed that it was important to include innovation in definitions of entrepreneurship and others did not think it was as important.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve innovation?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

3. Organization Creation – The organization creation theme describes the behaviors involved in creating organizations. This theme described acquiring and integrating resource attributes (e.g., Brings resources to bear, integrates opportunities with resources, mobilizes resources, gathers resources) and attributes that described creating organizations (new venture development and the creation of a business that adds value). (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)

• “Does entrepreneurship involve resource acquisition and integration (new venture creation activities)?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)

4. Creating Value – This theme articulated the idea that entrepreneurship creates value. The attributes in this factor indicated that value creation might be represented by transforming a business, creating a new business growing a business, creating wealth, or destroying the status quo.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve creating value?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

5. Profit or Nonprofit

• “Does entrepreneurship involve profit-making organizations only” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)?
• Should a focus on growth be a characteristic of entrepreneurship?

7. Uniqueness – This theme suggested that entrepreneurship must involve uniqueness. Uniqueness was characterized by attributes such as a special way of thinking, a vision of accomplishment, ability to see situations in terms of unmet needs, and creates a unique combination.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve uniqueness?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 26).

8. The Owner-Manager – Some of the respondents questioned by Gartner (1990) did not believe that small mom-and-pop types of businesses should be considered to be entrepreneurial. Some respondents felt that an important element of a definition of entrepreneurship was that a venture be owner-managed.

• To be entrepreneurial, does a venture need to be owner-managed?

Examples of Definitions of Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur can be described as “one who creates a new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying significant opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them” (Zimmerer & Scarborough, 2008, p. 5).

An entrepreneur is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise” (Entrepreneur, n.d.).

Examples of Definitions of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship can be defined as a field of business that

seeks to understand how opportunities to create something new (e.g., new products or services, new markets, new production processes or raw materials, new ways of organizing existing technologies) arise and are discovered or created by specific persons, who then use various means to exploit or develop them, thus producing a wide range of effects (Baron, Shane, & Reuber, 2008, p. 4)

A concise definition of entrepreneurship “is that it is the process of pursuing opportunities without limitation by resources currently in hand” (Brooks, 2009, p. 3) and “the process of doing something new and something different for the purpose of creating wealth for the individual and adding value to society” (Kao, 1993, p. 70)

The Evolution of Entrepreneurship Thought

This section includes an overview of how entrepreneurship has evolved to the present day.

The following timeline shows some of the most influential entrepreneurship scholars and the schools of thought (French, English, American, German, and Austrian) their perspectives helped influence and from which their ideas evolved. Schools of thought are essentially groups of people who might or might not have personally known each other, but who shared common beliefs or philosophies.

Figure 1 – Historical and Evolutionary Entrepreneurship Thought (Illustration by Lee A. Swanson)

The Earliest Entrepreneurship

The function, if not the name, of the entrepreneur is probably as old as the institutions of barter and exchange. But only after economic markets became an intrusive element of society did the concept take on pivotal importance. Many economists have recognized the pivotal role of the entrepreneur in a market economy. Yet despite his central importance in economic activity, the entrepreneur has been a shadowy and elusive figure in the history of economic theory (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 1).

Historically those who acted similarly to the ways we associate with modern day entrepreneurs – namely those who strategically assume risks to seek economic (or other) gains – were military leaders, royalty, or merchants. Military leaders planned their campaigns and battles while assuming significant risks, but by doing so they also stood to gain economic benefits if their strategies were successful. Merchants, like Marco Polo who sailed out of Venice in the late 1200s to search for a trade route to the Orient, also assumed substantial risks in the hope of becoming wealthy (Hebert & Link, 2009).

The entrepreneur, who was also called adventurer , projector , and undertaker during the eighteenth century, was not always viewed in a positive light (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Development of Entrepreneurship as a Concept

Risk and uncertainty.

Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) was born in France and belonged to the French School of thought although he was an Irish economist. He appears to be the person who introduced the term entrepreneur to the world. “According to Cantillon, the entrepreneur is a specialist in taking on risk, ‘insuring’ workers by buying their output for resale before consumers have indicated how much they are willing to pay for it” (Casson & Godley, 2005p. 26). The workers’ incomes are mostly stable, but the entrepreneur risks a loss if market prices fluctuate.

Cantillon distinguished entrepreneurs from two other classes of economic agents; landowners, who were financially independent, and hirelings (employees) who did not partake in the decision-making in exchange for relatively stable incomes through employment contracts. He was the first writer to provide a relatively refined meaning for the term entrepreneurship . Cantillon described entrepreneurs as individuals who generated profits through exchanges. In the face of uncertainty, particularly over future prices, they exercise business judgment. They purchase resources at one price and sell their product at a price that is uncertain, with the difference representing their profit (Chell, 2008; Hebert & Link, 2009).

Farmers were the most prominent entrepreneurs during Cantillon’s lifetime, and they interacted with “arbitrageurs” – or middlemen between farmers and the end consumers – who also faced uncertain incomes, and who were also, therefore, entrepreneurs. These intermediaries facilitated the movement of products from the farms to the cities where more than half of the farm output was consumed. Cantillon observed that consumers were willing to pay a higher price per unit to be able to purchase products in the smaller quantities they wanted, which created the opportunities for the intermediaries to make profits. Profits were the rewards for assuming the risks arising from uncertain conditions. The markets in which profits were earned were characterized by incomplete information (Chell, 2008; Hebert & Link, 2009).

Adolph Reidel (1809-1872), form the German School of thought, picked up on Cantillon’s notion of uncertainty and extended it to theorize that entrepreneurs take on uncertainty so others, namely income earners, do not have to be subject to the same uncertainty. Entrepreneurs provide a service to risk-averse income earners by assuming risk on their behalf. In exchange, entrepreneurs are rewarded when they can foresee the impacts of the uncertainty and sell their products at a price that exceeds their input costs (including the fixed costs of the wages they commit to paying) (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Frank Knight (1885-1972) founded the Chicago School of Economics and belonged to the American School of thought. He refined Cantillon’s perspective on entrepreneurs and risk by distinguishing insurable risk as something that is separate from uncertainty, which is not insurable. Some risks can be insurable because they have occurred enough times in the past that the expected loss from such risks can be calculated. Uncertainty, on the other hand, is not subject to probability calculations. According to Knight, entrepreneurs can’t share the risk of loss by insuring themselves against uncertain events, so they bear these kinds of risks themselves, and profit is the reward that entrepreneurs get from assuming uninsurable risks (Casson & Godley, 2005).

Distinction Between Entrepreneur and Manager

Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832), also from the French School, advanced Cantillon’s work, but added that entrepreneurship was essentially a form of management. Say “put the entrepreneur at the core of the entire process of production and distribution” (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 17). Say’s work resulted in something similar to a general theory of entrepreneurship with three distinct functions; “scientific knowledge of the product; entrepreneurial industry – the application of knowledge to useful purpose; and productive industry – the manufacture of the item by manual labour” (Chell, 2008, p. 20).

Frank Knight made several contributions to entrepreneurship theory, but another of note is how he distinguished an entrepreneur from a manager. He suggested that a manager crosses the line to become an entrepreneur “when the exercise of his/her judgment is liable to error and s/he assumes the responsibility for its correctness” (Chell, 2008, p. 33). Knight said that entrepreneurs calculate the risks associated with uncertain business situations and make informed judgments and decisions with the expectation that – if they assessed the situation and made the correct decisions – they would be rewarded by earning a profit. Those who elect to avoid taking these risks choose the relative security of being employees (Chell, 2008).

Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), from the English School of thought, was one of the founders of neoclassical economics. His research involved distinguishing between the terms capitalist, entrepreneur, and manager. Marshall saw capitalists as individuals who “committed themselves to the capacity and honesty of others, when he by himself had incurred the risks for having contributed with the capital” (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 775). An entrepreneur took control of money provided by capitalists in an effort to leverage it to create more money; but would lose less if something went wrong then would the capitalists. An entrepreneur, however, risked his own reputation and the other gains he could have made by pursuing a different opportunity.

Let us suppose that two men are carrying on smaller businesses, the one working with his own, the other chiefly with borrowed capital. There is one set of risks which is common to both; which may be described as the trade risks of the particular business … But there is another set of risks, the burden of which has to be borne by the man working with borrowed capital, and not by the other; and we may call them personal risks (Marshall, 1961, p. 590; Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 776).

Marshall recognized that the reward capitalists received for contributing capital was interest income and the reward entrepreneurs earned was profits. Managers received a salary and, according to Marshall, fulfilled a different function than either capitalists or entrepreneurs – although in some cases, particularly in smaller firms, one person might be both an entrepreneur and a manager. Managers “were more inclined to avoid challenges, innovations and what Schumpeter called the ‘perennial torment of creative destruction’ in favour of a more tranquil life” (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 781). The main risks they faced from firm failure were to their reputations or to their employment status. Managers had little incentive to strive to maximize profits (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005).

Amasa Walker (1799-1875) and his son Francis Walker (1840-1897) were from the American School of thought, and they helped shape an American perspective of entrepreneurship following the Civil War of 1861-1865. These scholars claimed that entrepreneurs created wealth, and thus played a different role than capitalists. They believed that entrepreneurs had the power of foresight and leadership qualities that enabled them to organize resources and inject energy into activities that create wealth (Chell, 2008).

Entrepreneurship versus Entrepreneur

Adam Smith (1723-1790), from the English School of thought, published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776. In a departure from the previous thought into entrepreneurship and economics, Smith did not dwell on a particular class of individual. He was concerned with studying how all people fit into the economic system. Smith contended that the economy was driven by self-interest in the marketplace (Chell, 2008).

Also from the English School, David Ricardo (1772-1823) was influenced by Smith, Say, and others. His work focused on how the capitalist system worked. He explained how manufacturers must invest their capital in response to the demand for the products they produce. If demand decreases, manufacturers should borrow less and reduce their workforces. When demand is high, they should do the reverse (Chell, 2008).

Carl Menger (1840-1921), from the Austrian School of thought, ranked goods according to their causal connections to human satisfaction. Lower order goods include items like bread that directly satisfy a human want or need like hunger. Higher order goods are those more removed from satisfying a human need. A second order good is the flour that was used to make the bread. The grain used to make the flour is an even higher order good. Entrepreneurs coordinate these factors of production to turn higher order goods into lower order goods that more directly satisfy human wants and needs (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Menger (1950 [1871], p. 160) established that entrepreneurial activity includes: (a) obtaining information about the economic situation, (b) economic calculation – all the various computations that must be made if a production process is to be efficient, (c) the act of will by which goods of higher order are assigned to a particular production process, and (d) supervising the execution of the production plan so that it may be carried through as economically as possible (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 43).

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), from the English School of thought, considered entrepreneurs to be innovators. They “depart from routine, discover new markets, find new sources of supply, improve existing products and lower the costs of production” (Chell, 2008).

Joseph Schumpeter’s (1883-1950) parents were Austrian, he studied at the University of Vienna, conducted research at the University of Graz, served as Austria’s Minister of Finance, and was the president of a bank in the country. Because of the rise of Hitler in Europe, he went to the United States and conducted research at Harvard until he retired in 1949. Because of this, he is sometimes associated with the American School of thought on entrepreneurship (Chell, 2008).

Whereas Menger saw entrepreneurship as occurring because of economic progress, Schumpeter took the opposite stance. Schumpeter saw economic activity as leading to economic development (Hebert & Link, 2009). Entrepreneurs play a central role in Schumpeter’s theory of economic development, and economic development can occur when the factors of production are assembled in new combinations .

Schumpeter (1934) viewed innovation as arising from new combinations of materials and forces. He provided the following five cases of new combinations.

• The introduction of a new good – that is one with which consumers are not yet familiar – or of a new quality of good.
• The introduction of a new method of production, that is one not yet tested by experience in the branch of manufacture concerned, which need by no means be founded upon a discovery scientifically new, and can also exist in a new way of handling a commodity commercially.
• The opening of a new market, that is a market into which the particular branch of manufacture of the country in question has not previously entered, whether or not this market has existed before.
• The conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or half-manufactured goods, again irrespective of whether this source already exists or whether it has first to be created.
• The carrying out of the new organisation of any industry, like the creation of a monopoly position … or the breaking up of a monopoly position (Schumpeter, 1934, p. 66).

Another concept popularized by Schumpeter – in addition to the notion of new combinations – was creative destruction . This was meant to indicate that the existing ways of doing things need to be dismantled – to be destroyed – to enable a transformation through innovation to a new way of doing things. Entrepreneurs use innovation to disrupt how things are done and to establish a better way of doing those things.

Basic Questions in Entrepreneurship Research

According to Baron (2004a), there are three basic questions of interest in the field of entrepreneurship:

• Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs?
• Why do some persons but not others recognize opportunities for new products or services that can be profitably exploited?
• Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others (Baron, 2004a, p. 221)?

To understand where these foundational research questions came from and what their relevance is today, it is useful to study what entrepreneurship research has uncovered so far.

Entrepreneurial Uniqueness

Efforts to teach entrepreneurship have included descriptions of entrepreneurial uniqueness based on personality, behavioural, and cognitive traits (Chell, 2008; Duening, 2010).

• Need for achievement
• Internal locus of control (a belief by an individual that they are in control of their own destiny)
• Risk-taking propensity
• Behavioural traits
• Cognitive skills of successful entrepreneurs

Past studies of personality characteristics and behavioural traits have not been overly successful at identifying entrepreneurial uniqueness.

As it turned out, years of painstaking research along this line has not borne significant fruit. It appears that there are simply not any personality characteristics that are either essential to, or defining of, entrepreneurs that differ systematically from non-entrepreneurs…. Again, investigators proposed a number of behavioural candidates as emblematic of entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, this line of research also resulted in a series of dead ends as examples of successful entrepreneurial behaviours had equal counterparts among samples of non-entrepreneurs. As with the personality characteristic school of thought before it, the behavioural trait school of thought became increasingly difficult to support (Duening, 2010, p. 4-5).

This shed doubt on the value of trying to change personality characteristics or implant new entrepreneurial behaviours through educational programs in an effort to promote entrepreneurship.

New research, however, has resurrected the idea that there might be some value in revisiting personality traits as a topic of study. Additionally, Duening (2010) and has suggested that an important approach to teaching and learning about entrepreneurship is to focus on the “cognitive skills that successful entrepreneurs seem uniquely to possess and deploy” (p. 2). In the next sections we consider the new research on entrepreneurial personality traits and on entrepreneurial cognitions.

Entrepreneurial Personality Traits

While acknowledging that research had yet to validate the value of considering personality and behaviour traits as ways to distinguish entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs or unsuccessful ones, Chell (2008) suggested that researchers turn their attention to new sets of traits including: “the proactive personality, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perseverance and intuitive decision-making style. Other traits that require further work include social competence and the need for independence” (p. 140).

In more recent years scholars have considered how the Big Five personality traits – extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism (sometimes presented as emotional stability ), and openness to experience (sometimes referred to as intellect) – might be used to better understand entrepreneurs. It appears that the Big Five traits might be of some use in predicting entrepreneurial success. Research is ongoing in this area, but in one example, Caliendo, Fossen, and Kritikos (2014) studied whether personality constructs might “influence entrepreneurial decisions at different points in time” (p. 807), and found that “high values in three factors of the Big Five approach—openness to experience, extraversion, and emotional stability (the latter only when we do not control for further personality characteristics)—increase the probability of entry into self-employment” (p. 807). They also found “that some specific personality characteristics, namely risk tolerance, locus of control, and trust, have strong partial effects on the entry decision” (p. 807). They also found that people who scored higher on agreeableness were more likely to exit their businesses, possibly meaning that people with lower agreeableness scores might prevail longer as entrepreneurs. When it came to specific personality traits, their conclusions indicated that those with an external locus of control were more likely to stop being self-employed after they had run their businesses for a while. There are several implications for research like this, including the potential to better understand why some entrepreneurs behave as they do based upon their personality types and the chance to improve entrepreneurship education and support services.

Entrepreneurial Cognitions

It is only fairly recently that entrepreneurship scholars have focused on cognitive skills as a primary factor that differentiates successful entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs and less successful entrepreneurs. This approach deals with how entrepreneurs think differently than non-entrepreneurs (Duening, 2010; Mitchell et al., 2007).

Entrepreneurial cognitions are the knowledge structures that people use to make assessments, judgments or decisions involving opportunity evaluation and venture creation and growth. In other words, research in entrepreneurial cognition is about understanding how entrepreneurs use simplifying mental models to piece together previously unconnected information that helps them to identify and invent new products or services, and to assemble the necessary resources to start and grow businesses (Mitchell, Busenitz, et al., 2002, p. 97).

Mitchell, Smith, et al. (2002) provided the example of how the decision to create a new venture (dependent variable) was influenced by three sets of cognitions (independent variables). They described these cognitions as follows:

Arrangements cognitions are the mental maps about the contacts, relationships, resources, and assets necessary to engage in entrepreneurial activity; willingness cognitions are the mental maps that support commitment to venturing and receptivity to the idea of starting a venture; ability cognitions consist of the knowledge structures or scripts (Glaser, 1984) that individuals have to support the capabilities, skills, norms, and attitudes required to create a venture (Mitchell et al., 2000). These variables draw on the idea that cognitions are structured in the minds of individuals (Read, 1987), and that these knowledge structures act as “scripts” that are the antecedents of decision making (Leddo & Abelson, 1986, p. 121; Mitchell, Smith, et al., 2002, p. 10)

Cognitive Perspective to Understanding Entrepreneurship

According to Baron (2004a), by taking a cognitive perspective, we might better understand entrepreneurs and the role they play in the entrepreneurial process.

The cognitive perspective emphasizes the fact that everything we think, say, or do is influenced by mental processes—the cognitive mechanisms through which we acquire store, transform, and use information. It is suggested here that this perspective can be highly useful to the field of entrepreneurship. Specifically, it can assist the field in answering three basic questions it has long addressed: (1) Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs? (2) Why do some persons but not others recognize opportunities for new products or services that can be profitably exploited? And (3) Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others (Baron, 2004a, p. 221-222)?

Baron (2004a), illustrated how cognitive differences between people might explain why some people end up pursuing entrepreneurial pursuits and others do not. For example, prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1977) and other decision-making or behavioural theories might be useful in this regard. Research into cognitive biases might also help explain why some people become entrepreneurs.

Baron (2004a) also revealed ways in which cognitive concepts like signal detection theory, regulation theory, and entrepreneurial might help explain why some people are better at entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. He also illustrated how some cognitive models and theories – like risk perception, counterfactual thinking, processing style, and susceptibility to cognitive errors – might help explain why some entrepreneurs are more successful than others.

Cognitive Perspective and the Three Questions

• Prospect Theory
• Cognitive Biases
• Signal Detection Theory
• Regulation Theory
• Entrepreneurial Alertness
• Risk Perception
• Counterfactual Thinking
• Processing Style
• Susceptibility to Cognitive Errors

Entrepreneurial Scripts

• “Cognition has emerged as an important theoretical perspective for understanding and explaining human behavior and action” (Dutta & Thornhill, 2008, p. 309).
• Cognitions are all processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used (Neisser, 1976).
• Cognitions lead to the acquisition of knowledge, and involve human information processing.
• Is a mental model, or information processing short-cut that can give information form and meaning, and enable subsequent interpretation and action.
• The subsequent interpretation and actions can result in expert performance … they can also result in thinking errors.
• the processes that transfer expertise, and
• the actual expertise itself.
• Scripts are generally framed as a linear sequence of steps, usually with feedback loops, that can explain how to achieve a particular task – perhaps like developing a business plan.
• Sometimes scripts can be embedded within other scripts. For example, within a general venturing script that outlines the sequences of activities that can lead to a successful business launch, there will probably be sub-scripts describing how entrepreneurs can search for ideas, screen those ideas until one is selected, plan how to launch a sustainable business based upon that idea and including securing the needed financial resources, setting up the business, starting it, effectively managing its ongoing operations, and managing the venture such that that entrepreneur can extract the value that they desire from the enterprise at the times and in the ways they want it.
• The most effective scripts include an indication of the norms that outline performance standards and indicate how to determine when any step in the sequence has been properly completed.

General Venturing Script

Generally, entrepreneurship is considered to consist of the following elements, or subscripts (Brooks, 2009; Mitchell, 2000).

• Idea Screening
• Planning and Financing
• Ongoing Operations

Searching (also called idea formulation or opportunity recognition)

• This script begins when a person decides they might be a potential entrepreneur (or when an existing entrepreneur decides they need more ideas in their idea pool ).
• This script ends when there are a sufficient number of ideas in the idea pool.
• overcome mental blockages to creativity which might hinder this person’s ability to identify viable ideas;
• implement steps to identify a sufficient number of ideas (most likely 5 or more) which the person is interested in investigating to determine whether they might be viable given general criteria such as this person’s personal interests and capabilities;

Idea Screening (also called concept development)

• This script begins when the person with the idea pool is no longer focusing on adding new ideas to it; but is instead taking steps to choose the best idea for them given a full range of specific criteria .
• This script ends when one idea is chosen from among those in the idea pool.
• Evaluate the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal climates
• Evaluate the degree of competitiveness in the industry, the threat of substitutes emerging, the threat of new entrants to the industry, the degree of bargaining power of buyers, and the degree of bargaining power of suppliers.
• Do a market profile analysis to assess the attractiveness of the position within the industry that the potential venture will occupy.
• Formulate and evaluate potential strategies to leverage organizational strengths, overcome/minimize weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities, and overcome/minimize threats;
• Complete financial projections and analyze them to evaluate financial attractiveness;
• Assess the founder fit with the ideas;
• Evaluate the core competencies of the organization relative to the idea;
• Assess advice solicited from trusted advisers

Planning and Financing (also called resource determination and acquisition)

• This script begins when the idea screening script ends and when the person begins making the plans to implement the single idea chosen from the idea pool, which is done in concert with securing financing to implement the venture idea.
• This script ends when sufficient business planning has been done and when adequate financing has been arranged.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps to develop a business plan and secure adequate financing to start the business.

Set-Up (also called launch)

• This script begins when the planning and financing script ends and when the person begins implementing the plans needed to start the business.
• This script ends when the business is ready to start-up.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps, including purchasing and installing equipment, securing the venture location and finishing all the needed renovations, recruiting and hiring any staff needed for start-up, and the many other steps needed to prepare for start-up.
• Start-Up (also called launch)
• This script begins when the set-up script ends and when the business opens and begins making sales.
• This script ends when the business has moved beyond the point where the entrepreneur must continually fight for the business’s survival and persistence. It ends when the entrepreneur can instead shift emphasis toward business growth or maintaining the venture’s stability.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps needed to establish a new venture.

Ongoing Operations (also called venture growth)

• This script begins when the start-up script ends and when the business has established persistence and is implementing growth (or maintenance) strategies.
• This script ends when the entrepreneur chooses to harvest the value they generated with the venture.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps needed to grow (or maintain) a venture.

Studying Entrepreneurship

The following quotations from two preeminent entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education researchers indicate the growing interest in studies in this field.

Entrepreneurship has emerged over the last two decades as arguably the most potent economic force the world has ever experienced. With that expansion has come a similar increase in the field of entrepreneurship education. The recent growth and development in the curricula and programs devoted to entrepreneurship and new-venture creation have been remarkable. The number of colleges and universities that offer courses related to entrepreneurship has grown from a handful in the 1970s to over 1,600 in 2005 (Kuratko, 2005, p. 577).

Interest in entrepreneurship has heightened in recent years, especially in business schools. Much of this interest is driven by student demand for courses in entrepreneurship, either because of genuine interest in the subject, or because students see entrepreneurship education as a useful hedge given uncertain corporate careers (Venkataraman, 1997, p. 119).

Approaches to Studying Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a discipline, which means an individual can learn about it, and about how to be an effective entrepreneur. It is a myth that people are born entrepreneurs and that others cannot learn to become entrepreneurs (Drucker, 1985). Kuratko (2005) asserted that the belief previously held by some that entrepreneurship cannot be taught has been debunked, and the focus has shifted to what topics should be taught and how they should be covered.

Solomon (2007) summarized some of the research on what should be covered in entrepreneurship courses, and how it should be taught. While the initial focus was on actions like developing business plans and being exposed to real entrepreneurs, more recently this approach has been supplemented by an emphasis on technical, industry, and personal experience. “It requires critical thinking and ethical assessment and is based on the premise that successful entrepreneurial activities are a function of human, venture and environmental conditions” (p. 172). Another approach “calls for courses to be structured around a series of strategic development challenges including opportunity identification and feasibility analysis; new venture planning, financing and operating; new market development and expansion strategies; and institutionalizing innovation” (p. 172). This involves having students interact with entrepreneurs by interviewing them, having them act as mentors, and learning about their experiences and approaches through class discussions.

Sources of Information for Studying Entrepreneurship

According to Kuratko (2005), “three major sources of information supply the data related to the entrepreneurial process or perspective” (p. 579).

• Academic journals like Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice , Journal of Business Venturing , and Journal of Small Business Management
• Proceedings of conferences like Proceedings of the Academy of Management and Proceedings of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada
• Textbooks on entrepreneurship
• Books about entrepreneurship
• Biographies or autobiographies of entrepreneurs
• News periodicals like Canadian Business and Profit
• Trade periodicals like Entrepreneur and Family Business
• Government publications available through sources like the Enterprise Saskatchewan and Canada-Saskatchewan Business Service Centre (CSBSC) websites and through various government resource centers
• Data might be collected from entrepreneurs and about entrepreneurs through surveys, interviews, or other methods applied by researchers.
• Speeches and presentations by practicing entrepreneurs

Essay on Entrepreneurship: Top 9 Essays | Business Management

Here is a compilation of essays on ‘Entrepreneurship’ for class 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Entrepreneurship’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on Entrepreneurship

Essay Contents:

• Essay on the Benefits of Entrepreneurship

Essay # 1. Introduction to Entrepreneurship:

Entrepreneurship is the name given to the factor of production which performs the functions of Enterprise. In economics, Land, Labour, Capital, Organisation and Enterprise are the five factors which are thought to be the basis of all the production activities.

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Entrepreneurship in a broader sense can be considered as a process of action undertaken by an entrepreneur (Person) to establish his enterprise. It is a creative and innovative response to the environment.

Entrepreneurship can be described as a creative and innovative response to the environment. Such responses may take place in any field of social endeavour may be business, agriculture, social work and education etc.

For the entrepreneur it is important to have knowledge about the economic and political environment, more particularly about the economic policies of the government and the financial as well as commercial institutions.

Thus a simple definition of entrepreneurship is doing new things or doing things which are already being done in a new way.

According to Dr. J.E. Stepenek, “Entrepreneurship” is the capacity to take risk; ability to organise and desire to diversify and make innovations in the enterprise.

According to Higgins, Entrepreneurship is meant for the function of seeing investment and production opportunity, organising in enterprise to undertake a new production process, raising capital, hiring labour, arranging the supply of raw materials, finding site, introducing new techniques and commodities, discovering new sources of raw materials and selecting top managers for day to day operation of the enterprise.

It may be concluded that entrepreneurship is a composite skill, the resultant of many qualities and traits. These include, imagination ready to take risk, ability to bring together and utilize other factors of production such as capital, land and labour along with intangible factors such as capability to mobilise scientific and technological developments.

Entrepreneurship thus involves taking risk and making essential investments under conditions of uncertainty. At the same time it is connected with innovation, planning and taking decisions so as to increase productivity in industry, business and agriculture etc. It thus plays a key role in the process of economic development.

Essay # 2. Definition of Entrepreneurship:

Entrepreneurship is a pro­cess of action an entrepreneur undertakes to establish his enter­prise. Entrepreneurship is a re­sultant mix of many qualities and traits of an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship can be de­fined as a process undertaken by entrepreneur to augment his business interests. It is an exer­cise involving innovation and creativity that will go towards establishing his/her enterprise.

Entrepreneurship is the inclination of mind to take calculated risks with confidence to achieve a predetermined business or industrial objectives.

Essay # 3. Growth and Success of Entrepreneurship :

Entrepreneurship has opened avenues of great scope in the Indian economy. Our national economy is most suited to the growth of small business enterprise. Small business units offer a more convenient means of nurturing and developing entrepreneurship by providing the means of entry into business for new entrepreneurship talents. Small-scale industries are labour-in­tensive and can play an important role in solving the problem of unemployment.

Success of Entrepreneurship :

Following aspects are necessary for the successful entrepreneurship:

1. Regular inflow of information related to buyers, consumers, distributors, dealers, retailers, transporters etc., about raw material, quality aspects, government organisations, employees and competitors.

2. Satisfying the needs of customers.

3. Generation of adequate cash flow.

4. Regular objective assessment of the enterprise.

5. Improving productivity.

6. Maintenance of quality.

7. Use of technology of the time.

8. Be innovative.

9. Keep employees motivated.

10. Scrap or waste material be utilised properly.

11. Time management.

Essay # 4. Entrepreneurial v/s Managerial Styles :

An entrepreneur is a person who is motivated to satisfy a high need for achievement in innovative and creative activities. This creative behaviour and innovative spirit forms a process of an endless chain and is termed as entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur is also required to manage his business. He has to perform both entrepreneurial and managerial func­tions. After the start of the business he becomes more as manager.

Manager is one who specialises in the work of planning, organising, leading and controlling the efforts of others. He does it through systematic use of his classified knowledge and principles. He should have an insight of job requirement, which he should continuously update.

An entrepreneur must adopt the style of professional management. He must organise mana­gerial functions by setting long term objectives, formulating strategic policies, developing man­agement information system, monitoring and evaluation systems. He is required to possess management knowledge related to technical, economical, financial, human and administrative aspects.

There is a vast difference between owner-manager and professional-manager. The owner- manager is identified with individuality, flair, strong motivation to achieve success and pros­per, while the professional-manager is concerned with the planning, organising, motivating and controlling. Owner-manager builds the organisation, assumes all business risks, and also loses his reputation and prestige in the event of failure of business, whereas professional-manager is not exposed to such risks.

Thus entrepreneurship is a process of combining resources to produce new goods or services and reappears to initiate another change. Entrepreneurs are also required to play other roles, especially those of capitalist and manager. Managerial function of an entrepreneur is a continu­ous process of combining the factors related to production.

Essay # 5. Entrepreneurial Development :

For the economic development, entrepreneurial development is necessary. For the purpose of entrepreneurial development, rapid growth of small scale sector is necessary. Entrepreneur­ial development programmes are designed to help a person in strengthening his entrepreneur­ial motive and in acquiring skills and capabilities necessary for playing his role effectively.

Main objective of the entrepreneurial development programme is to motivate and assist pro­spective and potential entrepreneurs to set up small scale units of their own and thus become self-employed and contribute significantly to production and employment in the country.

Entrepreneurial development programme must be designed properly and should incorpo­rate the following:

(i) Developing, achievement, motivation and sharpening entrepreneurial traits and behaviour.

(ii) Project planning and development, and guidance on industrial opportunities, incen­tives and facilities, rules and regulations.

(iii) Developing managerial and operational capabilities.

Keeping the target group and target area in view various strategies and approaches are adopted. The process of entrepreneurial development is designed very carefully and starts from identifying the potential and right candidates, linking suitable project with each one, and then training and developing the managerial and entrepreneurial capabilities, counseling and motivating them, and then providing the required follow-up support to help them in establishing their venture.

Objectives :

Objectives of entrepreneurial development programme are to help to:

(i) Develop and strengthen their entrepreneurial quality.

(ii) Analyse environment related to small business and small industry.

(iii) Select product and its project.

(iv) Formulate projects.

(v) Understand the procedure for setting up of small enterprise.

(vi) Support needed for launching the enterprise.

(vii) Acquire basic management skills.

(viii) Appreciate the social responsibilities.

(ix) Let him set the objectives of his business.

(x) Prepare him to accept risks.

(xi) Take strategic decisions.

(xii) Develop communicating skills.

Training for Entrepreneur :

Proper training is essential for the success of any industry in production techniques, man­agement, marketing and other aspects.

Small Industries Service Institutes and their Extension Centres are organising trainings:

(i) To improve technical skills of workers,

(ii) For acquainting the entrepreneurs with advanced production and management techniques.

The courses for workers are organised in the following areas:

(a) Shop practice courses such as machine shop practice, tool room practice, foundry, blacksmithy, electrical shop practice etc.

(b) Trade oriented courses, such as tool making, fitter, sheet metal, pattern making, carpentry etc.

(c) Process oriented courses, such as welding, heat treatment, electroplating, leather works etc.

(d) Product oriented courses, sport goods, foot wear, paint, varnish making etc.

Training programmes for entrepreneurs are of two types namely:

(i) For graduate and di­ploma holder engineers, physics and chemistry graduates and

(ii) For rural artisans, educated unemployed, ex-servicemen, weaker sections of the society, women entrepreneurs etc. with special courses for each of the categories of persons.

For providing training and upgradation of technology and managerial skills, specialised institutions have been set up.

For conducting entrepreneurship development programmes, the lead was given by Small Industries Development Organisation through its small industries service centres. Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) was established in 1983 at Ahmedabad as a resource organisation at the national level for the purpose of creating the institutional infra­structure for entrepreneurship development.

National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIES BHD) was established by the central Government at New Delhi, with the objective of coordinating activities related to entrepreneurship and small business development.

In addition, institutions established by the Government are:

(i) Rural Entrepreneurship Development Institute (RED) at Ranchi.

(ii) Rural Management and Management Centres (RMEDC) at Maharashtra.

Other organisational actively conducting entrepreneurship development programmes are:

(i) State Bank of India

(iii) Centre for Entrepreneurship Development at Ahmedabad and Hubli.

(iv) State financial corporations.

(v) Industrial consultancy organisations in various states.

(vi) Small Industries Extension Training Institute, Hyderabad.

(vii) Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (IEDs) in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa.

(viii) Management Development Institute (MDI) at Gurgaon (Haryana) near Delhi.

Some of the other institutions for entrepreneurial development are:

1. Central Institute of Tool Design, Hyderabad.

2. Central Tool Room and Training Centre, Calcutta.

3. NI SIET, Guwahati.

4. Institute for Design of Electrical Measuring Instruments, Bombay.

5. Electronic Service and Training Centre, Ramnagar.

6. Process-cum-Product Development Centre for Glass and Ceramic Industry, Ranchi.

7. Process and Product Development Centre, Agra.

8. Process and Product Development Centre, Meerut.

9. Central Institute of Hand Tools, Jalandhar.

10. Hand Tool Design Development and Training Centre, Nagpur.

11. New Indo-Danish Tool Rooms, Jamshedpur and Bhubaneswar.

12. Ino-German Tool Rooms-Indore, Ahmedabad and Aurangabad.

13. National Institute for Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development, New Delhi.

14. National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

15. Centre for the Improvement of Glass Industry, Firozabad.

16. National Council for Cement and Building Materials, Delhi, Ballabgarh, Hyderabad, Patna and Madras.

17. Indian Plywood Industries Research Institute, Bangalore.

18. Central Pulp and Paper Research Institute, Saharanpur.

19. National Federation of Industrial Cooperatives Limited, New Delhi.

20. Central Machine Tool Institute, Bangalore.

Essay # 6. Beliefs Regarding Entrepreneurship:

According to literature there are many myths about entrepreneurship:

But myths and realities about its are different as follows:

1. Myth about entrepreneurs is that they are born not made but “reality” is that entrepreneur characteristics and traits may be acquired through properly structured learning.

2. Myth regarding entrepreneurs is that all required is money but generally it is observed that excessive and surplus money reduces the risk taking opportunities, scarce for care resources and grasp for opportunities.

3. Myth regarding entrepreneurship is that it is profile of traits and characteristics but practically it is a combination of situational issues.

4. Myth about entrepreneurs is doer not thinkers whereas the reality is that frequent thinking in planning, creativity, innovation and risk taking is required.

5. As per myth “Business schools have no place in entrepreneurship” but in actual practice most of the successful entrepreneurs have come from engineering courses and business schools.

Essay # 7. Financing of Enterprise :

Finance is the main input of any enterprise. The entrepreneur needs capital to start with, and he also needs financial assistance at every stage of the project. Project finance is required for both short term and long term.

(a) Short-term Finance:

These usually refer to the funds required for a period of less than one year. These are usually required to meet variable, seasonal or temporary working capital requirements. Main sources for short term finance are borrowing from banks, trade credit, installment credit and customer advances.

(b) Medium-term Finance:

Period of one year to five years are regarded as a medium- term. These are generally required for permanent working capital, small expansions, replace­ments, modifications etc. These can be raised by issue of shares and debentures, borrowing from banks and other financial institutions, ploughing back of profits.

(c) Long-term Finance:

Periods more than 5 years are regarded as long-terms. These are required for procuring fixed assets, for substantial expansion, modernisation etc. Important sources of long-term finance are issue of shares and debentures, loans from financial institu­tions and ploughing back of profits.

Sources of Finance :

The sources from which the entrepreneurs can meet their financial needs for their projects are grouped as:

(a) Internal source, and

(b) External source.

In addition, the entrepreneur raises his finance by availing of available subsidies, state aid to industries etc. A judicious mix of funds from these sources should be given priority.

(a) Internal Sources of Finance:

(i) Personal and family savings.

(ii) Loans from L.I.C. and Provident Fund Account.

(iii) Loans against assets like land and property.

(iv) Loans against shares and debentures.

(v) Loans from relatives and friends.

(b) External Sources:

Substantial amount is required by an enterprise to buy machinery and equipment and to purchase land and buildings.

These finances are generally arranged from following sources:

(i) Borrowing from Banks.

(ii) Term-lending from institutions like IDBI; IFCI, Industrial Development Corpora­tions etc.

(iii) From Government and Semi-Government agencies.

(iv) Other sources.

Institutional Finance :

Institutional finance is available for large, medium, small and tiny industries by commer­cial banks. Commercial banks include the State Bank of India group, nationalised banks, pri­vate sector banks and development corporations which have been especially established to pro­vide industrial finance.

In addition, the Reserve Bank of India gives credit guarantees and the ECGC gives export guarantees to the small-scale sector. Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), by its refinance operations, plays a significant role in the promotion of the small scale- sector. The National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) offers financial assistance in the form of its hire-purchase schemes.

Besides, new institutions like mutual funds, lease companies, financial service institutions, investment companies, merchant banks etc. provide financial assistance and financial services to industries.

Essay # 8. Factors Essential for Successful Entrepreneurship:

The following aspects/factors are essential for successful entrepreneurship:

1. Regular inflow of information concerning consumers or buyers, distributors and dealers/retailers, transporters, etc., about raw materials, quality aspects, competitors, government organization and employees.

2. Aspects regarding satisfaction of consumer requirements.

5. Aspects concerning productivity improvement.

6. Quality maintenance.

7. Utilization of upto date technology.

8. To be innovative in view of competition.

10. Proper utilization of scrap or waste material.

11. Proper time management.

Essay # 9. Benefits of Entrepreneurship :

Entrepreneurship has following three benefits for society:

1. Economic Growth:

These provide economic upliftment of society and generate labour employment.

2. Productivity Improvement:

It helped in improving the productivity, which means the ability to produce more goods and services with less labour and other inputs.

3. New technologies, products and services:

It helps in promoting innovative tech­nologies, products and services.

Related Articles:

• Essay on Entrepreneurship | Management
• Essay on Entrepreneur: Top 8 Essays | Business Management
• Entrepreneurship: Compilation of Essays on Entrepreneurship
• 3 Special Challenges of Entrepreneurship | Business

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10 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

• 07 Jul 2020

Multiple factors go into starting a successful business venture, including a strong concept and initial funding. But, perhaps the most important ingredient is the entrepreneur. These are individuals who must transform their ideas into a fully operational business.

If you’re thinking about launching your own venture, you might be wondering if you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur . But first, what’s an entrepreneur, and what do they do?

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Entrepreneurship?

While entrepreneurship is commonly thought of as the process of starting a business, there are several nuances to consider.

In the HBS Online course Entrepreneurship Essentials , entrepreneurship is defined as “the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources currently controlled.” An opportunity can be a myriad of things, but the course describes it as "a proposed venture to sell a product or service for which customers are willing to pay more than the required investments and operating costs.”

Entrepreneurs —either as individuals or in teams—discover opportunities throughout their personal and professional lives. They form hypotheses on ways to deliver value to customers and perform structured tests to validate their ideas. This often involves recruiting teammates through networking and investing funds to determine how they’ll deliver a product or service at an acceptable cost.

Great entrepreneurs come from all walks of life. In Entrepreneurship Essentials, it’s noted that “there’s no single personality profile, and it’s important to pay attention to the entrepreneurial team, rather than focus on the individual.” And while that's true, there are certain characteristics and skills that are particularly important for entrepreneurs to have when starting and leading a venture.

Here are 10 characteristics shared by successful entrepreneurs.

1. Curiosity

Successful entrepreneurs have a distinct personality trait that sets them apart from other organizational leaders: a sense of curiosity. An entrepreneur's ability to remain curious allows them to continuously seek new opportunities. Rather than settling for what they think they know, entrepreneurs ask challenging questions and explore different avenues.

This is validated in the online course Entrepreneurship Essentials , where entrepreneurship is described as a “process of discovery." Without curiosity, entrepreneurs can’t achieve their main objective: discovering new opportunities.

The drive they have to continuously ask questions and challenge the status quo can lead them to valuable discoveries easily overlooked by other business professionals.

2. Willingness to Experiment

Along with curiosity, entrepreneurs require an understanding of structured experimentation, such as design thinking . With each new opportunity, an entrepreneur must run tests to determine if it’s worthwhile to pursue.

For example, if you have an idea for a new product or service that fulfills an underserved demand, you’ll have to ensure customers are willing to pay for it and it meets their needs . To do so, you’ll need to conduct thorough market research and run meaningful tests to validate your idea and determine its potential.

3. Adaptability

Entrepreneurship is an iterative process, and new challenges and opportunities present themselves at every turn. It’s nearly impossible to be prepared for every scenario, but successful business leaders must be adaptable.

This is especially true for entrepreneurs who need to evaluate situations and remain flexible to ensure their business keeps moving forward, no matter what unexpected changes occur.

4. Decisiveness

To be successful, an entrepreneur has to make difficult decisions and stand by them. As a leader, they’re responsible for guiding the trajectory of their business, including every aspect from funding and strategy to resource allocation.

Being decisive doesn’t always mean being correct. Entrepreneurs need the confidence to make challenging decisions and see them through to the end. If the outcome turns out to be less than favorable, the decision to take corrective action is just as important.

Check out our video on the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

5. Self-Awareness

A great entrepreneur is aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Rather than letting shortcomings hold them back, they build well-rounded teams that complement their abilities.

In many cases, it’s the entrepreneurial team, rather than an individual, that drives a business venture toward success. When starting your own business, it’s critical to surround yourself with teammates who have complementary talents and contribute to a common goal.

Related: 10 Tips to Help You Boost Team Performance

6. Risk Tolerance

Entrepreneurship is often associated with risk. While it’s true that launching a venture requires an entrepreneur to take risks, they also need to take steps to minimize it.

While many things can go wrong when launching a new venture, many things can go right. According to Entrepreneurship Essentials , entrepreneurs who actively manage the relationship between risk and reward position their companies to “benefit from the upside.”

Successful entrepreneurs are comfortable with encountering some level of risk to reap the rewards of their efforts; however, their risk tolerance is tightly related to their efforts to mitigate it.

7. Comfort with Failure

In addition to risk-management and calculated decision-making , entrepreneurship requires a certain level of comfort with failure.

“Of startups that have more than one employee, 70 percent survive at least two years, half last at least five years, and a quarter last 15 years,” says Harvard Business School Professor William Sahlman in Entrepreneurship Essentials . “Even then, only a small fraction of the survivors get to be significant employers.”

The reasons for failure are vast and encompass everything from a lack of business scalability to low product-market fit . While many of these risks can be avoided, some are inevitable.

Despite this, entrepreneurs must prepare themselves for, and be comfortable with, failure. Rather than let fear hold them back, they maintain a positive attitude to allow the possibility of success to propel them forward.

8. Persistence

While many successful entrepreneurs are comfortable with the possibility of failing, it doesn’t mean they give up easily. Rather, they see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Throughout the entrepreneurial process, many hypotheses turn out to be wrong, and some ventures fail altogether. Part of what makes an entrepreneur successful is their willingness to learn from mistakes, ask questions, and persist until they reach their goal.

Related: How to Become a More Resilient Leader

9. Innovative Thinking

Innovation often goes hand-in-hand with entrepreneurship. While innovation in business can be defined as an idea that’s both novel and useful, it doesn’t always involve creating an entirely new product or service. Some of the most successful startups have taken existing products or services and drastically improved them to meet the changing needs of the market.

Although innovation doesn’t come naturally to every entrepreneur, it’s a type of strategic mindset that can be cultivated. By developing your problem-solving skills , you’ll be well-equipped to spot innovative opportunities and position your venture for success.

10. Long-Term Focus

Most people associate entrepreneurship with starting a business. While the early stages of launching a venture, such as securing funding , are critical to its success, the process doesn’t end once the business is operational.

According to Entrepreneurship Essentials , “it’s easy to start a business, but hard to grow a sustainable and substantial one. Some of the greatest opportunities in history were discovered well after a venture launched.”

Entrepreneurship is a long-term endeavor, and entrepreneurs must focus on the process from beginning to end to ensure long-term success.

How to Develop the Qualities of an Entrepreneur

There’s no right or wrong way to be an entrepreneur. Characteristics and behaviors like experimentation, persistence, and innovation can be developed with time, experience, and training. As long as you possess the entrepreneurial spirit, you'll be able to seize opportunities and overcome challenges throughout your journey.

Are you interested in learning the ins and outs of entrepreneurship? Explore our four-week online course Entrepreneurship Essentials and our other entrepreneurship and innovation courses to learn to speak the language of the startup world. If you aren't sure which course is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

This post was updated on August 14, 2023. It was originally published on July 7, 2020.

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Exploring Social Entrepreneurship: ‘My Generation Is Full of Activists and Humanitarians’

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Knowledge@Wharton High School first met Fiorella Riccobono in 2015 when she was a senior in high school. We featured her in a story about a business class project to promote fair trade practices among Haitian coffee farmers. Now Riccobono, who is 19, is a college student studying finance and interdisciplinary social science with concentrations in economics and social entrepreneurship. In this personal essay, Riccobono talks about how and why she is embracing her calling to become a bold and tenacious change maker.

I just completed my freshman year of college at Florida State University (FSU), and in many ways I am feeling transformed. When you first step foot onto your college campus, the feeling is incredible. You have a sense of personal freedom that you have never experienced. In college, you start to explore your major based on your passion and build the necessary classes and curriculum to earn your degree. Now imagine that the major you chose is an emerging field in the business world. Imagine that it is a new program at your school, and imagine just how much room for growth that opportunity means for you.

That chosen field for me is social entrepreneurship. I fell in love with social entrepreneurship a few years ago when Mrs. Zocco, my business teacher at Edward A. McCarthy High School in Florida, showed me a video of the most genuinely happy and grateful man I had ever seen. He was one of the farmers participating in a fair trade coop in Haiti that our class was helping to run, and his smile was amazing. He was thanking us because now, through fair trade – which in this case was helping coffee farmers in Haiti’s poorest region earn a just wage for their very hard work — his children had enough money to go to school. Since that moment, I have been driven to learn all I can about social entrepreneurship and how to make it my life’s work.

Leaving the World a Better Place

Many of us want to be extraordinary, to be change makers and to make positive and influential contributions to society. I have discovered that my generation is full of activists, humanitarians and philanthropists. No matter our passions — education, health, environment, economic development — many of us share a common goal: to leave this world a better place than how we found it. I’ve gathered inspiration from the stories of famous social-justice advocates around the world, like Muhammad Yunus, who created the concept of microfinancing, and Malala Yousafzai, who advocates for women’s education. Both Muhammad and Malala are recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Social entrepreneurship is such an emerging concept that it is still not clearly defined. Most importantly, though, it is not charity. Although social entrepreneurs may need to rely on donations to launch their endeavors, they can’t create a business model based on donations, because charity is not sustainable. How can you build a business when you don’t know where your next dollar is coming from – or when?

In my experience, social entrepreneurs are individuals who draw on innovative business tactics to create solutions to societal issues. Social entrepreneurs combine government, nonprofit and traditional business practices in order to create a sustainable business model that is not only profitable, but also beneficial to the social sector. These innovators create large-scale, systemic and sustainable models by addressing a societal issue at its foundation – poverty, climate change, pollution, whatever it may be. Social entrepreneurs do not have an idea and then apply it. Instead, they go directly to the source of the issue and ask what is needed. Based on that answer, they build their business plans. Social entrepreneurs are often empathetic, bold, open-minded and tenacious.

So, that first day I stepped onto campus, I was more than ready to begin the next phase of my social entrepreneurship journey. The social entrepreneurship culture at Florida Sate University is growing rapidly. Early freshman year, I met Valarie Rodriguez, who wanted to start the Social Entrepreneurs and Innovators Club at FSU. I was the first person to join the team, and since then two of our board members have created social enterprises that are thriving within the Tallahassee community. Ramon started Unhoused Humanity, which uses crowd funding to help working homeless citizens make the down payment to get into a home. Often, the working poor do not have enough money saved up to make the hefty down payment needed for renting living space — typically first and last month rent and security and utility deposits. But they do generate enough income to pay their monthly rent once they are in. Unhoused Humanity helps the homeless get over that initial down-payment hurdle.

Another one of our members, Nikolas, has started Qultur. Qultur’s purpose is to use art to decrease crime in communities. Qultur creates and finds financing for events that bring together local artists, businesses and community members with the premise, “When we support and trust each other, we can live in harmony.”

Launching a social entrepreneurship club feels a bit like starting your own business. You have to find funding, promote your mission, explain the concept, and get people invested in your passion. I recruit local entrepreneurs to come speak at our events, plan those events, find funding and sponsors, and educate people on all aspects of social entrepreneurship.

I am getting hands-on social entrepreneurship experience in other ways, as well. The spring semester of my freshman year, I interned with a local fair trade coffee shop in Tallahassee. During that time, my team of interns created a micro social enterprise using the coffee shop’s food truck. We were trained as baristas and innovators and were responsible for creating a business model that would be profitable, while also maintaining a social mission.

We researched local areas and events and chose where to take our “fair trade” truck, what beverages we should make, and handled the actual food truck operations . We were the first group of interns to ever break even and create profit for this program. Our business model – like many other social enterprises — addressed a triple bottom line: people, planet and profits. The model had three key features: first, the coffee we brewed was purchased from small farmers who were paid a fair price through certified organic cooperatives. The coffee farms were bird-safe and shade-grown to ensure the organic coffee was environmentally sound. (Coffee farmers sometimes take strides to grow coffee in sunnier settings because it is faster; however, this often damages the biodiversity of the region.) And finally, the coffee shop placed all our profits in local and global humanitarian causes, truly addressing the triple bottom line.

Helping the Homeless

It is immensely inspiring to be part of a community where social justice is a priority. It is motivating to be surrounded by young individuals who are not only incentivized by profit, but by creating systemic change. I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making. People are no longer seeing global poverty as a call for charity, but as a place of economic and cultural growth. Young business minds no longer want to exploit our natural resources, rather build business models that protect our environment.

The best advice I can give to incoming freshmen at any school is to be empathetic, bold, open-minded and tenacious. You are about to be exposed to a world of information, opportunity and incredible curiosity. I am as passionate as ever about my social entrepreneurship future. This fall, with the help of my club members, I will be starting a research project at a local homeless shelter. My plan is to speak personally with members of the homeless community in Tallahassee in order to better understand their backgrounds, prior education, work experience and willingness to rejoin the workforce. I want to use this quantitative data to possibly identify a pattern in homelessness. By pinpointing the need, I can create meaningful solutions.

My ultimate goal is to launch a program that rehabilitates the homeless community and reengages homeless people as active, contributing members of society. My heart tells me that many of them want to improve their circumstances, but need the proper channels for lasting change. I’m not sure how this will all play out, but I have little doubt that we are laying the foundation for something truly extraordinary.

Related Links

• RedEye Mobile Cafe
• NY Times: The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur
• K@W Video: Muhammad Yunus: Lifting People Worldwide Out of Poverty
• FSU Social Entrepreneurship
• Unhoused Humanity

Conversation Starters

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. What does she mean by this? Why does she make this important distinction?

Using the “Related KWHS Articles” and “Related Links” tabs, find out more about Malala Yousafzai and Muhammad Yunus. How have they made an impact on the world? Can you think of any other social-justice champions whose missions inspire you?

Fiorella says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

200 comments on “ Exploring Social Entrepreneurship: ‘My Generation Is Full of Activists and Humanitarians’ ”

Fiorella Riccobono stressed that social entrepreneurship is not charity. She wanted the readers to understand the difference between social entrepreneurship and social services, which I believe readers should give certain importance. As a reader, I feel that I have understood the relation between social entrepreneurship and charity. This distinction plays a role in opening the minds of the readers in defining other facets of social entrepreneurship.

I agree, because many people don’t know the difference between social entrepreneurship and social service. In the social entrepreneurship, you gain money and it is very different than a charity

Social entrepreneurship is where you start companies and develop a fund for some type of environmental issue. Fiorella Riccobono does gain money, but it is for a cause. Fiorella Riccobono donates money to the homeless community because they want to improve their circumstances. I agree as well, that many people don’t know the difference between social service and social entrepreneurship. Unhoused Humanity helps the homeless get over that initial down-payment hurdle. When you are in Social entrepreneurship, you are exposed to a new world of information and technology.

Social entrepreneurship and charity overlap in many fields (helping the homeless, for example); however, charity fosters a feeling of dependence in its recipients. Knowing this, many are scared away from the field. If social entrepreneurs are looking to make a difference, they must set themselves apart from well-established foundations and philanthropy.

1. Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. She is correct. Social Entrepreneurs run a business. While they are more empathetic because their helping the social sector by solving global and humanitarian issues, they ask what is needed and then base their business plan around that. They make a profit while contributing to society. 2. Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel prize for founding the Grameen bank which aided a lot of people with financial structure. Malala Yousafzai fought for women’s education in Pakistan. 3. I agree that social entrepreneurship is the future of business because it builds a good reputation, which is important for an enterprise, while simultaneously making a profit.

1. Fiorella believes that donations are essential, however it can’t create business models because charities are not sustainable. A sustainable business is not only profitable, it has to be beneficial. They want to solve issues and make the business better. Businesses want to fix social issues as well as enviornment issues.

2. Yuman won the noble peace prize and helped people with finances, Malala wanted education for women in Pakistan

3. I agree with social entrepreneuership because it builds a businesses reputation

1. Fiorella Riccobono believes that it is not charity because she is trying to point out to the reader that social entrepreneurship is not a charity, as a charity is not sustainable, because you can’t control the influx of money. She means that social entrepreneurship can last over a long period, and has to be sustainable in order to help the most people possible.

2. Malala and Muhammad inspire the world. Malala inspires women to be educated, even in countries where women are not educated. She wrote a book of her injury, when she was shot by an Islamic group. Muhammad inspires young leaders globally. Also, he won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on social entrepreneurship. Another social justice champion that I admire is Oprah. She broke barriers by being one of the first black female millionaires in the United States. She also established an empire.

3. I believe that entrepreneurship offers a hopeful way to guide society. This helps people who have less money and in third world countries.

1) Fiorella Riccobonno stresses that it is not charity because she is trying to point out to the reader that social entrepreneurship is not a charity, as a charity is not sustainable, because you cant control the influx of money. She means that social entrepreneurship is different than charity because social entrepreneurship can last over a long period, and has to be sustainable in order to help the most people possible.

2) Malala and Muhammad inspire the world. Malala inspires women to be educated, even in countries where women are not educated. She wrote a book of her injury, when she was shot by an Islamic group. Muhammad inspires young leaders globally. He also won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on social entrepreneurship. Another social justice champion that I admire is Oprah Winfrey. She broke barriers by being very successful in her field of work, and her work in helping those less fortunate.

3) I believe that social entrepreneurship offers a hopeful way to help rehabilitate the community of people that are less than well off when it comes to their financial situation. Social entrepreneurship is a great way to give back to the less fortunate.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because because charity is not sustainable it cant support. she means that how can you build a buisness not knowing when your next pay is. she makes this important distinction so that she can inform the reader so that she gives a guideline. Malala Yousafzai is a pakastani actavist that emphasizes on women empowerment and how a group of people can make a change.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because although entrepreneurs may rely on donations they cant really create a business model based on it. She makes this important distinction because people may think that entrepreneurship is based on charity and donations when they are basically innovative business tactics to create solutions to social issues.

I Believe Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship isn’t charity so much because of how she wants to impact the world. If Social entrepreneurship was a charity, the problem would only at best get monetarily fixed. However, Social entrepreneurship targets to change the actual problem rather then just throw money at it.

I agree with Fiorella’s statement that social entrepreneurship is the future. Based on the information in this article it appears as though the goal of social entrepreneurship is to help fix the world’s problems. However, instead of simply creating a solution social entrepreneurship also finds ways tranform the issue into an opportunity for economic growth.

Social Entrepreneurship is not a charity because the business still makes money. They do help the community, but making money is a priority. This is an important distinction because she needs to stress the fact that the business still needs to make money. Fiorella does not want people to think that the are a charity that donates all their money.

When Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity she means that its also a business and she makes money off it. This is an important distinction because she needs to stress the fact that its a business and she still needs to make money at same time as helping.

The way in which Fiorella explained how social entrepreneurship is not a charity is very educated and clear to understand. It is easy to agree with her statement on social entrepreneurship not being a charity even though it, in some cases, acts like one. For example when a business receives money from investor, it is similar to a charity receiving money from people to support the business. She makes a very good point in saying that a business cannot operate not knowing where they will get their next dollar. Another good point she makes that not everybody would think of is that if a business is running on donations, and donations alone, the business would not be able to create a business model since charity is not sustainable.

I do agree with her thinking, thanks to our generation of young people getting more interested in social matters and being more open minded. Nowadays, people is more intereste in social, environmental, and economical matters, therefore, making them more eager to get involved with our society . Social entrepreneurs will help in developing abetter society for our people

When Fiorella states that social entrepreneurship is not charity she means that social entrepreneurship is its own thing. She recognizes it as being something that can help many people, in many different places, for many different causes. As opposed to charity which is something that helps one cause, or raises money for something in specific. She makes this important distinction because she also realizes that the topic could be confusing for some who do not necessarily know the exact difference between the two.

Malala Yousafzai is a true hero, a legend, who will be remembered forever. She is a courageous leader who fights for women to be able to get an education. On October 9, 2012 she was shot by the Taliban and left in critical condition. She pushed through and from this tragic event that happened to her, she made her voice heard. Her story is touching and she now has her own foundation that advocates for womens’ rights worldwide. Muhammad Yunus is a social entrepreneur from Bangladesh. He is known for founding the Grameen Bank and developing the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. His objective was to put an end to poverty by giving out loans that were suitable to the people and teaching them some financial principles to help themselves. Not only did these two icons earn a Nobel Peace Prize Award, but they will also have an everlasting legacy for their keen, creative, and unique minds. Some other social-justice champions that I admire are Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey.

Fiorella Riccobono explains that social entrepreneurship is not charity. She goes on to clarify that social entrepreneurship is, in essence, using traditional business practices to create a sustainable business model that is not only profitable, but also beneficial to the social sector. Fiorella makes sure to note that charity is not sustainable and that a business model cannot run on donations alone.

Social entrepreneurship is definitely the future of business and policy making because it is a business enterprise not only focused in profitable gains and societal claims. Its significance is reflected on the demand of customers for business to have grater social objectives.

Fiorella says that social entrepreneurship is not charity because it can’t create a business based on donations. Social entrepreneurship creates solutions to societal issues. This is an important distinct because social entrepreneurship should be it’s own business/its own work. It is not a charity where anyone can help, social entrepreneurship helps other businesses to thrive.

Malala Yousafzai and Muhammad Yunus are both huge figure in the world for what they are and what they accomplished. The impact that they had on the world is different from one to another but both helped the humankind to be better. Another social-justice champion that had a mission that inspire me is Nelson Mandela, for what he forgive and what he accomplished.

3. I do believe social entrepreneurship is the future. It allows to have a business that is self sustainable and driven to help the community/planet without having this motivation for self gain. More and more people will start to realize that if we help the planet as a whole, then we will all benefit from it. Not only does it feel great to know that you’re helping people but also you get the satisfaction of helping the whole entire planet.

Personally, I believe that there is a quote that fits this article.

“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you give him an occupation to feed him for his lifetime.”

Charity can be given to someone and yes, it can help them, however it does not provide something long lasting. Giving people jobs, and a way for them to work in just conditions is how you can truly help people. A sustainable company that can support the people, support the environment, and still make a profit for more investment is a company that can help people. That is how you can truly help and make a impact. That’s the difference between social entrepreneurship and charity. One is sustainable and can sustain others.

Malala Yousafzai is Pakistani activguist who publicy campaigned for girls to go to school and won a Nobel YouthPeace Prize. Due to her popularity and exposure, the Taliban were after her. On October 9, 2012, a Taliban masked gunman boarded her school bus, and asked for her by name. The gunman shot her in the head, neck and shoulders. Malala survived the attack and is now a world famous activist for peace and girls in school.

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi entrepreneur that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and creating microcredit and microfinance. He is working hard to help advocate a world without poverty.

According to “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” as Fiorella said, I agree that social entrepenueurships is the future of bussines annd policy making since entrepeneurs are going up and being more involved in the future policies as well as business

As far as social entrepreneurship being the future of business and policy making, yes, I agree with Fiorella. She has definitely made some interesting and realistic points. She believes that, given our generation and what that all have made a living out of, we all want to leave the world a better place than how we found it. Social entrepreneurship is saving poor regions with solutions such as fair trade and I agree that if you work hard to make that a part of your life work that it can make a difference.

Yes I do agree that, “social is the future of business and policy,” because not only does the entrepreneur make a profit, he or she also supports and helps local, small businesses which in turn helps all the people in a community. Social entrepreneurs need to be smart and innovative to find ways to make money, but still support the community. This benefits the social entrepreneur and the people they are helping. This can build innovative skills and social skills making are world communicate and making our world be together.

I agree with Fiorella when she says “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” because we are moving towards a more socially and environmentally cautious world. More and more companies are starting to deal with environmental issues. I t is likely that most future companies or enterprises will be helping raise money to help solve global problems from the start

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because charity is not sustainable and relies on donations from people. Social entrepreneurship is when individuals use a variety of tactics and strategies to tackle societal problems. She makes this important decision because although they overlap in some areas, social entrepreneurs need to find ways to make their business profitable.

1. Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because in a social entrepreneurship, making money is part of the goal. It does help the community. However, unlike a charity, social entrepreneurship can be sustainable. They don’t base their business plan off of the donations they received but they use innovative ideas and plans. I believe she addressed the difference between the two to clarify that they are separate concepts and emphasize the difference between them.

Throughout the article, Fiorella Riccobono emphasizes on the idea that social entrepreneurship is not charity. Fiorella realizes many young people are willing to help but prevent them self from doing so due to the dependent nature of charity. Through using social entrepreneurship, one is not dependent on others to create a sustainable and reliable network to help those in need. This entices future business students who want to help while still utilizing the skills they have learned.

When Forella says “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making,” I agree with this statement because nowadays the world of business is becoming based off of networking and social elements. It is becoming more common that people want to go out and work on social projects and participate in the community. As this becomes more popular it will begin to become a business. It takes knowledge to turn social work into a business. However if done right, it can make the world a better place.

Social entrepreneurship and charity are two different businesses models. As Fiorella Riccobono says, charity is not a viable business plan that can make money. Social entrepreneurship triple bottom line is people, planet, profits. They want to help the world while making a positive change in the world while making a profit.

I agree with Fiorella’s statement that “social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making” because it gives companies the opportunity to give back to their community while making a profit. The upcoming generation of business owners want to leave the world better than they found it, and social entrepreneurship is the perfect opportunity to make a difference. I believe this is extremely beneficial to society and its members as it will also help shape the future generations to become successful leaders through international connections and job opportunities.

Fiorella, in the article, stated that social entrepreneurship is not charity. By stating this she means that charities will help gain money for a cause, but as a social entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to take your knowledge and make money and business. In the article, Fiorella states that “People are no longer seeing global poverty as a call for charity, but as a place of economic and cultural growth. ” If more people are able to gain that knowledge and share it, many people would be able to help more people at a constant rate. Charity is for one cause while social entrepreneurship can be for many.

Fiorella believes that social entrepreneurship is the future to business and policy, and I agree. Although, I would also argue that it is fundamental to today’s business and policy. This is so important because social entrepreneurship in other words is networking. These skills are important to meet others in the business world and expand upon your knowledge. If you have a wide range of connections you will have more opportunities to get jobs, knowledge in every field of business, and create a supportive business network in your working environment. After all you are not working next to computer all day, but next to people that are similar to you!

Fiorella makes the distinction between social entrepreneurship and charity. This is an important distinction because money in a charity flows in one direction. Conversely, money in a social enterprise flows both ways. Social enterprises cannot be charities because they are businesses, and need money to operate. Compared to traditional businesses, though, social enterprises are conscientious about the environmental and social impacts of their actions.

I agree with Fiorella when she claims that social entrepreneurship is the the future success of business and policy making. It doesn’t only help people who already have good conditions of life but it also financially helps those in need and who can’t afford much money. Entrepreneurs can make a lot of profits and invest their money on themselves and the community on where they which can benefit everyone.

The reason Riccobonno made the distinction between social entrepreneurship and charity is because some people don’t understand that social entrepreneurship is in fact a business and relies on more than just donations. In any business it is important to know where and when your money is coming from. Without the knowledge of when you will have money you can not make financial investments or take risks. If your business is not sustainable and it goes bankrupt it will not be able to help anyone.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because you cannot created a business based off of donations. Social entrepreneurship makes solutions to social issues.

I agree with Fiorella that social entrepreneurship because it will help many people.And to help the environment and the community.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. She focuses about this topic because she wants the reader and society to have the understanding of the difference between entrepreneurship and charity. An entrepreneurship may help and change many people, with different causes or problems, at different situation. A charity is help for a certain person or situation. She wants to make a change not throw money at it and have the problem fixed momentarily.

1. Fiorella Riccobono believes that social entrepreneurship is about making the world a better place. Charity is a completely different subject. Though, they do share a common goal. Malala Yousafzai held a campaign for girls to get an education at school. Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for social entrepreneurship. They are an inspiration to society. I believe in Fiorella’s point of view. Social entrepreneurship is the future of business. It well help us grow and develop as a person. As well as create opportunities for many in creating a difference.

What Fiorella Riccobono stresses about social entrepreneurship not being charity is that it doesn’t have the ability to launch a business solely based from donations. This is not able to support a fully working business. The charity people give is meant to last a bit, it does not have the ability to make a business work for a long period of time. She makes this important distinction so readers can see the difference between a business that can support itself vs a business that runs on charity.

I agree that social entrepreneurship is the future of business. I believe this because we need to look out for others. There are many people in this world that are self centered and don’t think about others. We need to make sure we take care of others and make sure no one is left behind.

Business entrepreneurship is not charity basically because social entrepreneurs may need to rely on donations to launch their endeavors and making money is part of the goal.

When Fiorella Riccobono states that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she means to create the idea that social entrepreneurship is stable and a dependable new business worth taking part in. She makes this distinction because she wants it to be clear that although it shares a similar idea with charity, it is not only about helping the people but also the planet and business world of the future.

There definitely is a big difference between social entrepreneurship and charity. What Fiorella Riccobono means when she makes this distinction is to not think of social entrepreneurship as the same because of the many differences it has with charity. For example, charity can be looked at as a way to help one specific problem only one time. What she tries to make out of social entrepreneurship is that it helps more than one cause, it is more of a broad way of helping. Also it can shape a better lifestyle for people while charity can only help in one specific way. Giving someone money is not as big of a deal as giving a person a job to consistently earn money. Fiorella makes the distinction so readers know the way that she helps people, by setting a better road for the rest of their lives.

Social entrepreneurship is the future of the business and policy making because it is a way for entrepreneurs to not only make a profit but helps out the community and support their new ideas. And it is a smart way for people to come together as a community and do many great things together.

Fiorella Riccobonno stresses that it is not charity because she wants the reader to be aware that a charity isn’t sustainable because you don’t know where your next dollar comes from, in contrast with social entrepreneurship that is the process to earn profits while helping other people.

[3.] When considering Ms. Riccobono’s statement, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.”, I am reminded of the importance of working with non-profit, government, and traditional business, when working towards startling a successful and innovative business. I agree that social entrepreneurship is an important aspect thats importance will become increasingly apparent as time goes on. Using the policies and beliefs that fall under this category, I believe these thing will change the future of business management and development.

Fiorella Riccobono emphasizes a difference between social entrepreneurship and charity. She highlights that in a social entrepreneurship, the owner cannot solely depend on donations in order to maintain the business plan and model to a profitable amount. She makes this distinction because all social entrepreneurships create profit, whereas charities, specifically non-profit organizations, do not.

Ms. Riccobono had her opinion about the meaning of Social Entrepreneurship, in which she thought that it is not charity at all. She stated that making money is the desired outcome, while as compared to charity it is also stable and/or sustainable. She wanted to clarify the actual difference between the two, explaining it through the expression of her own opinion.

-Fiorella Riccobono believes that it is not charity because, she is trying to tell the reader that social entrepreneurship is not a charity, as a charity is not sustainable, because you can’t control the influx of money. She means that social entrepreneurship can last over a long period, and has to be sustainable in order to help the most people possible.

-Malala and Muhammad inspire the world. Malala inspires women to be educated, even in countries where women are not educated. She wrote a book about the injury that she had injury, when she was shot by an Islamic group. Muhammad inspires young leaders globally. Also, he won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on social entrepreneurship. Another social justice champion that I admire is Oprah. She broke barriers by being one of the first black female millionaires in the United States. She also established an empire.

-I do believe social entrepreneurship is the future. It allows to have a business that is self sustainable and driven to help the community/planet without having this motivation for self gain.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. What does she mean by this? Why does she make this important distinction? She wants the distinction to be clear that social justice in businesses for employees isn’t a charity, and that it’s an obligation for workers to be treated/paid fairly. She strives to make a community where social justice is a priority. Using the “Related KWHS Articles” and “Related Links” tabs, find out more about Malala Yousafzai and Muhammad Yunus. How have they made an impact on the world? Can you think of any other social-justice champions whose missions inspire you? Malala aimed for the education of all women in the world, even in countries where they aren’t educated. Muhammed inspired young entrepreneurs around the world. Fiorella says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” Do you agree? Why or why not? I agree, social justice calls for fairness in business with helping the homeless, being able to assist those in need, and policy wise making work better/ more efficient for employees/

I agree with Florella in believing that social entrepreneurship is the future. Social entrepreneurship is a useful tool to help the community while still making money in the proccess. Being a social entrepreneur allows said entrepreneur to help the people with less money while being able to maintain profit in the proccess.

Fiorella stresses a good point about social entrepreneurship because the businesses that are focused on being run like this are also making an enormous impact on different societal issues while benefiting as a business as well. That being said, theses businesses are definitely not like charities. She makes the distinction between the two because i’m sure the first thing many people think of when they hear about “social entrepreneurship” is charity. Social entrepreneurship is definitely going to take over in the future because it is a great way for businesses to thrive while also having a positive impact on society and the world.

Fiorella Riccobonno stresses the fact that social entrepreneurship is not charity because she wants the reader to understand the difference between social service and social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs are also businessmen and run a business that also helps others.

Social Entrepreneurship is not a charity. It is not a charity because the business still makes money. They do help the community, but making money is the main/top reason. This is an important because she needs to continue stressing the fact that the business still needs to make money. Fiorella helped the people because she paid them more than what they were getting paid.

When Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she means that the business cannot rely on donations. It would obviously help the business if donations come to them, but the business model cannot be built by just donations. Charity is not sustainable, which means that a certain business can’t survive on donations. Social entrepreneurships are meant to solve societal issues and that is what she is trying to do.

I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making because the world is becoming more and more social. Whether it is through social media or just talking to people, people get ideas from other people who get ideas from other people. Nowadays so many people believe they want to be an entrepreneur and its possible because there are so many places to start a business.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses about social entrepreneurship not being charity and that it is not going to be able to launch a business solely based from donations. This is not able to support a fully working business. The charity people give is meant to last a bit, but it does not have the ability to make a business work or last for a long period of time. She makes this important distinction so readers can see the difference between a business that can support itself vs a business that runs on charity.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. What does she mean by this? Why does she make this important distinction? She means that she believes a business is not sustainable by donations. On the other hand, charities are 100% sustained by donations. A business is very costly and it cannot be held by a thread or sustained by chance or luck. Starting a business, one wants to know that his or her business has an opportunity of thriving and growing. When one finds out someone is donating, the donation most of the time arrives that same day. In businesses, one has to know where the next dollar is coming from ahead of time. If a business is failing a backup plan needs to be formed, it cannot just sit around and hope for a miraculous donation.

I agree that social entrepreneurship is the future of business because it is a great way to give back to the people that are struggling financially, and it builds a good reputation which is very important for a business.

When Fiorella stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she means that charity is not sustainable, because the influx of money isn’t not controllable, and a social entrepreneurship has to be sustainable so most involved benefit. I agree with Fiorella that social entrepreneurship is the future of business, and where relationships are built while making profit.

Fiorella stresses the difference between social entrepreneurship and charity. A business model can’t be made in a charity, due to charities not being sustainable. Both of these help the community in many ways but you can make money also in social entrepreneurship as it is sustainable.

Fiorella says,”I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making” I agree with this statement because I believe that people now a days are trying there best to make this world a better place so being a social entrepreneur is not only helping yourself but also helping your community.

I really find this idea of “social entrepreneurship” to be very defining because this allows people with somewhat experience with the business world to get to experience real life. Many people don’t think business is that hard but this thought of having social entrepreneurship I feel will actually make the image of the business world easier to understand. Social Entrepreneurship is the future and is actually happening already, the reason is because being able to interact with customers and consumers will allow the buyers to have more confidence in the product. Interactions also allows the business to have good credit and good credit to a company means that they are worth more and are recognized as a company that has good stuff. Another reason why social entrepreneurship is the future is because it is easier to start than that of an actually big name company, so I predict that there will be more social entrepreneurs than companies trying to sell small products (that is the job of a social entrepreneur).

Fiorela Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship because it is still a business even though it helps people in need. People know the charities are basically just giving money to people and that is not what social entrepreneurship is about. Social entrepreneurship is a business so it still makes a profit but it also helps people. These businesses are all about making a profit while still maintaining a social message. They follow business plans and make a sustainable business while still making an impact with the social sector of the world.

Fiorella Riccobono states that social entrepreneurship it’s not charity. Social entrepreneurs run a business from which they want to take profit while they are contributing to society. She states that they practically show emapthy and use society to make money, which in a way, making money or not, at the end they are still helping people.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. She wants to show that social entrepreneurship isn’t charity because it isn’t to get things for people in need. Social entrepreneurship is to develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. She makes this important distinction because social entrepreneurship uses techniques and has ideas behind funding solutions to social culture, while charity is to do for the good of the people in need. Also social entrepreneurship looks to find solutions for issues, when charity just helps a certain cause.

I believe strongly in the idea of Social Entrepreneurship and the benefits it can bring to many people. I think that is great for college campuses to have social entrepreneur ship clubs so that college students can be exposed to all of the problems that the world has, I love how the article stresses how its important to be open minded and expose your self to new experiences because the world changes every day and it is key for young people to know that because they are the ones who have the most power to change things for the better

Fiorella strongly stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. This means that it is still business, that means that it is for profit. I think this is a good thing because the best way to support social programs is by money from companies that still have profit. Fiorella also must believe this because she is sure to emphasize the fact that social enterprises are making money and not bankrupting themselves for their programs or relying heavily on inconsistent and unreliable donations like a charity.

Riccobono emphasizes that charity is different from social entrepreneurship by expressing that charity works with donations and social entrepreneurship handles profits. She makes this distinction to help realize that everyone can win; farmers receive just payment for their goods and vendors of these goods can make a profit. This has definitely made an impact on the world by allowing almost any person attain a fair an income at little to no expense. I don’t completely agree with Fiorella’s belief because today many giant corporations, such as Monsanto, benefit greatly at others’ expense and won’t easily change. Yes, it is a great concept and should be adapted all over but it doesn’t seem like something that will truly happen.

What Fiorella Riccobono means by social entrepreneurship not being a charity is that they are totally different concepts. She makes this important distinction because a charity depends on people donating money for their cause. While social entrepreneurship do accept donations, they don’t rely on it. They use a business model to plan it out like a business.

3: I don’t necessarily disagree or agree with the statement that social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making, because there are many other business fields that can have a larger effect on society, for example, the economy keeps the world turning by trading goods to other nations and providing everyone with the funds they earn. The economy also provides storage units known to most as banks, to store any earned money that was not to be spent, this being the opposite of in-wallet or in-pocket money.

But, social entrepreneurship is a very crucial business, and as time goes by, this will get more important. In addition, social entrepreneurship is interconnected with the economics, because with social advantages, one might have a vast connection, thus leading to a higher chance of getting advertised, hired, or partnered with another company.

Firoella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not a charity. Social entrepreneurship is a business that is profitable and is indeed not a charity because then it wouldn’t be sustainable. Instead it is comprised of individuals who want to make the world a better place.These individuals try to make the world a better place by using business tactics to try to create solutions to some of the societal issues that we face today, like poverty, climate change, and pollution. So, not only is it not a charity, it is profitable and at the same time it helps make the world a better place.

1.Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity even though they receive donations, they can’t create a business model, charity is not sustainable. 2.Malala Yousafzai fights for gender equality, and Muhammad Yunus help the poor and poverty worldwide. This inspires me to leave my mark on the world and change the world for the better. 3.I agree when Fiorella said ” I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” Because this will help the poor and raise charity.

Fiorella says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” I agree with Fiorella because it will help give back to those who do not have the resources that they need. It will not only make provide good reputation to the business, but it will give you such a good feeling to know you are being involved in the community and helping others.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity, because it’s not possible to create a business model based on donations, because charity is not sustainable. Malala inspires the education of all women in the world, even in countries where they are not educated. Muhammed inspires young leaders globally, and he has also won a Nobel Peace Prize. I agree that entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making, because it gives hope to those who need help.

What Fiorella means when she says that entrepreneurship is not a charity is that in the business you have to know when your money is coming not just to wait around for a donation, which is what charity does. I do agree with Fiorella when she says “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making” because it helps keep the community going to a better place.

She means that you still make profit off of social entrepreneurship, as it is what is desired because charity is not sustainable. She makes this important distinction to show that social entrepreneurship is not charity and needs to have a constant influx of cash to help as much people as you can. I do agree because it is a good way to help people who are less fortunate with their situations.

Fiorella Riccobono affirms that all related with social entrepreneurship is not charity, by that you can extract that corporations or business don’t live related with donations or charity. Business must grown from experience, hard working and good ideas and not from donations. Donations can surely help, but a business concept doesn’t not relate to that.

Malala and Muhammad had a big participation with the world. While Malala made the education available for womens she wrote a book that affected the globally society. Muhammad inspired young leaders over the world. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for his social entrepreneurship, which had successful results. I agree with her when saying that the social entrepreneurship is the future of business, because the social entrepreneurship allows a business that self-survive to help the good causes without having this motivation for self gain.

What Fiorella Riccobono means when she says that social entrepreneurship is not a charity is that it does not involve raising money for a cause. Charities also do not have enough money to sustain them for a long period of time without donations. Social entrepreneurship aims to solve problems while still having the ability to make profit, although they do accept donations. It is a business that at the same time makes a huge impact on society.

When Fiorella says that social entrepreneurship is not charity she means that social entrepreneurship is its own thing. She recognizes it as being something that can help many people, in many different places, for many different causes. As opposed to charity which is something that helps one cause, or raises money for something in specific. She makes this important distinction because she also realizes that the topic could be confusing for some who do not necessarily know the exact difference between the two.

When Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she means that social entrepreneurship is not focused on raising or donating money. Social entrepreneurship is a business that benefits when money is used. Of course you are going to need to raise money from somewhere, but the purpose of social entrepreneurship is to run a business not to collect money. Clearly, Fiorella makes this important distinction because she wants to show the readers that social entrepreneurship and charity are two separate things.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. When Fiorella said this, she meant that a social entrepreneurship does not just base solely on donations. Of course, donations can help, but a social entrepreneurship thrives from people working hard to help others. In addition, a charity, unlike a social entrepreneurship, is not sustainable She shows that it is more about creating a work place than a place just collecting money.

When Fiorella Riccobono says it is not charity she means that these companies are not run on donations and not ran by volunteers in their free time. She is saying these companies are real businesses that have to compete in the real world. They too have the goal of making money however, they also make businesses that help a society as well as protect the environment. She mentions this because often times they have no idea where there next check is coming from and when. This is a important distinction because these are people who are interfering with their career or salary to make the world a better place and not doing it on extra time.

Riccobono emphasizes that social entrepreneurship isn’t charity. The difference between a charity and social entrepreneurship is that in a charity, funds received are dependent on the contributions of donors. Profit generated from social entrepreneurship are directly correlated with the economic aspects that entrepreneurs find themselves confronted by, such as competition as well as supply and demand. Because of this, the defining aspect at the core of social entrepreneurship is that success is defined by the financial decisions that entrepreneurs choose to make within the current state of the market in which the entrepreneur operates. Au contraire, running a charity would rely on sporadic donations that prove to be a less reliable source of money than the profits and economic stimulus caused by small businesses and lower-class workers.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because even though some social entrepreneurs do rely on some charity to start their business, social entrepreneurship aims to solve problems and create a sustainable business that doesn’t rely on others to make profit.

1.I believe that Fiorella Riccobono had the need to express that social entrepreneurship is not charity, rather that relies on donations because she felt the need for the individuals that read the article to understand that this project is so innovative and new that the majority of the people don’t really know about it. Charity is defined as an organization that wants to help and raise money for those in need. Instead, what Fiorella Riccobono is doing relies on donations because although she is helping the needed and businesses, she needs resources and wants to improve the ideas she has for individuals to take on their business as soon as she sets them up for success with her unique innovated plan. This makes an important distinction because it may not always be for free that Riccobono may be doing her job, rather to create a change with an imaginative job that helps improve the world.

3. When Fiorella says, “ I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” I somewhat agree with what she said. Due to the fact, that her job might be one of the ones that may help a large amount of people as it has economic and balanced strategies to make a business start or grow exponentially. However, I don’t coincide with it being the essential future of business rather social entrepreneurship taking on a branch. As it will only help an specific business that are in certain conditions. In addition, it may be a good and productive job, but not the overall future.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship isn’t charity to emphasize that it isn’t an organization that runs on donations. Social entrepreneurs create real businesses that make a profit. Although their objective is to improve issues in society and assist people, their goal at the end of the day is also to earn a profit. I think Fiorella makes that important distinction to show that although social entrepreneurs are there to help people in need, they also create thriving business. It shows that there’s a lot more to social entrepreneurship than most people are aware about and how it’s different from any other non-profit organization.

Malala was shot by a takin when she was 14 years old, since then she fought for the rights of young women to study and gender equality. She became the youngest nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize and won it in 2013. Muhammad Yunnus created the Grammen Bank, it researched to study how to design a credit delivery system to provide banking services to the rural poor, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Another social-justice champion is Martin Luther King Jr, he is best know for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. On October 24, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence.

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani women’s right and children’s activist, who is also the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur ans economist, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank, in which he developed a micro loans and credit system that helped poor Bangladeshis ‘borrow’ small amount of money. Paulette Meyers mission inspired me because she founded and chaired the Women’s Initiative for Self Employment in San Francisco, for 15 years, which helped to train and finance low-income women to start their own businesses.

Fiorella Riccobono is saying that social entrepreneurship is not a charity because they are very different. For instance, charity needs people to donate money to succeed while social entrepreneurship does not rely on donations even though they do accept money to help their concept. Instead, they use innovative business tactics to create solutions to social issues.

Fiorella says “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” I believe this statement is very accurate to the future of the business landscape as large corporations are increasingly searching for ways to give back and help out society. Social entrepreneurship also opens up new possibility to those who enjoy philanthropic work while still utilizing their business skills. Through creating self-sustaining businesses that help out society, more individuals will be open to the idea of entering a field which help people as it eliminates the feeling of charity and volunteer work.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social enterpreneurship is not charity because although enterpreneurs may rely on donations they can’t really create a business model based on it. She makes this important distinction because people may think thet enterpreneurship is based on charity and donations when they really are basically innovactive business tactics to create solutions to social issues.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because charity is giving to those in need with nothing in return, which is similar to social entrepreneurship in the helping side but social entrepreneurs are looking for a profit and the thing that differ them from most of the entrepreneurs is that besides a profit they are looking to help, they are trying to make an impact in their community for the good. Making an impact is clearly really important to her and that’s why she distinct what social entrepreneurship to encourage people to also make an impact and show them they can make a profit out of something that will benefit the social sector.

Social entrepreneurship IS the future of business and policy making. The world is full of hunger, poverty, pollution, etc. What would be more successful than making a profit while helping to make this dirty filthy world a better place?

I agree with Fiorella Riccobono’s statement that social Entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making. Based on the information her article is giving us, the goal of social entrepreneurship is to help fix the world’s issues or problems. To her, instead of a simple solution, social entrepreneurship can also finds ways to transform the conflict into an opportunity for economic growth.

Fiorella says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” Do you agree? Why or why not? I don’t think it is the future, yes it is helpful to the world and is good and helps people in need, but this can not be the future of business. If a business wants to be successful in the world they can’t be nice, they can’t just go around helping. A business needs to make a profit, needs to be able to pay all its employees, and all its assets. If a business ever hopes of progressing in this world it has to be heartless, or it will be taken advantage of. It cant have a soft spot it it will be open and it will be used. I understand why she would say this but that is in a dream world, but the business world is far from a dream. It is ruthless and has no heart, its all about the money.

Hi Sebastian. Fiorella, the writer of this essay, read your comment and wanted to respond. Here are her thoughts:

Although I do agree that a business needs to make a profit, I disagree with you on the point that the only value a company can generate is revenue. That is an outdated perception of the value modern day corporations and financial institutions are trying to generate. Social entrepreneurship does not exist to be charitable, it exists to create systemic social impact at the core of it’s day- to- day operations, while simultaneously generating profit.

The modern business structure is steering away from a profit-driven model, to a strategy that systemically addresses the triple bottom line. This is not a dream world perception, but rather the new trend and business models of all corporations are trying to adapt in order to stay competitive. But, you do not have to take my word for it, let’s use a modern-day example of investment banking. The young individuals who are entering the banking industry are increasingly making investment decisions that focus on sustainable growth. In order to learn more about impact investing, a form of social entrepreneurship, I have attached an article recently published by Morgan Stanley:

https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/sustainable-socially-responsible-investing-millennials-drive-growth?cid=sm_smsp_LINKEDIN_MorganStanley_20170831

This generation is demanding socially minded products and companies are responding to this in order to stay competitive and relevant.

When Fiorella says that social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making I could not agree more. Many people in this generation are empowered to make a change in there society and around the globe. Social entrepreneurship is a great way for both a way to make a lot of money , and help the change that you want in the world. Also, social entrepreneurship is a great way to gain customers, because people that believe in your platform will want to buy your product and goods. Social entrepreneurship is a great way to not only help yourself succeed but also a great way to help other succeed and get through there struggles.

2- Muhammad Yunnus founded the Grammen Bank and pioneered the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. He gave loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. by this Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development.

Malala Yousafzai is an activist for female education. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially education of women in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Yousafzai opened a school in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border, for Syrian refugees. The school offers education and training to gils aged 14 to 18 years.

A social enterprise is not a charity because is organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being. They basically combine business with social concerns; they ensure that the society can have access to opportunities to grow in the business environment and be able to sustain themselves.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. What Fiorella means by this is that entrepreneurship is not runned by money or even sustained by money like a charity is. Although she says that here and there money will be involved but really and truly its not based on donations at all. Her making it a important distinction lets everyone know that its a innovative business.

Fiorella states that social entrepreneurship isn’t a charity. She emphasizes that is not a business that simply runs on donations, which is similar to a charity. Social entrepreneurs create certain businesses to make profit. These businesses do not rely on others to make profit. An important distinction made is that charities are run totally on donations. Real businesses simply can not last on just donations. Social entrepreneurs have actual businesses that make money that is used for social, cultural, or environmental issues. The important distinction is that charities are run on donations while social entrepreneurs create businesses that make money.

When Fiorella says that social entrepreneurship is not charity she means that social entrepreneurship is its own thing. She recognizes it as being something that can help many people in need, in many different places, for many different causes. As opposed to charity which is something that helps one cause, or raises money for something in specific. She makes this important distinction because she also realizes that the topic could be confusing for someone who does not necessarily know the exact difference between the two.

Freshman need to join college already thinking of a way to change the world. By being innovative in the beginning, it opens your mind to greater things in the future. By joining entrepreneurship clubs, you can discover a whole new world of chances to help homeless people and poor communities. These people are in the need of a shelter and income, and if you somehow can manage to help those communities, they may even increase their business, earning well deserved money, and help other communities too.

I agree with Fiorella that, social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making because, to start a business people have to have technics and know how to talk face to face with other company CEO’s or to talk to banks so they know they will get a profit off you if they lend you their money. Those are the reasons why people have to be socially ready.

I agree when Fiorella says that she believes social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making. In a growing age where successful businesses are known for their high rates of pollution, many advocate for business techniques that are more environmentally friendly. Not only does social entrepreneurship promote profit while keeping detrimental environment effects to a minimum, but it also reaches out to the community to aid and improve the lives of those in need. Business thrives off high profit and the ideals behind social entrepreneurship (such as eco-friendly techniques and public aiding) are essential to good policy making and an excellent community of people. Thus, future business and policy making would greatly benefit from this.

Fiorella Riccobon stressed about social entrepreneurship not being a charity so much since the idea of a social entrepreneurship does not want to be labeled as a charity, because their approach to the problem can be very different. Charity solely depends on donations and uses the money the get to first have their business then give back. This distinction is very important since what social entrepreneurship wants to do is give back and make sure their purpose is directly served and is not based off on only donations.

Fiorella stresses about social entrepreneurship not being charity because it is not an organization that runs in donations, social entrepreneurs create real business that make a profit although there goal is to improve the issues in society and help people but at the end of the day there goal is to make a profit out of there business, I think that fiorella makes that important distinction, to show that social entrepreneurship is there to help people in need, and create a working business that are able to create profit at the end of the day.

I think what Fiorella meant by social entrepreneurship not being charity was that people actually have to put a lot of work in to their business and not just rely on donations. She states, ” charity is not sustainable.” Which means that entrepreneurs should not run a business if they do not know who is giving them money; especially off of donations.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. Social entrepreneurship is not charity because you cannot create and run a business in which you, the entrepreneur, do not know when or where the donations to your business are coming from. Social entrepreneurship is also not charity since it is a business, and the entrepreneur and his or her business earns a profit while helping others. Fiorella makes this important distinction so that people do not think that a social entrepreneur’s business is a charity to the homeless, it is a business that earns a profit while helping the community and the homeless.

Social entrepreneurship is indeed not a charity. While a charity is reliant on donations, a social entrepreneurship cannot create a stable business model without having a stable source of income. Instead, a social entrepreneurship finds an underlying problem such as pollution or poverty and then creates a business model that does not only solve the underlying problem, but also makes the business model profitable. Fiorella Riccobono stresses the distinction between a charity and a social entrepreneurship in order to highlight the fact that a charity only helps people, whether it be through financial or material means; while a social entrepreneurship continuously helps people by creating a profitable business model that not only solves a social issues, but also creates a profit. The distinction between a charity and a social entrepreneurship can be seen in the analogy where, “If you give a man a fish he will be fed for one day, if you teach that man how to fish and he’ll never be hungry.” A charity can be seen as simply giving a man a fish, while a social entrepreneurship can be seen as teaching a man how to fish.

Fiorella is right/wrong when she claims that entrepreneurship is not charity even though some business do help our community. Most of the business have a goal of making money and benefiting themselves, that’s the main goal of most entrepreneurship, they are sometimes too ambitious and don’t care about society. On the other hand some do care about our society and help our community by investing on something using their profits that will benefit not only them but everyone else in the community. She makes that important distinction because charity relies on donations and money support for those in need, she is trying encourage more people and other business that thrive in order to be more charity and help those in need.

When Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity she means that you can’t create a business model based on donations, because charity is not sustainable. She says this to make it clear that it is not a charity.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurs is not charity and I agree. She means that social entrepreneurs create a business and make profits. They can’t create a business on donations. Social entrepreneurs create solutions to societal issues. She makes this important distinction because she wants people to understand that social entrepreneurs is not about donations, it’s about assisting and helping ours and your community.

I do not agree with Fiorella when she says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” Although social entrepreneurship will continue to grow and thrive in western businesses, saying it will be the future of all business is impossible. In places like the United States and other similar countries people generally have more money than those in third world countries, so when people start businesses they are more likely to have enough money to use sustained practices to create there products.we have also seen a shift in what consumers want. More and more consumers are looking for ways to make themselves feel like they are helping society in what they buy, so shifting to social enterprise might actually benefit your business more. Although this is true for first world countries in most other second and third world countries this business method would not work. In these countries people make a much smaller income than they would in first world countries so when consumers are looking for products to buy they will most likely pick a cheaper product that does not give back to society rather than spending more money for the same product with the difference this one will give back to society. These business also have less start up money making it harder for them to produce products in a sustainable manner. For reasons like this social enterprises will grown in first world countries or rich people but is no a viable option for people of lesser income. this is why I do not believe social enterprises will be the future business of the world but rather of the first world.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity even though it has some analogous needs and events. For example, social entrepreneurship may need to rely on donations to launch their endeavors. However, like charity is not sustainable, it is futile to create a business model. It is crucial to express that social entrepreneurs try to solve societal issues by combining government, nonprofit, and traditional business practices.

Social Entrepreneurship is an emerging concept and, as any concept that is new, some people don’t really know what it means. Although it relies sometimes on donations, a business can’t sustain itself just by charity. Social Entrepreneurs main purpose is to help needed business to succeed and creating innovative plans in order to do that.

I believe that social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making due to a great deal of social entrepreneurs looking toward the future and building business models that favor our environment. These innovative minds see harsh problems like global poverty and world hunger as a new slate for growth in areas like economy or cultural growth. In the end, the positive minds of social entrepreneurs will be those of the future in business and policy making.

Fiorellla Riccobono is constantly stressing that social entrepreneurship is not similar than charity, because both overlap in many things. But what people don’t realize is that compared to charity social entrepreneurship is a business looking to make profit. Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest to ever to receive a Nobel Prize, also survived a shot to the head once and is now a bounty. Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur who was awarded the Noble Peace Price for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. I agree seeing the benefit of social entrepreneurship just as many others.

Fiorella says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

I disagree with her. I found social entrepreneurship a very respectable cause and i loved the idea, but i don’t think it is the future of business because since now there weren’t social entrepreneurship, so entrepreneurs can create their company without that help.

I agreed with what Fiorella Said about the future or entrepreneurship. I think that these newer generations are more biologically aware of what is going on with our planet and communities, specially with the current science they have more knowledge and a better understanding of the problems on this world. So judging by the way these generations are more aware and having more knowledge they would lean more towards businesses that can help the world and our communities.

“Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. What does she mean by this? Why does she make this important distinction?”

She means that its not a charity because a charity is not sustainable. She make the important distinction because a lot of people confuse it for a charity. She wants to make sure that they know the definition of social entrepreneurship is.

Fiorella is making points that social entrepreneurship can make a difference in people’s lives. Social entrepreneurship can help build of jobs and businesses. It also is helping other people that aren’t working in those businesses and improving their community around them. She wants to make a difference in this world I think that this is the key to change the future and what is soon gonna be the next generation of entrepreneurs.

When Fiorella said “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” I agree because social entrepreneurship is very important in the business world. People have to be able to communicate with people face to face. In todays millennials everyone uses phones and in the future could have a hard time communicating with people face to face. So I think that social entrepreneurship will be very important in the future.

Fiorella stresses that using social entrepreneurship isn’t just a charity and it is a way to make money. Even though it isn’t charity way of working it can contribute to the advancement of others or addressing problems injustice in the world. The social side promotes it to which the business can grow off the help of others it needs a source of revenue like any other business to thrive. Though the company’s can take in donations to work and run this helps things and what they need and to do at the same time promoting problems.

I agree with Fiorella. Social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making. As time goes on, more and more people are becoming aware of the state of our world and the people who live in it. Social entrepreneurship finds the source of a problem, and not only fixes it, but helps to make the world a better place in the process. I believe that this generation, as well as generations in the future, will want to help our world and people in need. More people are wanting to leave the world in a better state than we found it, and some people are already trying.

Fiorella Riccobono is saying that the Social Entrepreneurship is not a charity at all. The whole Social Entrepreneurship point is to help fix the worlds problems but making money is still a priority for the Social Entrepreneurship.This idea still finds ways to transform the issues for an economic growth. So Fiorella basically wants us to know that they’re not a charity that donates all their money.

Yes I do agree with Fiorella, social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making and the idea of it, is a great idea to help young entrepreneurs that are lost in the world of business, this would be a very good and helpful tool for them, and we can’t escape from that, because the technology is growing every second of our lives so i wouldn’t be a surprise if technology take over the world of business, many companies are successful and they did it without that help, but now it can be a very good addition for young kids with great ideas this can help them start and i believe they can be very successful with their projects and new businesses

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. What does she mean by this? Why does she make this important distinction? she means its not charity because it cant create a business model, based on donations, because charity is not sustainable, because charity is mot sustainable. you cant build a business when you don’t know where your next dollar is coming from or when.

I agree with what Fiorella thinks about social entrepreneurship. The program is related to charity but is not the same thing as she had stated in the article. This program has a potential strong base for jobs in the future. The course deals with societal problems by matching them with economy issues as well as financial issues like a business. This sets it as a powerful candidate for future employments and jobs in my opinion as it has an extravagant amount of potential.

I agree and believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making because one of its main purposes is to make the environment and future businesses successful and better.

I agree with Fiorella because it’s true that in the future we need to socially communicate with different people. Some people are working and are not getting paid enough for the work that they are doing. It’s good that she and other people are making a change to this problem in the world. With the homeless Fiorella and other people are trying to make a difference helping the people that are in a finacial crisis or are in need of help

I agree with Fiorella. I find that social entrepreneurship does a good balance between profit and helping the community. They are not dependent on outside source like charities and are not focused on massive profit like the big enterprises. I believe that more of those kind of business will start to appear and be successful on the near future.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. What does she mean by this? Why does she make this important distinction? Fiorella means that social entrepreneurship is forced to donate and charity is your choice to donate money to charity.

Social entrepreneurs can only do so much to help people out. Being a social entrepreneur cannot be anything like a charity because you need to guide yourself and get yourself out there. Like she said, we all want to leave the world a better place than it was before yourself, so yes you can help out but if you just keep helping someone, they are constantly going to keep asking for help. Give a man a fish and he can eat that day but teach a man to fish and he can now provide for himself. She makes this important because people need to understand it, too many people guide others around and can help them for that time but not later on in life. It’s similar to the first 18 to 20 years in your life, your parents provide for you with food and a roof over your head but they cannot support you forever.

I agree with Fiorella. No person, for their entire lifetime, is going to want to be bossed around by someone. Everyone eventually wants to become their own boss and be the founder or CEO of their own company. Everyone can do it, and there are many opportunities down the road, whether you’re getting right out of college (or even high school) or you’re in your later years and have some money to work with and want to make a change in today’s society.

As Fiorella Riccobono said, Social Entrepreneurship is not a charity. It is easy to think that, however it is important to recognize the difference between the two. A Social entrepreneurship is financial and business organization that combines aspects of a running business while helping social problems in the world advance.

I agree with Fiorella because Fiorella wants to make a charity to help homeless people and I think that’s great because she understand that Homeless people needs help and I like to help people that needs help.

Fiorella says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” I agree with her because as people grow up they are starting to realize the real world and businesses and businesses techniques are changing

The student explained what social entrepreneurship is. She explained that it is not a charity and that it is made to last. In social entrepreneurship you have to think how to make the idea work so the idea doesn’t fall apart and you give money for specific things which will help the idea to develop.

Fiorela has stressed that social enterprise is not at all a charity, it makes money. She means that it is not a charity because then it doesn’t sustain itself well at all. It cannot create a good business model with donations, or nothing at all. She wants people to know that they are not a charity that donated all their profit away.

Fiorella Riccobono is correct because social entrepreneurs is a business. In social entrepeneurs people is more empathetic because of their helping the social sector by solving global and humanitarian issues, they ask what is the problem and then base on that they plan their business around that. They make a money while helping the society.

Social entrepreneurship is truly the future in my opinion because of business and policy making, it is a business enterprise not only with a focus in profitable gains and societal claims. Its meaning is reflected on the demand of clients for business to have grater social goals or targets.

When Riccobono thinks “social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making”, I support her opinion. For me, I think as young adults develop, they establish beliefs on how they can have a positive impact on the Earth. Of course, one of these ways is by social entrepreneurship. With young innovative minds, they can think of things they can create. These people need passion and commitment. They also need to develop skills that persuade other passionate and committed people to join their cause. Social entrepreneurship is about helping the world, and an increasing number of people are constantly trying to do that. As a result, global issues, like poverty, will decrease.

A social entrepreneurship is not a charity because all of the proceeds do not go to other organizations. A part of the revenue goes towards organizations but some goes towards the business to keep it running. A social enterprise is sort of a hybrid between profit business and non-profit charity. What she means to say is that the social enterprise’s goal is not to just give away money but instead to create money for its own needs while giving money to organizations that need it. She has to make this difference clear because many people know about charities and often do not want to donate, but since this is a charity/business in disguise it generates money while also providing a service and good.

Yes I agree that social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making. I believe that social entrepreneurship can do a lot of good in the world and benefit people both the ones being helped and the ones helping. It will open many doors for many people that need help.

1.Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because it makes profit and it is not a situation where someone receives money once, and slips back into trouble. When profit is made, the organization is clearly no longer a charity and social entrepreneurship helps people get back on track. This is an important distinction because it helps people realize that unlike a charity, this organization makes profit and helps people at the same time.

2. Malala Yousafzai has made an impact on the world by advocating for young girls to go to school, and Muhammad Yunus has made an impact on the world by providing small loans to the poorest people in the world. The most inspirational social justice hero to me, is Mahatma Gandhi because he liberated an entire country from England in peace and in friendship.

3.I do not believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making, because there are certain businesses that this won’t work with (Ex: car companies) and there are many people in the corporate world that will not support this type of organization.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because while both aims to aid those in need, social entrepreneurship makes a profit. Charities may give money to those in need, but unless these people are able to regain an income, they will return to their original conditions. It is impossible for charities to keep on giving money to support these people for the rest of their lives since charities relies on donations and the people working in charities also needs an income to support themselves and their own families. Social entrepreneurship tries to address the root of the problem and create a solution. As Fiorella Riccobono has mentioned, instead of giving small coffee farmers money, they bought their coffee for a fair price and sold it at their trucks. This not only helps the farmer, but also helps the people running the business to keep going and continue making contributions to the world.

I do agree that social entrepreneurship will be the future of business and policy making. Social entrepreneurship helps develop, fund, and implement solutions to many different social and environmental issues around us. With different aims and sizes of this concept, it can apply to almost any organization or job. So it can pretty much help out others who work in different industries.

1. Fiorella Riccobono is stressed that entrepreneurship is not charity because they are both different from each other, entrepreneurship helps us make the world a better place by making ideas. Charity is people helping others by giving them money to be successful in life.

2. I agree that entrepreneurship can be helpful in our future because of how helpful it can be for the country and for us living a better and healthy life style. It can also impact others and convince them too work for entrepreneurship to help our grow even bigger then it was suppose to be.

Fiorella Riccobono stress es that social entrepreneurship is not a charity, because charities are not sustainable and can not control the influx of money, in the contrary, social entrepreneurship is a business that is expected to make a profit and relies on more than just donations. Although social entrepreneurship is not a charity, it was also invented in order to help people, businesses and helping make the world a better place. Social entrepreneurship is the future to business and policy making and it is supposed to make enough money to keep the business going, with profits included, and help other businesses that may need financial help.

I think it was very wise for Fiorella Riccobono explain to us that social entrepreneurship is not charity because it makes us understand that you can do the right thing and still get revenue from your work. I think that now I understand way more about social entrepreneurship and I think is a great thing. I feel that It helps the community to improve in many ways. I’m glad she wrote this, I think she may have changed the point of view of a lot of people about entrepreneurship that thought it was like a charity.

Firoella Riccobono explains that social entrepreneurship is not charity because since its just emerging as an idea, she thinks that charity is not sustainable enough to do the job. You can’t build your business on not knowing when or how much money you are gonna receive from charity. They combine government, non-profit, and traditional business in order to create a sustainable business. These innovators create large sustainable models by addressing an issue in the world like poverty, pollution etc.

Fiorella says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” I agree with her statements beacuse I think that future and presents Entrepreneurs are thinking in ways to make the world a better place. This impacts lots of people by the fact that they are attracted to make the world a safer and healthier place for everyone, especially for the people in need, like the homeless. While lots of people are getting involved in business, the majority will want to start their own social Entrepreneurship campaing which gives a high income and helps the world to be a better place.

I agree with Fiorella because the next generation of Entrepreneurs are trying to find new ways to make the world a better place. This has a huge affect on people today, For example the more unfortunate people.Now a days everyone want their own business where they can do something for money. But Fiorella addressed social entrepreneurship is like a charity where you get a profit from. This is another way we are trying to develop something new to make the world a better enviroment to live in.

I forgot to add that either most or all charities don’t profit, and that this is why she talks about the topic this way.

Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity because for the business to thrive and grow it must have a stable amount of money behind it. The business can use help from donations but it cannot purely be charity. If it were to rely only on donations, it would not be sustainable over a longer period of time. Social entrepreneurship is for the benefit of important causes like the homeless. Having financial support ensures they can do their job.

When Fiorella Riccobono stressed that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she meant that social entrepreneurship although helping people, helps the person who made it generate income, while charity is straight up giving people or organizations money or aide without getting profit. This is an important difference because charities rely on donations and volunteers more than anything, and you never know how much you’ll get over relying on others. In a social entrepreneurship, you are responsible and you make money.

1. Fiorella Riccobono explains that social entrepreneurship and charities are different from one another: A charity is a nonprofit action that is made to see some sort of change in the world, for the better. However, it is made quite clear that social entrepreneurship is a business. Even though it receives donations, it is a business that generates some sort of profit; but, nevertheless, a business with a goal in mind, one that is to make the world better than how we found it. It’s important to make the distinction because a social entrepreneurship is better able to maintain itself without having to purely rely on external sources and donations.

When Fiorella states that social entrepreneurship is not charity work, I attatched that to the fact that it is strictly enterprises for a social change. The business owners in the social enterprise industry understand that they are not being given money for a cause nor are they raising awareness. Social enterprises are not charities because charities are given donations by others. Social enterprises on the other hand can be funded, but can not be donated to. This is a important distinction to make so that other do not get confused and make mistakes when they are starting their own businesses. It is crucial to make this distinction for the sucess of other businesses to come.

When Fiorella says that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she means that if you want to start a business, you have to have stable money behind it to produce it. Social entrepreneurship is a business that makes profit. In charities, you only get money for volunteers, not knowing if you will make lots of profit. Fiorella expresses this because she wants people to know that in entrepreneurship, you have to work or your business and get profit, not getting money from charities.

When Fiorella state that social entrepreneurship is not a charity, she is referring to the fact that charity relies only on founds specific for one cause, which may not be sustainable for a long enough time. Mean while social entrepreneurship, focusses on founding multiple things like homeless, and is not exclusive to one major cause, but is open to a variety of major causes.

What Fiorella means when she says that social entrepreneurship is not charity is that charity is when you raise money or objects for a cause or for a specific person or place. It for people and places that are less fortunate and cant afford a lot fo things. A social entrepreneurship is when you are making a profit out of something. You also focus on many different thing, not just one cause.

i agree because a lot of people don’t know the difference of social entrepreneurship and charity the difference is that in entrepreneurship you gain money in charity you donate money which means you’re losing money.

I agree with Fiorella’s statement on how social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy, I agree with it because it is changing the way by how people see things. For example, the article states, “People are no longer seeing global poverty as a call for charity, but as a place of economic and cultural growth.” New students will exposed to social entrepreneurship and soon enough, there will be plenty of individuals who will use innovative business tactics to create solutions.

Yes, I agree with what Fiorella states. It is the future of business and policy making because you need to “promote your mission” and find funding for it, all while getting other people involved in whatever you may be promoting. These are essential paarts of growing your business.

I do agree that social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making. Many people in the world have the desire to make it a better place for everyone; however, they don’t know how or where to start. With social entrepreneurship, the goal is help and contribute while still making a profit. By doing this, both sides have the ability to grow and prosper. The best part is that you are making the world a better place.

I agree that social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making because companies would have a steady flow of income to them instead of a charity which will have money coming in for one specific cause. Social entrepreneurship will be successful considering how many young minds we have for the future, bringing it to a new level and presenting fresh new ideas into the social entrepreneurship world, changing it completely, allowing success. This is the successful future we have.

I believe that it is stressed that social entrepreneurship is not charity because the organization does not only depend on donations to succeed, they have had a stable amount of money behind them in order to strive as the organization they are. Unlike charities, social entrepreneurship make a profit. This is important and stressed because social entrepreneurship’s need to work for their money and sell instead of relaying on donations and charity events to become a better organization. Social entrepreneurship’s are businesses; they do not depend on donations and they also make a profit. The business also can not be continued if they are not making money on their own.

When Fiorella states that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she means that when you volunteer for charity, you only give. There is no economic balance if you always give, and don’t get anything back. We need to do charity when there is crisis. If not, the economic balance would go down. What Firorella states, makes a lot sense because social entrepreneurship has a economic balance circle that goes around and you make profit in one way or another, but charity does not have a profit if you only give.

When Fiorella states that social entrepreneurship is not a charity, she means that social entrepreneurship is a force used to help people. She states that charity is not a sustainable money flow for a business. Social entrepreneurship, however, is something that people use to (not exclusive to) helping the homeless, sustaining the planet’s resources, and finding ways to make profits for a business. She makes this important distinction because she wants to differentiate between between charity and the work that her and social entrepreneurs do. Charity is an unsustainable source of business, and that is not the goal for social entrepreneurs; social entrepreneurs work to aid people in growing a sustainable economic system.

When Fiorella Ribccobono says that a social enterprise is not charity, she believes that an entrepreneurship that seeks to gain a profit, fails to create a sustainable charity. Therefore, a social enterprise uses specific causes to aid in its operations. For example, rather than giving coffee farmers a percentage of the profits, the coffee food truck buys its coffee beans from farmers who use sustainable methods of farming. This allows the farmers to get a profit and be able to live off their work rather than relying on charity. This distinction helps Fiorella argue the benefits of being a social enterprise for the business and the cause, rather than the charity that does not allow the cause, in this case the farmer, to grow at all. Charity promotes a stagnant, one-way economy that has no advances of any kind. Although charity is important in a crisis or catastrophe, a social enterprise is beneficial in aiding the economic growth of two bodies of work.

when Fiorella says that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she means that if you want to start a business, you have to make stable money behind it to produce it. Social entrepreneurship is a business that makes profit. In charities, you only get money for volunteers, not knowing if you will make lots of profit. Fiorella expresses this because she wants people to know that in entrepreneurship, you have to work or your business and get profit, not getting money from charities.

In the article, the author, Fiorella Riccobon, stresses that social entrepreneurship is not a charity. She uses two important distinctions to explain this. The first is that it’s a more stable business format. Charities rely on donations for their income and funds. Social entrepreneurship sells goods and uses the profit to help others. The second is the way they help. Social entrepreneurship teaches people to support themselves by getting fair wages like the Haitian coffee farmers. Charities give money or food which only helps people when they are there.

It is important, social entrepreneurship is more than just a charity. Even if the businesses your talking about or involved in a nonprofit business, it will sustain its self better than a charity. All charities come to a soon end. you must have a bullishness plan when it comes to whatever your collecting profit for. Charity does not have a foundation like a businesses does. An innovative business will help you make a better profit.

Fiorella is stating the social entrepreneurship is not like charity. Shes saying the for charity it doesn’t last for a long time, entrepreneurship is not on one major thing. Malala has won the Nobel prize inspiring woman and helping the communit

Giancarlo amazing statement

I believe that when Fiorella mentions social entrepreneurship isn’t charity that she is referring to the fact that charity is something that is done for the sake of a devastating event or in other words a single reason but on the opposing side of things , she is saying that social entrepreneurship is for a diversity of necessities including for example as one of the subtitles in the article says “helping the homeless.”

The details given by Fiorella in the article on what a social entrepreneurship does and its functions is truly brilliant. The new level that these social entrepreneurship are achieving is remarkable as they create a business that benefits small businesses, helping in the community, and produce a profit. It’s a truly beneficial business for all aspects included.

As far as the article goes, Fiorella did a really good job distinguishing between charity and social entrepreneurship. Before reading this article, they were both the same thing in my mind. She makes this distinction for exactly this reason, so people are more educated about social entrepreneurship and her business. The way I see it, social entrepreneurship is an equilibrium between charity and the economy. Charity isn’t a sustainable lifestyle, but a social enterprise is. In my opinion, a social enterprise uses the efficiency of the United States economy to benefit the person in charge of the business and others.

When Fiorella said that social entrepreneurship is not a charity, she is stating that charity relies on other founds for only one cause. When you start a business, you need some money to put behind it to support the business. Charity relies on other people to give money. With a business, there is an economic flow of money. Even though donations are involved in a business, its gains some sort of profit. You cannot build your business not knowing where or when your money is coming from. Charity doesn’t generate profit, this is why she said it that way.

I agree with Fiorella, that social entrepreneurship is not charity. What she means by that is charity is when you give to a cause if there is something horrible occurs, such as hurricane Harvey, you would give money to charity to give the people of Houston. But in this case, social entrepreneurship is when you teach someone how to do stuff like make their own food by people teaching them how to farm or raise cattle so they won’t need to be so dependent for others to give them money.

Fiorella stresses that social entrepreneurship is not charity. Even though social entrepreneurs and charity both rely on donations and are similar, social entrepreneurs can’t create a business of it because charity is not sustainable. She wants readers to understand the difference between social entrepreneurship and social services because most people think they are similar.

When Fiorella Riccobono says that social entrepreneurship is not a charity she means that charity is just giving away without gaining any profit out of it. A social entrepreneurship is different because social entrepreneurship makes a profit; it helps a community in some ways but it also benefits the entrepreneur in other ways. There’s a saying that Ms. Zocco said “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.” This saying explains much about what social entrepreneurship. An example of a social entrepreneurship is, you put a business in a poor town, you teach all the poor people in that town how to do the job and hire them. You pay them a wage that is going to allow them to live comfortably and they are good. An example of a charity is going to a poor town and just give them money. That will only help them for some time. She makes this important distinction because social entrepreneurship is much better than charities. It helps the people, it makes them work, and it helps the entrepreneur make a profit. Charity helps society but it doesn’t improve society as much as social entrepreneurship. This is important to know because the more people make social entrepreneurship, the less poverty will be in the world.

When Fiorella states that social entrepreneurship is not charity, she is referring to the fact that charity relies only on founds and specific for one cause.

It’s not the same because , although social entrepreneurs may need donations to launch their endeavors, they are not going to be able to create a business based on donations. Charity is not continuous. Just imagine building a business when you don’t know where your next dollar is coming from or when, you can’t. This is actually important because social entrepreneurs are individuals who draw on innovative business strategies to create solutions to societal issues. So, this is what I think.

Fiorella stresses that social entrepreneurship isn’t a charity because it isn’t. In order to start a business and have it flourish you need more than just donations to do that. Even though the two have their similarities (meaning they both rely on donations), they are different. You can’t just base your business on a “maybe”, because there’s no 100% that there will be more donations. That’s worry-some for your clients and yourself. Entrepreneurs may use the donations to start off but later own they’re going to have to make better decisions so they gain money instead of receiving it form anonymous or known doners.

When Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not a charity, she’s referring to the fact that a charity is when people give without getting anything out of it. Rather, she wants people to understand that in social entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurs are helping with societal issues but they are building a business not a charity.

When Fiorella said that social entrepreneurship is not charity, charity rely on donations for only one cause but charity isn’t sustainable. All charities will help for some time and come to a soon end. But social entrepreneurship is an equilibrium between charity and economy because makes people work and help the entrepreneur make profit and improve de community. Malala Yousafzi and Muhammad Yunus are positive and influential contributions to de society. Malala advocates for women education and Muhammad created the concept of microfinancing. I agree when Fiorella says, “I believe social entreneurship is the future of business and policy making.” Because the more people who make social entreneurship with innovative business tactics the more solutions to social issues.

When Fiorella Riccobono stresses that social entrepreneurship is not donated, she means that social entrepreneurship is not focused on raising money. Social entrepreneurship is a business that benefits when money is used. Of course you are going to need to donated money from somewhere, but the purpose of social entrepreneurship is to run a business not to collect money. Clearly, Fiorella makes this important distinction because she wants to show the readers that social entrepreneurship and donating are two separate things.

Florella says “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy making”, which I have to totally disagree on. I’m surprised that no one has talked about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is mandatory in many countries, as a % of the net profits made by the firm. Why are firms doing this? Well, if they make a difference (e.g. build a school for a rural place in a country), they gain good publicity. As consumers are getting richer now, they may choose to buy a good or service from a firm with good reputation. By enacting CSR, firms have a better brand image as they are seen to be kind, caring, and giving back to the community. Is this the truth? No. Firms are doing this for more profits and revenue. They can gain more demand and consumer loyalty by CSR.

Now back to social entrepreneurship. This is different from CSR as CSR can be donating money to a major firm. Right now, businesses focus on whether their acts are moral and ethical, as they may be creating lots of external costs e.g. pollution which decreases health of the labour force. Most businesses are for profit – only non-profits will focus on social entrepreneurship. Trust me, it isn’t highly profitable.

I have a social enterprise myself, from the club I created. I’ll talk about the club and distinguish between social entrepreneurship and donating / charities. They are different, but are similar in some respects. Both need money to operate. How do charities get money? They ask people to donate, which is usually tax deductible if they are a 501c3. How do social entrepreneurs get money? They have to get it themselves, which is a very proactive process. Most people get investors. However, I’m only 15, so I gain money by starting a business and profiting. I use those profits to operate my social enterprise.

Florella continues with “Social entrepreneurs do not have an idea and then apply it. Instead, they go directly to the source of the issue and ask what is needed. Based on that answer, they build their business plans. Social entrepreneurs are often empathetic, bold, open-minded and tenacious”. I totally agree on this, but as I am a student, I’m working with a 501c3, and together we are developing a model on how to alleviate poverty and hunger in a part of rural China. We’re working on small ‘life packages’, containing different proportions of food, sanitation, clothing, etc. and we’re finalising the model. Our solution is very meaningful and may bring a whole village out of the absolute poverty line. However, similar to a charity, we need funds to operate and purchase the food packages. I am the social entrepreneur, while the 501c3 is the charity. The charity of course has more funds as they are tax deductible, and a trusted organisation. On the other hand, I have less funds because I’m gathering it myself, but together we make a good group to help fight against the 1st and 2nd UN SDGs!

Finally, I’d like to comment on Malala, a true inspiration. There is a club at my school based off Malala’s vision, providing more education for girls. Although we live in a rich district in the metropolis Shanghai, there are rural places in China (places which need food packages) where girls don’t go to school. Malala’s story has made the whole world realise how inequality still exists, and keeps reminding us to fight against it. I’m so happy that service learning has just been approved at our school as a mandatory academic subject :).

Also, commenting a little more on Malala – her life has a “conveyor belt” image, as she was brought up in an elitist family who trained her to be the voice for many women. Her success would not have been possible without her father. Of course, she was very determined herself as she was stronger than before after being shot and fortunately surviving. Malala wasn’t a social entrepreneur, but more like a political ambassador / representative. Her Noble Peace Prize win raised more awareness of the issue of inequality, to empower women for education.

In the mere chance anyone stumbles by my post nearly 1.5 years ago, I’d like to make a correction after learning much more about impact investing and creating a business with impact. My previous viewpoints still remain the same (well, CSR is mutually beneficial for both the firm’s publicity and those who are supported by the received money/projects – it’s a win win!). However, social enterprises can be for profit. There are many impact investing firms, mostly venture capitals that invest in businesses that will both generate profits and a positive societal impact. Hence, social enterprises can definitely be profitable.

Also, update to the social enterprise I founded. Co-organised event with Rise Against Hunger where 220000 meals were packaged and distributed in Oct 2018!

Great. This article is excellent. I have read many articles with this topic, but I have not liked. I think I have the same opinion with you. ATTITUDE QUOTES

As stressed by Fiorella Riccobono, Social entrepreneurship is different than charity. I feel the same here as charity is merely done for compassion towards humankind and measured by the donations acquired, social entrepreneurship is done for social change and welfare.

When Fiorella says, “I believe social entrepreneurship is the future of business and policy-making”, I completely agree. The concept of innovative thinking is lacking in this world and by social entrepreneurship, such skills are highlighted.

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1.3 The Entrepreneurial Mindset

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain what it means to have an entrepreneurial mindset
• Describe what is meant by entrepreneurial spirit or passion

Entrepreneurship takes many forms (see Table 1.1 ), but entrepreneurs share a major trait in common: An entrepreneur is someone who identifies an opportunity and chooses to act on that opportunity. Most business ventures are innovative variations of an existing idea that has spread across communities, regions, and countries, such as starting a restaurant or opening a retail store. These business ventures are, in some ways, a lower-risk approach but nonetheless are entrepreneurial in some way. For example, Warby Parker , a profitable startup founded by four graduate students at Wharton, disrupted a major incumbent ( Luxottica ) by providing a more convenient (online initially), affordable, and stylish product line for a large segment of consumers. In this sense, their innovation is about creating something new, unique, or different from the mainstream. Yet they attracted an existing, and in some ways mature, sector of an established industry. In a different way, McDonalds , which is 90 percent owned by franchisees, introduced an “all day breakfast” menu in 2017 that was hugely successful; it also targeted a larger segment (in part younger consumers) and brought back consumers who had chosen other options. In summary, many entrepreneurs start a new venture by solving a problem that is significant, offering some value that other people would appreciate if the product or service were available to them. Other entrepreneurs, in contrast, start a venture by offering a “better mousetrap” in terms of a product, service, or both. In any case, it is vital that the entrepreneur understand the market and target segment well, articulate a key unmet need (“pain point”), and develop and deliver a solution that is both viable and feasible. In that aspect, many entrepreneurs mitigate risks before they launch the venture.

Being aware of your surroundings and the encounters in your life can reveal multiple opportunities for entrepreneurship. In our daily lives, we constantly find areas where improvements could be made. For example, you might ask, “What if we didn’t have to commute to work?” “What if we didn’t have to own a vehicle but still had access to one?” “What if we could relax while driving to work instead of being stressed out by traffic?” These types of questions inspired entrepreneurial ventures such as ride-sharing services like Uber , the self-driving vehicle industry, 21 and short-term bicycle access in the free bike-sharing program in Pella, Iowa ( Figure 1.10 ). 22

These ideas resulted from having an entrepreneurial mindset , an awareness and focus on identifying an opportunity through solving a problem, and a willingness to move forward to advance that idea. The entrepreneurial mindset is the lens through which the entrepreneur views the world, where everything is considered in light of the entrepreneurial business. The business is always a consideration when the entrepreneur makes a decision. In most cases, the action that the entrepreneur takes is for the benefit of the business, but sometimes, it helps the entrepreneur get ready to adopt the appropriate mindset. The mindset becomes a way of life for the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs often are predisposed to action to achieve their goals and objectives. They are forward thinking, always planning ahead, and they are engaged in “what if” analyses. They frequently ask themselves, “What if we did this?” “What if a competitor did that?”—and consider what the business implications would be.

Most people follow habits and traditions without being aware of their surroundings or noticing the opportunities to become entrepreneurs. Because anyone can change their perspective from following established patterns to noticing the opportunities around them, anyone can become an entrepreneur. There is no restriction on age, gender, race, country of origin, or personal income. To become an entrepreneur, you need to recognize that an opportunity exists and be willing to act on it. Note, however, that the execution of the entrepreneurial mindset varies in different parts of the world. For example, in many Asian cultures, group decision-making is more common and valued as a character trait. In these regions, an entrepreneur would likely ask the advice of family members or other business associates before taking action. In contrast, individualism is highly valued in the United States and so many US entrepreneurs will decide to implement a plan for the business without consulting others.

Entrepreneurial Spirit and Passion

An entrepreneurial spirit allows entrepreneurs to carry a manner of thinking with them each day that allows them to overcome obstacles and to meet challenges with a can-do attitude. What does it mean to have an entrepreneurial spirit? For the purposes of this discussion, it could mean being passionate, purposeful, positive, bold, curious, or persistent.

The founders of Airbnb have a passion for supporting individual rights to rent out unused space. Why should the established model of hotels prevail? Why shouldn’t an individual homeowner have the freedom to rent out unused space and leverage that space into an income? Airbnb has succeeded in creating more flexible and affordable options in the space of the rapidly growing "sharing" economy. At the same time, some states and municipalities have raised issues about the regulations monitoring ventures like this. While entrepreneurial spirit is partly about fighting for individual rights and freedoms, there should be a balance between economic freedom and consumer protection. The entrepreneurial spirit involves a passion for presenting an idea that is worthwhile and valuable, and a willingness to think beyond established patterns and processes, while still keeping in mind local laws and regulations, in the quest to change those established patterns, or at least to offer alternatives to those established patterns.

Passion is a critical component of the entrepreneurial process. Without it, an entrepreneur can lose the drive to run the business. Passion can keep an entrepreneur going when the outside world sends negative messages or less-than-positive feedback. For example, if you are truly passionate about starting an animal shelter because of your love of animals, you will find a way to make it happen. Your internal drive to help animals in need will spur you on to do whatever it takes to make the shelter become a reality. The same is true of other types of startups and owners with similar passions. However, passion needs to be informed by the entrepreneur’s vision and mission—passion of the sake of passion is not enough. A clear mission statement —which details why the business exists and the entrepreneur’s objectives for achieving that mission—will guide an entrepreneur’s passion and keep the business on track. Passion, vision, and mission can reinforce each other and keep the entrepreneur on the right track with next steps for the business.

Some ideas might seem small or insignificant, but in the field of entrepreneurship, it’s important to recognize that for every new startup, someone else may recognize a spin-off idea that expands upon the original idea. The opportunities for identifying new possibilities are endless. Review your work in creating spinoff ideas for Angad Darvani’s projects, or Kevin F. Adler’s Miracle Messages venture. Or consider possible spin-off ideas around the technology used in agriculture. Creating spin-off ideas fits well with our discussion of divergent thinking and brainstorming. Through these processes, we can discover new uses for existing technology, just as Ring did by using video technology to add security by allowing customers to see who is at the door without opening it.

An Entrepreneurial Mindset in Your Discipline or Field

Within your industry of interest or area of study, what are the challenges that create frustration? How can these be turned into opportunities? Earlier in this chapter, we discussed Evernote , a company that focuses on expanding our memories by storing and organizing information. Let’s look at some other examples of entrepreneurial endeavors in specific industries to help you plan your own venture in your own industry.

In the agriculture industry, insects, weeds, weather conditions, and the challenges of harvesting crops are all ripe for entrepreneurial activities. The move toward organic produce has also affected this industry. From an entrepreneurial perspective, what products could you invent to support both organic farming and the problems of insects that damage or destroy crops? The old method was to use chemical sprays to kill the insects, but today, the growing demand for organic foods and increased awareness of the impact of chemical sprays on our environment are changing this scenario. One new idea to solve this problem combines a vacuum cleaner with an agriculture product.

Link to Learning

Watch this video on the creation of a crop vacuum that sucks up insects and bugs to learn more.

A bug vacuum is an example of how using divergent thinking contributed to the solution of removing bugs from crops without using chemicals. In the group activity of creating divergent ideas, this idea may not have been received well. However, in the incubation stage, the idea must have come forward as a viable solution. Entrepreneurs frequently face the challenge of pressure to conform to established habits and patterns within industries.

Often, the entrepreneurial mindset includes futuristic ideas that shake up the normal, conventional processes that are grounded in experience over time. Tried-and-tested processes and products that have a proven history of success can be a formidable obstacle to new ideas. A new idea may even appear as impossible or outlandish, perhaps even an embarrassment to the steady and predictable practices established within an industry. This can create a dilemma: Do we try something new and unproven that lacks documented research? Sometimes, we must disregard our past successes and research to be open to new possibilities for success and failure. An entrepreneurial mindset includes creativity, problem-solving skills, and a propensity to innovation. 23 Open-mindedness is one characteristic that supports creativity, problem solving, and innovation. Taking the time to explore new ideas, dream, reflect, and view situations from a new perspective contribute to the entrepreneurial mindset. Some innovations can lead to disruptions within the industry, or even create a new industry.

The innovator’s dilemma was presented by Clayton Christensen to explain disruptive technology , which are technologies that, once introduced, displace established patterns, processes, and systems previously accepted as normal or accepted. One example of a disruptive technology is Airbnb , a company that threatens the established hotel industry by connecting personal resources to people who desire those resources. If you have a spare bedroom that you aren’t using, why not sell that space to someone who wants and needs the space?

Airbnb has become a significant threat to the established hotel industry’s business model of building large hotels and renting rooms within those hotels to their customers. Airbnb has reconfigured that model, and since its 2008 launch, 150 million travelers have taken advantage of 3 million Airbnb listings in more than 191 countries. Airbnb has raised more than $3 billion (plus a $1 billion credit line) and is considering selling stocks to support significant expansion. The value of Airbnb is approximately $30 billion. Compare this market value to Hilton ’s market capitalization of $19 billion and Marriott ’s of $35 billion. If you were the CEO of Hilton or Marriott, would you be worried? The hotel industry recognized Airbnb as a threat, and in 2016, began a campaign to create legislation to rein in Airbnb’s growth and popularity. From the hotel industry’s perspective, Airbnb is not playing by the same rules. This is the definition of disruptive technology, the focus on creating a new idea or process that negates or challenges established process or products. 24

Sometimes disruptive technologies result from not listening to customers. Customers don’t always know what they want. Customer groups might need to be redefined by the entrepreneurial team on the basis of better models, knowing when to invest in developing lower-performance products that promise lower margins while still satisfying the need, and knowing when to pursue small markets at the expense of larger or established markets. Basically, disruptive technologies occur through identifying new and valuable processes and products.

The founders of Airbnb recognized that some people have unused resources, bedrooms, that other people need. We can apply this idea to other unused resources such as vehicles and motor homes. We see this model reproduced in short-term car rental and bike-sharing programs.

• 21 Matthew DeBord. “Waymo Could Be Worth as Much as $75 Billion—Here’s a Brief History of the Google Car Project.” Business Insider . September 9, 2018. https://www.businessinsider.com/google-car-project-history-2018-8
• 22 Ethan Goetz. “Bike Share Program Launched Monday.” The Chronicle . July 2, 2018. https://www.pellachronicle.com/gallery/bike-share-program-launched-monday/article_950cebac-7e49-11e8-97a0-8fd615410188.html
• 23 Emma Fleck. “Needed: Entrepreneurial Mindset.”  Central Penn Business Journal ,  34 (12), 10. http://pageturnpro2.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Publications/201803/15/83956/PDF/131668002208352000_CPBJ033018WEB.pdf
• 24 Katie Benner. “Inside the Hotel Industry’s Plan to Combat Airbnb.” New York Times . April 16, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/16/technology/inside-the-hotel-industrys-plan-to-combat-airbnb.html

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the Essence of Entrepreneurship: who is a True Entrepreneur?

This essay about the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur outlines several key attributes that distinguish true entrepreneurs. It highlights that entrepreneurs are visionaries who not only see opportunities where others see obstacles, but also act passionately to turn these visions into reality. They are characterized by their willingness to take significant risks and their ability to recover and learn from setbacks. Innovation plays a central role in their endeavors, aimed at solving real-world problems and enhancing efficiency. The essay also notes that successful entrepreneurship involves strong leadership and collaboration skills, as entrepreneurs must inspire and lead teams towards shared goals. Additionally, adaptability is emphasized as crucial for navigating the ever-changing business landscape. Lastly, the essay describes entrepreneurs as socially responsible leaders whose ventures often aim to make a positive impact on society, underlining their importance in driving economic and social progress.

How it works

There has never been a more important role for businesses in a world that is continuously changing due to new technologies and altered market dynamics. However, precisely what makes a business owner? A business owner is fundamentally a person who develops solutions, spurs innovation, and spots chances. However, what it really means to be a businessperson is beyond the scope of this description.

First and foremost, an entrepreneur is a visionary. They possess the unique ability to see potential where others see obstacles.

This vision might involve inventing a new product, improving an existing service, or finding a gap in the market that others have overlooked. Vision alone, however, isn’t enough; it must be coupled with a robust passion for bringing that vision to life. Entrepreneurs are not just dreamers; they are doers. Their day-to-day lives are consumed with the pursuit of making their vision a reality, driven by an intrinsic motivation that often surpasses the allure of financial gain.

A key characteristic of an entrepreneur is their willingness to take risks. Starting any business involves a significant amount of uncertainty, and the path of entrepreneurship is fraught with challenges that can discourage even the most ardent optimist. Financial risks, market competition, and the sheer amount of time and effort required can be daunting. Yet, entrepreneurs are those who step into the arena despite these risks. They are prepared to pivot their strategies, adapt to new data, and persevere through failures. Resilience, therefore, is a hallmark of successful entrepreneurs. They learn from setbacks and use these lessons to forge ahead with an improved approach.

Entrepreneurs are also innovators at their core. They thrive on innovation not just for the sake of novelty, but to solve real-world problems. This can mean developing new products that revolutionize how we live, or it can mean implementing new processes that enhance efficiency and productivity within existing frameworks. Innovation for entrepreneurs is a means to an end—a tool used to overcome barriers and achieve objectives that seemed impossible.

Moreover, entrepreneurship is not a solo journey. A true entrepreneur understands the value of collaboration. They are adept at building teams, inspiring staff, and attracting stakeholders who share their vision and commitment. Leadership skills are indispensable in this aspect, as motivating a group of individuals towards a common goal is no small feat. Entrepreneurs must be communicative and persuasive, capable of negotiating deals and selling their vision to a wide array of audiences.

Importantly, entrepreneurship is also about adaptability. In a fast-paced world, the only constant is change. Entrepreneurs excel in adapting to new trends and shifting business environments. They are always learning, always evolving, and always ready to adjust their sails to navigate the winds of change. This agility allows them to stay ahead of the curve and maintain relevance in a competitive market.

Lastly, a defining trait of entrepreneurs is their contribution to society. While the primary motive may be to build a profitable business, many entrepreneurs are driven by a desire to make a positive impact on the world. Whether it’s through innovative products that improve quality of life, services that address specific societal needs, or business models that prioritize sustainability, entrepreneurs often embed a social mission into the DNA of their business ventures.

In conclusion, an entrepreneur is more than just a business owner or a manager. They are pioneers on the frontier of innovation, captains of industry who steer the ship against formidable waves, and visionaries who transform faint glimmers of possibility into beacons of reality. Their path is one of courage, creativity, and relentless pursuit of a dream. This blend of vision, risk-taking, innovation, leadership, adaptability, and societal impact is what truly encapsulates the spirit of entrepreneurship. Such individuals are indispensable to economic progress and social evolution, marking their journey not just in profits, but in the broader strokes of change they paint across the canvas of society.

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More From Forbes

Why creativity is essential for entrepreneurship.

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Steve Jbara, President at Grand Rapids Gold , is a driven and innovative entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs know that every decision they make is a critical juncture in their future success. And it's often the unexpected challenges that truly test our abilities.

Here, I reflect on when I acquired an NBA G-League team and relocated them to Michigan, my home state. The last thing on my mind at the time was what catchy moniker to slap on our jerseys. What nickname was I going to give the club? We held a fan content and eventually settled on the Drive, but this was later changed to the Gold after we changed affiliations from the Detroit Pistons to the Denver Nuggets.

Yet, there it was: A simple question that opened the floodgates to a realization. Innovation isn't just about grand ideas; it's about the ability to pivot, adapt and, yes, even come up with a team nickname on the fly.

There will always be mid-course corrections that will need to be made, no matter how seasoned of an entrepreneur you are. Whether it's adapting to market shifts, responding to customer feedback or navigating unforeseen challenges, the ability to innovate is what separates profitable ventures from those that fail.

In today's fast-paced business landscape, creativity is a valuable asset. It helps you make the shots, but it also helps prepare you for unexpected rebounds.

Opportunity Entrepreneurs: Upholding Creative Behaviors

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Creative behavior is a fundamental catalyst for success. It's what allows entrepreneurs to transcend mere ideation and master strategic innovation. This creative ethos is particularly evident when considering the diverse motivations behind entrepreneurship. While some individuals are considered "opportunity" entrepreneurs—those driven by a passion for innovation or a desire to capitalize on emerging trends—others are propelled by necessity, spurred by economic hardships or limited employment options.

Regardless of the impetus, in my experience, I've found that the ability to cultivate and harness creative behavior is central to navigating challenges and seizing the opportunities inherent in the entrepreneurial journey. Still, I think distinguishing between opportunity entrepreneurs and necessity entrepreneurs can help us shed light on the nuanced roles that creativity plays in entrepreneurial endeavors.

To me, opportunity entrepreneurs most exemplify the proactive pursuit of innovation. Fueled by a vision for change and a penchant for exploration, they willingly embrace risk in pursuit of transformative ideas and untapped markets. Unlike necessity entrepreneurs, who may be driven by immediate needs and constraints, opportunity entrepreneurs are driven by a deep-seated desire to push boundaries and catalyze change.

With greater risk, though, comes the potential for commensurate rewards. Opportunity entrepreneurs recognize that innovation often requires venturing into uncharted territory where success is not guaranteed, but the potential for impact is profound. Their willingness to challenge conventional wisdom and experiment with novel approaches sets them apart and enables them to capitalize on untapped opportunities.

Striking A Balance Between Creativity And Practicality

Entrepreneurship is a delicate dance between creativity and practicality. I believe the key to success is learning how to harmonize these seemingly divergent forces. Practicality can provide the grounding needed to translate your creative vision into reality.

At its core, creativity ignites the spark of entrepreneurship, inspiring individuals to envision new possibilities and challenge existing paradigms. I think of it as the fuel that propels entrepreneurs to think outside the box, identify unmet needs and devise novel solutions to complex problems. However, creativity alone is not enough to sustain a business. Without a practical framework for execution, even the most groundbreaking ideas may falter in the face of real-world challenges.

Practicality, on the other hand, involves strategic planning, resource allocation and risk management—essential components for transforming innovative concepts into viable business ventures. You can look to creativity to help you fuel the initial ideation phase but then bring in practicality to help guide the implementation process, ensuring that your ideas are feasible, scalable and aligned with market demands.

The Future Of Creativity In Business

The trajectory of creativity in entrepreneurship promises to be shaped by emerging technologies and evolving societal trends. With the advent of artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation, creative thinking is poised for a profound transformation. While some may fear that these advancements will stifle human creativity, I see technology as a creativity amplifier.

I also see the future of creativity in entrepreneurship, including a growing emphasis on sustainability, diversity and ethical practices. As global challenges such as climate change, social inequality and ethical governance come to the forefront, entrepreneurs are called upon to infuse their creative endeavors with purpose and responsibility.

To truly fuel creativity, I think it is important to allow for more inclusive and equitable approaches where diverse perspectives and collaborative efforts help drive innovation. From eco-friendly technologies to socially conscious business models, the entrepreneurial landscape is primed to embrace creativity as a force for positive change, shaping a future that is both innovative and socially responsible.

As the symbiotic relationship between creativity and entrepreneurship continues to evolve, how will you be a part of this dynamic and resilient landscape?

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Business vs. Entrepreneurship: What’s the Difference Between These Degree Paths?

Business is an evolving, in-demand, and dynamic industry full of diverse career paths. Within the field, there is truly something for everyone: number-crunchers, strategic thinkers, creative marketers, organizers, decision-makers, budgeters, motivational leaders, and, of course, ambitious entrepreneurs. No matter your skill sets and interests, the world of business has something to offer you.

For individuals who have maybe dreamt up a start-up, or have goals to run a company, there are two typical pathways you can pursue in business school: business and entrepreneurship. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they involve unique approaches and mindsets, and therefore slightly different studies and career outcomes.

Business vs. entrepreneurship definitions

At a high-level, business refers to the producing, buying, and selling of goods or services in exchange for profit. It is an overarching job sector that encompasses a wide range of operations, including manufacturing, retail, finance, marketing, leadership, and more. At its core, business involves the creation and exchange of value between individuals, organizations, or entities. It often operates within a structured framework, with defined goals, processes, and hierarchies with an organization or company. Businesses can vary in size, from small start-ups to large global corporations, but all types of businesses play a key role in driving economic growth, creating employment opportunities, and satisfying the needs and wants of their consumers. The most successful businesses effectively manage resources, adapt to market changes, and strive for innovation and efficiency to remain competitive in their respective industries.

Entrepreneurship , on the other hand, refers to the process of identifying, creating, and pursuing new business ventures. These ventures are typically established with the goal of addressing unmet needs in an industry, or creating value in new and novel ways. For example, an entrepreneur might start a tech company, launch a new business, or design a new product. Sometimes, entrepreneurs will innovate within existing companies, but all share the common drive to bring their business ideas and concepts to fruition. Entrepreneurship, as a branch of business, embodies a mindset characterized by innovation, creativity, risk-taking, and the willingness to undertake challenges in pursuit of one’s goals. Successful entrepreneurs possess vision, initiative, and determination, as well as the skills needed to break into a competitive market and thrive.

Now, the question is: As an aspiring business leader, which area of study is best for you?

Business degrees vs. entrepreneurship programs

Business and entrepreneurship programs are both incredible options for business-minded individuals, and can help you develop valuable, versatile skills that can be applied to any career. However, the subject matter of these programs can vary, so it’s important to do your research before choosing the best degree program for you.

There are many different types of business degrees but, most commonly, the term “business degree” refers to a business administration degree. Business administration degree programs cover a broad range of topics related to various aspects of operating a business. They typically include courses in management, finance, economics, customer relations, accounting, marketing, and business law and ethics. The specific curriculum will vary depending on the degree you choose, as business administration programs can be found at the associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degree level.

Because of the broader nature of business administration, many programs will enable you to carve your own path through a concentration or customized elective coursework. For example, at Goodwin University, our BS in business offers 27 credits of open electives, as well as directed electives, so that students can hone in on their interests and professional goals. For some, this might involve taking more courses in entrepreneurship and small business management. For others, it might also involve studies in modern marketing methods.

Interested in earning a business degree? Download our free guide to getting started .

Entrepreneurship degree programs, as you might expect, are more concentrated in focus than a business administration degree. These programs focus on the knowledge one needs to start, grow, and manage a new business venture. While entrepreneurship programs may cover some foundational business topics (e.g. accounting and marketing) to prepare students for the daily operations, they typically place a greater emphasis on subjects and skills relevant to entrepreneurship , such as market research, business plan development, and leadership.

Entrepreneurship degrees may be offered in silo. More often, however, you might find that entrepreneurship is a concentration or specialization that you can pursue within a business degree program. At Goodwin University, for example, students within our associate degree program have the option to complete dedicated entrepreneurial coursework and a practical internship. Through this experience, students gain hands-on practice in small business management and walk away with the capacity to bring their own business to life.

While both business and entrepreneurship programs provide valuable knowledge and skills, a business administration degree offers a broader foundation in various aspects of business management, and an entrepreneurship program offers a more specialized focus on starting and growing new ventures. These differences translate to the varying career options and outcomes available after graduation from either type of program.

Business vs. entrepreneurship career options

Business degree programs offer a comprehensive understanding of how businesses function and operate and, as noted above, cover a breadth of topics related to daily management. Business degree candidates learn the ins and outs of strategic planning, operations management, and customer relations. They gain transferable skills and fundamental knowledge in areas from human resources to marketing/advertising. As a result, they leave well-equipped for careers in (but not limited to):

• Business management
• Human resources (HR)

Entrepreneurship studies are specifically focused on bringing business ideas to life, and giving students the tools they need to launch, as well as operate, their own business successfully. They offer students skills in business development, market research, small business management, and more. Graduates of an entrepreneurship-focused program will be best suited to:

• Achieve leadership roles
• Consult other small businesses
• Start and run their own company
• Work within existing corporations to inspire and innovate (called intrapreneurship)

At the end of the day, choosing the right degree for you is as simple as evaluating your specific career goals, interests, and aspirations within the business world. If you desire a lucrative career in business, a business administration degree is a great way to develop your foundational skills and knowledge. But if you are looking for the specific tools and knowledge needed to launch a business of your own, an entrepreneurship program is going to be a better fit for your needs.

Whether you are interested in entrepreneurship, or looking to explore your options in business school, Goodwin is here to guide you. Learn about our business programs in Connecticut by visiting us online here !

#353 - Chris Powers & Jason Baxter - Foster: How Fort Is Harnessing The Power of Advanced Data & Artificial Intelligence The Fort - An Entrepreneurship Podcast

• Entrepreneurship

I couldn’t be more excited to release today’s episode that shares in great detail how Fort is thinking about and using AI. Jason and I discuss our proprietary operating system, FOS, and how we’re leveraging AI to build Fort's next chapter. We’ve been building this technology for years and now the fun really begins. Jason Baxter joined Fort in 2015, bringing more than 25 years of real estate industry experience, an acute passion for entrepreneurship, and a vision for transforming big ideas into reality. As Chief Executive Officer/President, Jason oversees Fort’s strategic vision and execution of acquisitions, finances, and annual planning. In addition, Jason oversees the Fort Leadership Team and Investment Committee. Chris is a serial entrepreneur with 19 years of real estate development and investment experience. He founded Fort and to date, the company has invested over $2.1B in Class B industrial, commercial, multifamily, student housing, and land development projects throughout the state of Texas and the Sunbelt. In 2016, Chris made the decision to focus on Class B Industrial full time and that is where the firm has dedicated the majority of its resources since. On this episode, Chris and Jason discuss: Finding a single source of truth Building Fort’s AI thesis Examples of Foster at work Links: Fort in the WallStreet Journal - Harnessing the Power of Advanced Data FOS Overview Foster Overview Fort: https://bit.ly/FortCompanies Follow Fort on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fort-companies/ Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:00:42) - The importance of technology (00:05:00) - Finding the single source of truth (00:09:24) - Building Fort’s AI thesis (00:11:48) - How the world uses AI vs. how Fort uses AI (00:18:15) - Examples of Foster at work (00:28:35) - What does Foster think Foster is? (00:31:46) - Why does all this matter? Chris on Social Media: X: https://bit.ly/3BYIjcH LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd   Watch The Fort on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNX Visit our website: https://bit.ly/43SOvys Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO 

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Collaborative Report Highlights Insights on Pakistan's Youth Entrepreneurship Landscape

May 8, 2024.

08 May 2024 – Islamabad: UNDP launched its latest report, titled 'The State of Youth Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Pakistan' report was launched in a high-level ceremony at Serena Hotel in Islamabad. The event was attended by the Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunications, H.E. Shaza Fatima Khawaja, the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Youth Program, Mr. Rana Mashhood Khan, UNDP Resident Representative, Dr. Samuel Rizk, and Adviser Youth Development, Commonwealth Secretariat, Mr. Sushil Ram. The event was also attended by students, youth entrepreneurs, policymakers, and members of academia.

The report was developed by the Youth Co:Lab, co-led by UNDP and the Citi Foundation, along with UNDP Pakistan, in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Commonwealth Secretariat. It maps the growth and evolution of the youth entrepreneurship ecosystem in Pakistan while acknowledging the need for concerted efforts and targeted initiatives to establish a more inclusive environment for aspiring entrepreneurs in the country.

The research was conducted and analysed through Youth Co:Lab’s entrepreneurship ecosystem diagnostic framework, which consists of six domains to identify and comprehensively examine the obstacles and facilitators to establishing an inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem.  These domains focus on Policy and Regulatory Frameworks, Human Capital and Entrepreneurship Culture, Access to Finance and Incentives, Business Development Support and Infrastructure, Access to Markets, and Innovation and Technology. 

While Pakistan's youth entrepreneurship ecosystem has displayed remarkable growth and potential, there persists a need to address specific challenges encountered by young individuals. The report advocates for stronger collective efforts and targeted initiatives to establish an inclusive environment for all aspiring entrepreneurs. In this regard, Dr. Samuel Rizk, UNDP Pakistan’s Resident Representative, highlighted the report's utility and emphasized the importance of creating a gender-inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem. He highlighted, "The report outlines simple, practical, and actionable recommendations for all stakeholders, aimed at accelerating our collective efforts to create an inclusive entrepreneurship environment for youth."

Syed Husain Quadri, Director of Resilience and Climate Action at IsDB, emphasized the significance of collaboration among key stakeholders, stating, "By strengthening collaborative efforts among these stakeholders and implementing targeted policies and programs, we can cultivate a vibrant and thriving ecosystem, which empowers the country’s youth to fulfill their entrepreneurial aspirations." Mr. Sushil Ram, Advisor on Youth Development at the Commonwealth Secretariat, echoed this sentiment, saying, "Together, in partnership with all stakeholders, we can create an enabling environment where every young person has the opportunity to unleash their entrepreneurial potential and contribute to building a brighter and more prosperous future for all."

Recognizing the report's potential to inform policy, Mr. Rana Mashhood Khan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, highlighted, "This report provides us with essential building blocks through its findings and recommendations, and the next step is to actively engage in their implementation to turn aspirations into action, and rhetoric into results."

One of the key take-aways from the report is that through nurturing talent, ensuring access to resources, and addressing gender and inclusivity disparities, Pakistan can cultivate a dynamic entrepreneurial landscape that catalyzes economic advancement and societal development.

-------------------------------------------  About Youth Co:Lab:  Co-created in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation, Youth Co:Lab aims to establish a common agenda for countries in the Asia-Pacific region to empower and invest in youth, enabling them to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through leadership, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. Read more about Youth Co:Lab here: https://www.youthcolab.org/  

About UNDP:  UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and the planet. Learn more at www.undp.org 

About Citi   Citi is a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, a global leader in wealth management, and a valued personal bank in its home market of the United States. Citi does business in nearly 160 countries and jurisdictions, providing corporations, governments, investors, institutions, and individuals with a broad range of financial products and services. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com 

About Citi Foundation   The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant communities. The Citi Foundation's "More than Philanthropy" approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit www.citifoundation.com

#############

Contact Details:  For additional information, please contact Ramsha Nadeem at [email protected] or +92 (51) 835 5679

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Warrior University, Powered by GVSU, Announces Virtual Entrepreneurship Program for Military Community

May 14, 2024

Warrior Rising's Warrior University, in partnership with Grand Valley State University (GVSU), proudly unveils its latest initiative, the Warrior University Entrepreneurship Program, designed exclusively for military personnel, veterans, and their families. This comprehensive eight-week virtual event, commencing on June 3rd and concluding on July 22nd, promises to equip participants with the skills, resources, and mentorship necessary to launch successful businesses. The Warrior University Entrepreneurship Program offers a structured curriculum delivered through virtual classes every Monday from 6 to 9 p.m., ensuring accessibility for individuals regardless of location or schedule constraints. Participants will delve into business planning, marketing strategies, financial management, and more, led by industry experts and seasoned entrepreneurs. Upon successfully completing the program, participants will have the exclusive opportunity to pitch their business ideas for a chance to win up to $100,000 in cash prizes. Additionally, winners will receive invaluable support from a dedicated Warrior Rising mentor for six months, guiding them through the early stages of business development. As a bonus, each winning participant will receive a new laptop to further support their entrepreneurial endeavors. "We are thrilled to launch the Warrior University Entrepreneurship Program in collaboration with GVSU," said Jason VanCamp, founder of Warrior Rising and veteran Green Beret Commander at Warrior Rising. "Our mission is to empower members of the military community and their families to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations confidently. Through this program, we aim to provide education, tangible support, and resources to help turn their business dreams into reality." The program is open exclusively to military personnel, veterans, and spouses or children of individuals within these categories. Warrior University and GVSU are committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where participants can thrive and succeed. Spaces in the Warrior University Entrepreneurship Program are limited, with slots available for up to 20 businesses to pitch. Interested individuals are encouraged to apply early to secure their spot in this transformative program. The pitch event will take place in Detroit on September 20-21st, and in-person attendance is required. Expenses for participants will be covered. Non-winners will receive continued support, a laptop, and a grant. For more information about the Warrior University Entrepreneurship Program and to apply, please visit https://www.warriorrising.org/veteran-business-accelerator/ If you have any questions, you can contact Theresa Irving, Deputy Director of Programming at Warrior Rising at [email protected]

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Home Blog BI Students Win Competition with Essay on AI Revolution

BI Students Win Competition with Essay on AI Revolution

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MSc students Philipp Athanasiadis and Johannes Javorsky came out on top with their essay discussing who really stands to gain from the rapid rise of generative AI. 

The two are this year’s winners of BI’s Opinion Essay Competition, which is organised as part of the master course Ethics and Sustainability in Organizations each semester. 

“We feel very honored to have won this year’s opinion essay competition and are happy to see that critical thinking is valued and encouraged,” say Philipp and Johannes. 

In their essay, the two students question who really will benefit from the generative AI revolution and the possible extreme boost in productivity it is expected to bring. 

Addressing AI responsibly

“We deeply believe that generative AI is an increasingly disruptive technology that will certainly change our future. How we deal with it will define whether the changes will be for the better or the worse. In our opinion, addressing generative AI responsibly is one of the most important challenges of today.”

The winners of the competition receive a prize of NOK 10,000 in addition to having their essay  “Generative AI: A bright future ahead of us – but for whom?”  published as a featured article on BI Business Review. 

Leaders of tomorrow

Professor Caroline Dale Ditlev-Simonsen is responsible for the competition. She describes the essay competition as a great alternative to just tasking students with writing a regular assignment. 

“This competition demands students to apply what they have learned, critically reflect, and take a personal stand on how the world of business approaches sustainability. Initiatives like this aim to support and enhance students’ skills and engagement when it comes to sustainable development and corporate sustainability. These are all highly important things to learn for a group of people that represent the leaders of tomorrow,” says Ditlev-Simonsen.

This year’s jury consisted of Karen Spens (President of BI), Abhimanyu Manimaran (Director Strategy and Partnerships, UN Global Compact Norway), Linn Dybdahl (Senior Adviser, NMBU) and Pål Nygaard (Associate Professor, BI).