Introduction This paper will examine whether repeat entrepreneurs search for opportunities differently than entrepreneurs who found only one company. Before examining the case for or against this theory, a brief discussion what makes up an entrepreneur opens this paper. From there it moves into a brief discussion of Howard Stevenson and his importance within the field of study of entrepreneurism. Then the focus turns to a case for or against whether repeat entrepreneurs search for opportunities differently than entrepreneurs who found only one company. To emphasize the findings discussed, a brief case study of a successful entrepreneur hopes to reinforce the concepts discussed. The paper will close with a summation of the findings and …show more content…
A Case Against
Repeat entrepreneurs know they have the ability to identify an opportunity and turn that opportunity into a business. In most cases, they have already done it at least once. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the first business was a success or that they will be able to repeat the success the first business may have had. In fact, if the first business was a failure, there are indications that the second business may fail as well. Recent research “shows that instead of learning from mistakes, entrepreneurs are just as apt to be overoptimistic after failure as before. Their overoptimism remains undimmed by failure” (Ucbasaran, Westhead & Wright, 2011). This overoptimism can cause an entrepreneur to take on risky opportunities, fail to properly plan for the unforeseen or waste financial resources instead of looking for and finding the right opportunity.
Successful entrepreneurs looking to become repeat entrepreneurs may incorrectly over-focus on recreating their success that ideas for future opportunities are not as strong as the previous ones. Where the first opportunity an entrepreneur pursued may have grown from an organic problem solving process, repeat entrepreneurs may look to duplicate that success instead of taking the time to grow into another opportunity as organically as the first. “The greatest, and more crucial, challenge
Gerber argues that anyone can become an entrepreneur and create a successful company, a departure from the conventional wisdom on the question of whether entrepreneurs are born or made. Using a frame work he calls the "Dreaming Room," Gerber identifies four dimensions of the entrepreneurial personality and recommends a pathway to conceive of and develop a small business.with focused attention and the intention of actually achieving something and understanding the market, your core customers, securing capital, preparing financials—those kinds of elements? Every one of those
Being an entrepreneur is one of the most challenging and popular things to do. Become an entrepreneur does not happen by accident, it requires discipline, hard work, creativity, characteristics and innovative idea. Many entrepreneurs are often experienced failure, but the real entrepreneur usually can get out from the problem they face and become successful. Arianna Huffington, who is a successful entrepreneur in her state, said “Reading biographies of successful people you admire is a great way to put failure in perspective. There 's absolutely no one who 's succeeded who has not failed along the way”, (Inc, 2013). Based on Vinnedge (2010), Huffington has been facing failures
This article talks about how it can be difficult to be an entrepreneur but it’s worth it. An entrepreneur is when one lives off their own business. Eades talks about how by starting your own business you can make a positive impact no matter the risk that exists of failing. The author mentions a few people that are well known that became very successful; for example, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Following their footsteps is very extreme; it can be a goal but it is something
Entrepreneurship is the activity of creating a new business or enterprise. It is an essential and significant action in the growing job market (Bednarzik, 2000). Entrepreneurship has become important to all the countries whether they developed or developing ones. It is a basis of economic growth and employment creation (Thurik, Carree, Van Stel, Audretsch, 2008). It involves opportunity recognition or creation, collecting resources to track the opportunity, and managing actions that bring a new venture into existence. Some ventures are complete start-ups, while other ventures are pursued within an existing organization (Enz and Harrison, 2010). Entrepreneurs accept the personal financial risks that drive with having their own business. On the other hand, entrepreneurs benefit directly from the
Serial entrepreneurs often start multiple businesses during their careers. These people are entrepreneurs who work in varied areas of the business world. The reasons behind joining this small group vary as widely as their professions. While looking at these individuals key traits happen to become evident.
Most successful entrepreneurs exhibit certain characteristics. Some entrepreneurs are open-minded, able to learn quickly, and skilled at conceptualizing.
With every one success, there was also multiple failures. This is exactly what happened to the company PAC. David Dukakis founded PAC in 1994. After a couple of years, the company was quickly falling through and Dukakis just looked at it as an entrepreneurship skill builder. After this major failure, he
Entrepreneurship is related with the capability of recognition and evaluation of opportunities, allocation of resources and growth. Moreover, entrepreneurship has been taken as an organisational notion that contains three magnitudes: Modernisation, Bear risks and Practical alignment. It has been confirmed that the companies that were engaged in entrepreneurial activities are now most successful and efficient.
Sujan Patel, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur and marketer and VP of Marketing at When I Work, wrote an article for Entrepreneur.com titled “7 Things Confident Entrepreneurs Never Do.” While this article is not an exhaustive list of mistakes entrepreneurs can make, it gets the main point across—entrepreneurs need to be confident because self-confidence is key in the decision-making process (Schermerhorn). Patel says they need to be tenacious and determined and have faith in order to be successful, but he points out seven things to avoid at all costs.
Entrepreneurship is difficult to define throughout its history research. Even nowadays, this concept is still a debatable point (Rajendra, et al., 2017). Based on four decades of research, Gartner (1988) concludes that entrepreneurs are founders of new firms. Shane and Venkataraman (2000) consider entrepreneurship as “a new venture’s risk-taking endeavor seeking an opportunity” and Fortunato (2014) adds innovative value into the concept of entrepreneurship. Thus, research on the definition of entrepreneurship continue. According to those diverse views, I will interpret six unique entrepreneurial characteristics and theoretically analyze each one. Risk taker, need for achievement and proactivity as my strengthens will be illustrated with my experience. Innovativeness, internal locus of control and tolerance for ambiguity are my weaknesses, thus I will describe relevant successful Entrepreneurs’ experiences.
Though I have not engaged in an enterprise or enterprise related activity earlier, I found certain entrepreneurial characteristics inside me. For an instance, the decision making ability under uncertainty can be shown. Studying in UK was a decision taken under an uncertainty following few sacrifices.
In the business world, higher risk means higher earnings. Therefore, studies show that intrapreneurs who are more risk averse are less financially rewarded compared to independent entrepreneurs who are more risk-tolerated. Intrapreneurs attend to take less risky projects as opposed to entrepreneurs who are more willing to take full responsibility for their projects and care less about the consequences in case of failure. Intrapreneurs sensitivity toward risk taking can be accredited to personality traits
There has been extensive research conducted on the characteristics that successful entrepreneurs possess. These attributes vary widely across literature, however there are common key traits that are required to achieve any form of success. Frederick et al (2013) suggest entrepreneurs are risk takers, optimistic, have sound judgement and an ability to manage. While a review of literature relating to the psychology of an entrepreneur reveals a large variety of characteristics in a successful entrepreneur, these can be consolidated to a a few into only a few traits that are essential for a successful entrepreneur. Whilst taking into
Doug Neal, the Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Michigan College of Engineering, Ann Arbor attempted to distinguish 6 different techniques through which Entrepreneurs identify opportunities upon which they build their businesses from observing patterns of behaviour and
The history of entrepreneurial research falls into three phases, each representing a change in the viewpoint of whether entrepreneurs are born or made (Nielsen et al., 2012). The first phase began between 1960s and 1970s, and is also known as the “optimistic” phase (Nielsen et al., 2012). The understanding during this phase was that entrepreneurs are born with a distinct set of traits, which differentiates them from other non-entrepreneurial individuals (Nielsen et al., 2012). The next phase occurred in the 1980s and it brought about critical changes in the field of entrepreneurial research (Nielsen et al., 2012). During this phase, entrepreneurs were looked at as more than a set of personality traits. This gave rise to more diverse theories, which focused on the interaction of individuals with their environments and made way for the view that