Date: 29

th

November 2013

Student Name: Amany Hamza

Student number: 21202244

Module Leader: David Mackrory

Module Code: MS70074E

Enterprise and Innovation – Mind Map Narrative

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Table of Contents Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... 1

1. EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................... 2

2. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 2

3. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ENTREPRENEUR...................................................................................................... 3

3.1. PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS ........................................................................................................... 3

3.2. MALLEABLE COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR ........................................................... 3

4. ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS AND NEW VENTURE START-UP .............................................................................. 4

5. ENTREPRENEURSHIP OUTCOMES .................................................................................................................. 5

6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 5

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................................... 7

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1. EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

This report presents a thumbnail sketch of how the entrepreneurship’s mind map was

produced. In this respect, it provides an explanation of the links between the various concepts

and ideas which are in the designed mind map. Drawing from this context, this report depicts

how the mind map is set out to capture the interrelations between its constituents to create a

successful model for a new business venture.

The conclusion highlights the vital importance of entrepreneurship that is fuelled by a

widespread recognition for its crucial economic and social roles. Consequently, the world is

demanding more entrepreneurs to cultivate innovation and drive change.

2. INTRODUCTION

Society appears to be fascinated by entrepreneurs who are viewed as heroic figures. They are

commonly seen as the self-starting individuals who create society’s wealth and foster economic

growth. Today, people such as Richard Branson, Anita Roddick and Chris Evans are world-

renowned for their entrepreneurial prowess and revered as role models that have changed the

lives of a myriad of people and the world! What is, then, behind that surge of

entrepreneurship construct? In essence, the sketched mind map demonstrates the journey of

Figure 1 – Entrepreneurship (Source: Adapted from Google Images)

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entrepreneurship’s discovery, which encompasses two major globes, in an attempt to answer

this question.

On the one hand, the first globe illustrates the shifts in the economic and social environment or

by new technological advancements (Brem, 2008). On the other hand, the second globe is the

emergence of entrepreneurship from the changes that created from the constant shifts in the

first one.

The “Dynamics of Change” globe demonstrates the business atmosphere where the twenty-

first century is characterised in terms of a new competitive landscape that encompasses

environmental shifts driven by dynamism which leads to rapid change. These dynamics yield

some significant opportunities to build up designated innovation to exploit the perceived

opportunities and deliver value to consumers.

In this light, these changes embody certain impulses from the market and social structures that create valuable opportunities, wherein the latter are exploited by innovation. As conceived from the mind map, these opportunities are the catalyst for the formation of entrepreneurship creation, which presents the second major globe.

3. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ENTREPRENEUR

3.1. PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS

The entrepreneurship consists of other cohesive subsidiaries. In order to develop a truly entrepreneurial perspective, the entrepreneur’s distinctive traits and mindset are addressed. These are the key attributes that underpin the entrepreneurial behaviour; for instance, it is the entrepreneur’s passion towards the creation and implementation of new ideas and creative solutions that motives them to build entrepreneurial business venture and make it profitable. Hence, traits and personality subsidiaries emerge to distinguish these primary characteristics. These key traits are important for the long-term success of the new venture.

3.2. MALLEABLE COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR

In the same vein, interactions of the internal venture organisation are tied up to the entrepreneurial cognitive skills that influence its management decisions, strategic planning and functions.

Furthermore, the entrepreneurs’ organisational skills underlie their ability to deal with the inherent risk and to respond to uncertainty. These responses, which incorporate proactivity, innovation and decision making, reflect the way in which the venture is managed; therefore these skills are strongly correlated with the entrepreneurial managerial behaviour- which is looked after in the New Venture start up sphere in the map.

Thereof, the degree to which the venture acts entrepreneurially in terms of innovativeness, risk-taking, and leadership acumen is related to a set of distinctive entrepreneurial behaviour.

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Entrepreneurial demographic is one of the determinants that influence the creation of entrepreneurial ventures. With regards to age, for instance, there is a commonly held belief that younger founders tend to start up technical ventures which are associated with waves of innovation, like Facebook, while older entrepreneurs launch sustainable businesses. The reality is more complicated. There are older inventors and entrepreneurs, like Dean Kamen (age 60) or Elon Musk of SpaceX (age 39), who continue to create revolutionary products. Age is only one factor among other demographic factors to determine the tendency of the new venture type (Ressi, 2011).

4. ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS AND NEW VENTURE START-UP

The core strength of entrepreneurship involves two interrelated subprocesses of the entrepreneurial process: The opportunity Recognition and Exploitation (Carter et al, 2012). Many ventures, including present-day giants such as Apple, Google and PayPal undergo significant transformations before they find the form that make them successful. The feedback from the exploitation efforts lead to changes in the venture idea, therefore it underlies a strong interrelationship between the two subprocesses to meet the customer’s real needs and preferences. Notably, the peril of lack of acquiring resources to exploit an opportunity will lead to the failure of the venture. Notwithstanding, innovation resulting from the effectual entrepreneurial process is more likely to be concurrently low cost and valuable. Whereby the entrepreneurial cognitive behaviour the effectual process engenders become new resources that can be leveraged to co-create the future (Carter et al, 2012).

In this regard, entrepreneurship is seen as a nexus of the individual and the opportunity, wherein the individual discovers, evaluates and exploits certain opportunities. At the individual level, thinking about opportunities is related to understanding the aspiring and acting entrepreneurs. Hence, the entrepreneur lies at the heart of the entrepreneurial process driving the whole process forward (Wickham, 2006).

The entrepreneur’s creativity is the main factor to develop novel and useful ideas in order to process innovations (Brem, 2008). Hence, the creativity trait is highly correlated with the opportunity recognition process by coming up with business ideas that can be changed, refined and elaborated to be converted into an up-and-running business.

Entrepreneurial activity can be marketed effectively by fine-tuning both the marketing mix and the opportunity identification into a blended integrated marketing program to create marketable solutions rather than an uninformed invention. This is associated with bottom-up activities. Hence, innovations are pulled by unsatisfied customers’ needs to create superior customer value.

Thereafter, to communicate these new products or services to the defined target consumers, the entrepreneurial process is linked back to the entrepreneurial marketing efforts - as noted in the mind map – whereby, in effect, some informal methods including networking with relevant individuals are valuable in informing them of important market and competitive changes (Carter et al, 2012). In essence, developing the entrepreneur’s business network is very important for making progress in the start-up process.

Furthermore, the entrepreneurship as a process seeks to generate economic value –profit, as well as social value– by creating new products or services with beneficial value for many

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people. The perceived values from this process, then, have to fulfil the entrepreneur’s psychological and societal needs to sustain self-motivation.

Consequently, a new venture will take off as the core outcome of the entrepreneurial process, and an organisation must be created to coordinate the purchasing, marketing, financing and other activities that are needed in order to serve the market in a legal and profitable form.

5. ENTREPRENEURSHIP OUTCOMES

Entrepreneurs make qualitative differences in the way markets operate. In one respect,

entrepreneurship is regarded as an economic activity which is concerned with building a stable

and profitable business that must survive in a competitive environment. In this regard, valuable

innovations hold the key to entrepreneurial survival in today’s rapid change and non-linear

dynamics by helping the entrepreneur to gain and maintain strategic winning edge to stay

ahead of the curve. Furthermore, through the dissemination of knowledge via spillovers from

entrepreneurial activity, opportunities can be turned into economic knowledge and contribute

to economic growth (Carter et al, 2012).

From societal respect, entrepreneurship presents win-win scenarios where its activities operate

with some degree of social responsibility and thereof create societal values.

By innovating, entrepreneurs are responsible for disturbing the existing market equilibrium

(e.g., creative destruction) but by diffusion of innovation they are also responsible for

establishing the new equilibrium (Urban, B. (2012). This then takes us back to the first globe, the

“Dynamics of Change”, because these shifts in the marketplace attribute to great changes.

Therefore, entrepreneurship outcomes provide a route of dynamic shifts that will result in

more changes in the industrial and social landscapes and thereof more opportunities. Hence, a

vibrant and responsive entrepreneurial process will result into a new market offer and social

change.

6. CONCLUSION

Entrepreneurship has attracted much attention during the last three decades. Its elevation is

not only necessary for a healthy economy but also critical for sustaining prosperity, promoting

innovation and creating new jobs (Karadeniz & Özcam, 2010). In general, entrepreneurship is

concerned with identifying the potential for change for the better. After all, this

entrepreneurial venture can be an entrepreneur’s way of leaving their mark on the world.

Nonetheless, entrepreneurship embraces new dynamics as means of building a long-term

recovery out of the flagging economy in today’s marketplace. Thereof with the immense

creation of new innovation, opportunities thrive for more entrepreneurs to capture and

convert them into marketable solution.

Exploring the entrepreneurial cognitive styles as well as the personality attributes sheds a light

on the qualities of the entrepreneur that occupy a prominent position in their entrepreneurial

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behaviour where they distinguish between them and non-entrepreneurs – for example, what

one person sees as a business opportunity, another may see as an intractable problem, even if

they are both in the same situation.

Therefore, uncovering why entrepreneurs have greater propensity for aspiration, creativity and

innovation will provide valuable insight into why some aim to become entrepreneurs while

others do not.

In essence, entrepreneurship involves the application of human creativity, knowledge, skills

and energy to perceive and create new economic opportunities through innovation to produce

something new, useful and better than what currently exists and that creates significant value

not just for the entrepreneur but for the consumers and all stakeholders. Most essentially,

entrepreneurial venture is successful if it meets the aspirations of its stakeholders or, better,

exceed them. In order to do this, it must attract resources, reward its stakeholders for their

contributions and be financially secure. Finally, we have approached the end of our journey

through the mind map, and it is now the potential entrepreneur’s own journey to embark on,

where starting and running new ventures is what entrepreneurship is all about.

Figure 3 – Entrepreneurship Quotes (Source: Google Images)

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7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brem, A. (2008) The Boundaries of Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Conceptual Background and Entrepreneurship, Gabler Verlag

Carter, S. & Jones-Evans, D. (2012) Enterprise and small business, 3rd Edition.

Degeorge, J. & Fayolle, A. (2011) The entrepreneurial process trigger: a modelling attempt in the French context [Accessed on November 26, 2013] http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1926214&show=html

Hisrich, R., Peters, M. & Shepherd, D. (2006) Entrepreneurship, 6th Edition.

Karadeniz, E. & Özcam, A. ( 2010) The Determinants of the growth expectations of The Early-Stage Entrepreneurs (TEA) using the Ordinal Logistic Model (OLM): The case of Turkey, Economic and Business; R 62 EVIEW; VOL. 12

Martins, A. (2013) The Entrepreneurial Process to Starting a Business from Scratch [Accessed on November 28, 2013]] http://www.mytopbusinessideas.com/entrepreneurial-process-starting-a-business/

Nassif , V. M. J., GhobrilII, A., & Siqueira, N. (2010) Understanding the entrepreneurial process: a dynamic approach [Accessed on November 26, 2013] http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1807-76922010000200007&script=sci_arttext

Ressi, A. (2011) Is There A Peak Age for Entrepreneurship? [Accessed on November 27, 2013] http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/28/peak-age-entrepreneurship/

Urban, B. (2012) The Venture Creation Process, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Competitiveness: A Focus on Technology Enterprises and research [Accessed on November 26, 2013] http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/79349941/venture-creation-process-entrepreneurial-self-efficacy-competitiveness-focus-technology-enterprises

Wickham, P. (2006) Strategic Entrepreneurship, 4th Edition.