Entrepreneurship Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Entrepreneurship Theory - Essay Example 3). Theoretically, an entrepreneur is one who must exhibit certain enterprising attributes and specific characteristics of behaviour and thinking perhaps attained innately or from education, training and experiences (Gibb, 2007, p. 5). This piece of research work critically evaluates the theoretical underpinnings of entrepreneurial behaviours and explains what triggers to the behaviour of an entrepreneur based on relevant literatures Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurs are those who use their ability, talent, skills and personality to perform and carry out new combinations to successfully implement a change. Joseph A Schumpeter, famously known as father of entrepreneurship, viewed entrepreneurship as all about innovation (Carsrud and Brannback , 2007, p. 7) and entrepreneur as a distinct individual in the society as he discovers a dynamic business opportunity, seizes the opportunity to convert the idea in to a reality to deliver new product or service and thus to create a new marketable c ontribution to the economy (McDaniel, 2002, p. 57). Some literatures argued that entrepreneur is not only an innovator or a distinct person to transform opportunity to business reality, but also that he is characterized with many of managerial skills and abilities such as direction, organizing, supervision, risk bearing, control etc (Brockhaus, 1987, p. 1). With the idea of establishing a business enterprise, entrepreneur mentally prepares to take risks of financial well being, career opportunities, family relations, and psychic ell being as well (Brockhaus, 1980, p. 511). As and when the business contexts become more complex and markets turn to be highly vulnerable to rigorous competition, entrepreneurs must be able to take very strategic steps to introduce innovative ideas with their creative thinking. Based on various views, Cunningham and Lischeron (1991, p. 46) defined six schools of thoughts to describe various qualities of entrepreneurs. These schools are 1) the great person school of thought, 2) psychological characteristic school, 3) classical school of entrepreneurship, 4) the management school, 5) the leadership school and 6) the intrapreneurship school of entrepreneurship. There are large numbers of explanations for what triggers to the behaviour of an entrepreneur, but most of these literatures reached to a consensus that some of the most important characteristics generally and are found universally important are innovation, risk taking, creative thinking etc. Some authors have also found some other components or dimensions of entrepreneurship such as new venture formation, pro-activeness, renewal, strategic vision, international and domestic venturing, competitive aggressiveness etc (Lau, Shaffer, Chan and Man, 2012, p. 675). Entrepreneurial behaviour Entrepreneurial behaviour, as defined by Mair (2005, p. 51) refers to a set of activities and practices by which individuals at varying levels generate and utilize innovative resource combination to discover and pursue opportunities.