Characteristics of entrepreneurs: a comparative study of small scale entrepreneurs of srilankan and bangladesh
| Author | Nimalathasan, B Ph.D Scholar (SAARC), Department of Management studies, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh |
| Pages | 350-358 |
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The Products or Services are produced to satisfy human needs. While considering the fact the most of the commodities produced, services rendered, the way they are performed through Small Business Enterprises, the field of small business drew attention of the researcher1. But limited opportunities for jobs in unemployment and scarcity of capital are some factors, which prevail, here searching for the best way to gain success in these factors. Therefore, Small Business Entrepreneurs are given prominence to accomplish a product or service or to undertake an enterprise successfully.
Entrepreneurship is a process undertaken by an entrepreneur to augment his business interests. It is an exercise involving innovation and creativity that will go towards establishing his or her enterprise. Entrepreneurship is a compose skill, the resultant of a mix of many qualities and traits, which include tangible factors as imagination, readiness to take risks, ability to bring together and put to use other factors of production, capital, labour and land as well as other intangible factors such as managerial skill, ability to mobilize scientific and technological advances etc.
In practice, entrepreneurs have historically altered the direction of national economies, industries, or markets. They have invented new products and developed organizations and the means of production to bring them to market according to their characteristics. The characteristics of an entrepreneur differ from entrepreneur to entrepreneur, even though, the characteristics of an entrepreneur that contribute to success are the result of his achievement motivation.
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An Entrepreneur is any person who possesses the qualities and uses them in setting up and running an enterprise. Entrepreneurs are enterprise builders, they perceive new business opportunities, organize business where none existed before, direct these businesses by using their own and borrowed capital, take the associated risks, and enjoy profit as rewards for their efforts.
The origin of the word "Entrepreneur" may be traced back to sixteenth century in French language. In the early sixteenth century it was applied to those who were engaged in military expeditions. Kilby (1971) pointed out the word "entrepreneur" was first used to refer to economic activities in the early eighteenth century by Richard Cantillon. The entrepreneur is a critical factor in the socio- economic change. He is the key person who envisages new opportunities, new techniques, and new lines of production, new products and co-ordinates.
The entrepreneur is rarely a master of the management skills, and yet is usually directly responsible for all aspects of business. Often he or she has to be the general manger, production manager, purchasing manager, personnel manager, controller and researcher for the business all rolled into at least during its early years. The entrepreneur therefore to have an understanding of marketing, quality control, finance, banking, commercial law, government regulations and procedures and human relations as each of them has a vital bearing on the health of the enterprise. There are various differences in the views of scholars in defining an entrepreneur. Generally, a person who takes risk or has the capability of taking risk for developing or establishing new ventures is an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur creates something novel by the work done by him/her. This creation means creation of new opportunities or new utilities for his /her own development and for the welfare of human beings.
The term "entrepreneur" is defined in a variety of ways yet no consensus has been arrived at on the precise skills abilities that make a person a successful entrepreneur. The concept of entrepreneur varies from country to country as well as from period to period and the level of economic development thoughts and perceptions. A review of research done in different disciplines over the year would improve our understanding of the concept of entrepreneur. Entrepreneur is a self - employed person, who are not born but made under congenial environment. The quality and competence of every entrepreneur are requisites for the successful operation of the small industrial venture. Small industry, involving relatively simple technology and small investment, producing goods mostly for domestic consumption is capable of generating larger employment opportunities. Ever since the seminal work of Schumpeter (1934) the entrepreneurship has been regarded as s major topic in theory and practice of economic growth and development. The entrepreneurship has been defined as consisting of two criteria. The first involves the state of knowledge and is the ability of economic agents to recognize economic opportunities that can only or best be realized through the creation of a new enterprise to appropriate the economic opportunities that can only or best be realized through the creation of a new enterprise to appropriate the economic value of that knowledge.
Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs have also been well documented. While there is no agreement among the scholars as to the number and labels of these characteristics, they in general include desire for responsibility, preference for moderates risk, and confidence
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in personal success, desire for immediate feedback, high level of energy, sufficient emotional stability, objective approach to interpersonal relationships, low need for status, and a comprehensive awareness of total environment (Olm and Eddy, 1985; Zimmerer and Scarborough, 1988; and ILO, 1994). Feather (1988) only refers to successful owner/managers as those who have entrepreneurial characteristics. According to Cunningham and Lischeron, (1991) successful owner/managers have been identified with a personal value type referred as entrepreneurial.
They have also argued that entrepreneurs place high value on ambition, achievement, reliability, responsibility, hard work, competence, optimism, innovation, aggressiveness, honesty, creativity, social recognition and growth (Kotey and Meredith, 1997).
Rotter (1966) refers to an entrepreneur as a person with a high internal locus of control higher internal locus of control shows that the owners are responsible for their own actions. Schumpeter (1950) an entrepreneur is a person...
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