Entrepreneur

Role of entrepreneur in an organisation

An entrepreneur is someone who organizes a system. He is the person who creates and/or sells a product or service in order to gain profit. However, there is a general sense that entrepreneurship involves the establishment of a new venture while adopting some of the risk and being ready for failure. There is no general definition for the word, as it has been used in a large variety of ways. Some scholars of entrepreneurship, such as Prof. W. Long have tried to develop a specific definition by studying the evolution of the word's usage "encyclopedia"

Entrepreneur as a risk bearer

An entrepreneur is an agent who buys factors of production at certain prices in order to combine them into a product with a view to selling it at uncertain prices in future. Uncertainty is defined as a risk, which cannot be insured against and is incalculable. There is a distinction between ordinary risk and uncertainty. A risk can be reduced through the insurance principle, where the distribution of the outcome in a group of instances is known. On the contrary, uncertainty is a risk, which cannot be calculated. The entrepreneur, according to Knight, is the economic functionary who undertakes such responsibility of uncertainty, which by its very nature cannot be insured, or capitalized or salaried to. Mark Casson has extended this notion to characterize entrepreneurs as decision makers who improvise solutions to problems which cannot be solved by routine alone. An Entrepreneurs are known as risk takers, for example

Entrepreneur as an organiser and a leader

An entrepreneur is one who combines the land of one, labor of another and the capital of yet another, and, thus, produces a product.

By selling the product in the market, he pays interest on capital, rent on land and wages to laborers and what remains is his or her profit.

Entrepreneur as a leader

Scholar R. B. Reich considers leadership, management ability, and team-building as essential qualities of an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur is sometimes mistakenly equated with "opportunist". An entrepreneur may be considered one who creates an opportunity rather than merely exploits it, though that distinction is difficult to make precise.

Personality Characteristics

John G. Burch[Business Horizons, September 1986] lists traits typical of entrepreneurs:

* A desire to achieve: The push to conquer problems, and give birth to a successful venture.

* Hard work: It is often suggested that many entrepreneurs are workaholics.

* Desire to work for themselves: Entrepreneurs like to work for themselves rather than working for an organization or any other individual. They may work for someone to gain the knowledge of product or service that they may want to produce.

* Nurturing quality: Willing to take charge of, and watch over a venture until it can stand alone.

* Acceptance of responsibility: Are morally, legally, and mentally accountable for their ventures. Some entrepreneurs may be driven more by altruism than by self-interest.

* Reward orientation: Desire to achieve, work hard, and take responsibility, but also with a commensurate desire to be rewarded handsomely for their efforts; rewards can be in forms other than money, such as recognition and respect.

* Optimism: Live by the philosophy that this is the best of times, and that anything is possible.

* Orientation to excellence: Often desire to achieve something outstanding that they can be proud of.

* Organization: Are good at bringing together the components (including people) of a venture.

* Profit orientation: Want to make a profit; but the profit serves primarily as a meter to gauge their success and achievement.

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