ENTERPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION
AUTHOR: REHMAT GAHLOT (MBA-MARKETING)
1: “Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Solomon, A. K. (2019). Process innovation can be introduced by SMEs to enhance the ability of production procedures or operations of the supply chain, for example, by reducing cost or increasing reliability. The importance of small businesses in the context of entrepreneurship is emphasized by the fact that “small businesses account for over 95 percent of businesses worldwide and provide more than half of all jobs” Product innovations can be introduced by SMEs for a new or present market and it can include new functions, improved performance, and additional features of existing products (Bagoroza, Waal, 2010).There are two types of innovation- Radical and Application Inovation(’ in which current technology is applied in the market for new users). s. The creation of value proposition is involved in the innovation model for business which is able to satisfy the needs of the current or new customer through function, problem solution, or building experience by leasing or sale of a product or service. Financial barriers or unavailability of funds and the lack of knowledge for available resources can be proved as barriers to innovation.
2: “The role of Entrepreneurship Education”
Aga, M. K., & Singh, A. (2022).Entrepreneurship plays a profound role in socio-economic development worldwide. While forming education policies, syllabus and curricular, governments and higher education institutions worldwide should include subjects and techniques to provide entrepreneurship education to familiarizes learners with entrepreneurial attributes and competencies; and creates in person the attitude to take risks of creating an enterprise by applying knowledge, skills, and attitude obtained from learning. According to Popescu et al. (2016), one’s performance depends on `attained education level. Even though whether entrepreneurial characteristics can be learned through education or not is debatable, educational institutions can promote the attributes associated with successful entrepreneurship (Maresch et al., 2016).From the organizational viewpoint, the new economy, pressured to innovate to be competitive, is seeking graduates with entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, and competencies. These perceived opportunities, presented with the new innovative economic outlook, demand appropriate knowledge, skills, and capabilities that meet the desired outcomes. These changes are not only to start new ventures, but to thrive and be sustainable. Nowadays only an university degree is not enough to guarantee job thus rapidly increasing educated unemployment rate worldwide though it might differ from country to country. Many scholars have suggested entrepreneurship can a career option to alleviate unemployment amongst the youth. Li et al. (2003) stated that countries with higher entrepreneurial initiative indexes were more likely to create job opportunities, but the Ethiopian index has been very low and could not reduce unemployment rates. Thus, in Ethiopia, considering entrepreneurship as a career option is a less preferred alternative among highly trained/educated human resources (Hailay, 2007), including those who take an entrepreneurship course during their study period. Liñán (2004) has recommended that EE delivered to students could strengthen the intention to become an entrepreneur. Universities are currently emphasizing EE to change attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control of students and, in turn, enhance EIs of students as confirmed by previous researchers (Ekpoh & Edet, 2011; George et al., 2008; Keat, Selvarajah, & Meyer, 2011).
3: “Technopreneurial Intentions: The Effect of Innate Innovativeness and Academic Self-Efficacy”
Sa’Ed, M. S., & Al-Abdallat, Y. (2022). Technopreneurship is a branch of entrepreneurship that describes the process of developing new ventures by combining entrepreneurial skills and technology. Entrepreneurship is considered a determinant of economic growth and development [1] as it plays a crucial role in the growth of businesses, economies, and nations as the world ventures through the era of the fourth industrial revolution (IE4.0). The world is presented with a magnitude of new technological innovations that can be developed into new ventures. The future of digitalization in the world creates an opportunity for technology-based entrepreneurship or ‘technopreneurship’ which can be harnessed by engineers. . Several educational institutions have realized the importance of preparing engineers for entrepreneurship and designed new “engineering entrepreneurship” programs or integrated entrepreneurship instruction into their existing curricula. The term “technopreneurs” is used to describe those who merge the strength of technology with the essence of entrepreneurship. A technopreneur is simply an entrepreneur who is tech-savvy and is using technological business opportunities through talent, cash investment, and real-time decision-making skills for the purpose of entrepreneurship [9]. Technopreneurs create new businesses that sell new innovative products and discover high-tech ways to help communities adjust in an ever-changing digital world. Hence, technopreneurs are different from inventors; inventors come up with ideas, but technopreneurs put them into action. Students can develop technopreneurial intentions as a result of having: (1) technopreneurial self-efficacy, a strong belief in their abilities to perform the technological and entrepreneurial tasks needed; (2) academic self-efficacy, the confidence in their ability to acquire the academic technical skills required; and (3) innate innovativeness, the inner motivation to seek what is technologically new and different.
4: “Commercial Viability of Innovative Sustainable Practices”
El-Kafafi, S., & Liddle, S. (2010). Sustainability has been in the for-front of businesses’ consideration for the past 15 years. Most eco-efficient companies are also the most successful using such measures as the Dow Jones Sustainable index. As the planets conventional natural resources are consumed, it is argued that this will have a profound effect on society and the environment. Unpredictable costs associated with oil supply, climate change issues, geopolitical uncertainty and the inevitable end to the fossil based fuel era has finally igniting interest in alternative energy and consumer goods supply (Nelson, 2008). In order to maintain current levels of lifestyle, help solve some of the developing nation’s problems and ultimately survive, the world will look more to technology and science for the answers and this will call for partnerships that deliver new approaches and science based innovations (Teresko, 2006). So much of modern infrastructure and consumer goods supply relies heavily on the petrochemical industry for raw materials. Nelson (2008) posits that Biotechnology has a major part to play in this area as virtually anything which is petrochemically derived can be produced using biotechnology derived substitutes. In addition, Nelson (2008) claims that “biobased” products offer advantages over the equivalent petrochemically derived product due to renewable, environmentally friendly and often enhanced design characteristics which requires less energy to produce. White biotechnology is the application of biotechnology for the processing and production of chemicals, materials and energy and uses enzymes and micro-organisms to make biodegradable products in sectors such as chemistry, food, paper and pulp, textiles and energy (Europabio, 2007). It is argued that technological development plays an important but not the only role in the transformation of the economic system towards a more sustainable institution. Consequently, other areas of society need to also play their full part. For example, changes are also required in the areas of institutional configurations, social norm adjustment, compliance issues to name but a few. If we are to maintain economic activity as we currently know it, a rapid movement to “eco-innovation” will be required.
5: “Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions”
Zuru, N. L., et al (2016). Microfinance institutions (MFIs) were created to fulfill the financial needs of the needy. These financial institutions provide various types of microfinance and financial services that are meant for the poor people. Interestingly, in developing and developed countries, MFIs have become not only an important player in the financial industry but also a major source of financing for people with minimal income as well as those that do not have access to financial facilities provided by commercial banks and other conventional financial institutions. The successful MFIs are able to perform and sustain their financial viability because of their ability to adopt effective business practices. Microfinance institutions need effective strategic planning to compete, adapt to their business environment as well as develop winning business strategy to achieve their organizational objectives. The ability to adopt sound lending practices is also regarded as another important business practice to MFIs. Among the lending practices adopted by the MFIs include; group lending, individual lending, non collateral, low interest rate, minimum processing fee, smaller installment amount and short term loan repayment period. Marketing is also viewed as the third critical business practice to MFIs. The fourth business practice vital to MFI involves corporate governance. The investment, direction, management and performance of MFIs engage the following three groups of people; shareholders (owners or investors), Board of Directors and top management. The adoption of information, communication and technology (ICT) is regarded as the fifth important business practice to MFIs. The deployment of ICT was not only able to improve the operations of MFIs, but also viewed as one of the powerful tools for enhancing the performance of these financial institutions.
6: “Women Entrepreneurship”
Fauzi, M. A.,(2023). Women’s entrepreneurship involvement has been recognized as a significant contributor to developing countries’ economic growth. Women are motivated to start businesses and become entrepreneurs based on pull-push factors. Pull factors are driven by independence, social status, autonomy, and personal control, while push factors are related to low salary and job satisfaction. Despite facing similar challenges, women in developing countries face more unpredictable constraints than women in developed countries. Women in developed countries face less gender discrimination and are treated equally to men in society, thus leading to greater opportunities to venture into entrepreneurship. Social capital is crucial in building a theoretical foundation in the entrepreneurial ecosystem underlying social stratification. Women acquire selective resources from family members while being restricted from accessing social capital outside their families. Strengthening women entrepreneurs in achieving the SDG would result in gender parity, social equilibrium, and poverty alleviation. Empowering women has been a global topic, leading to the implementation of many initiatives and programs. Direct aid to women entrepreneurs should be provided through microfinance programs to empower them (Hussain eř al., 2018). The more the women entrepreneurship there would be a better economy.
7: “Digital Entrepreneurship in India”
Gupta, S. K., & Bora, J. (2023). . Digital entrepreneurship is a new method of creating and performing business activities with the aid of technology. The reason to go for digitalization is to create new value added opportunities which will directly or indirectly generate higher revenue for the entrepreneurs. . There are many digital technologies are available and most popular ones are Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process, Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, etc. Digital Entrepreneurship is a new concept in the business model which makes the business exclusively digitally. Some of the examples of online businesses are YouTube Channels, e-commerce, online courses and so on. It provides a platform for the entrepreneurs to think larger and to reach a global level. . Digital platform offers ample of facilities to the entrepreneurs for their enterprises such as to work from remote areas, time as well as place flexibility, creativity, opportunities to grow and to compete with the rivals at national and international level. So, without making any kind of investment in the physical space for performing the business operation, creating business on the internet and selling goods and services over the internet is digital entrepreneurship. . It is to be noted that not only the new generation entrepreneurs are digital base but even the old economies have joined the digital mode. The government of India set up GeM, which stands for Government e-Marketplace is a National Public Procurement Portal a one stop solution which facilitates online procurement of common goods and services required by various government departments or PSUs or Organizations. In 2020, 1600+ new startups were recorded due to the growth and development in the technology. The digital industry witnessed Among the top 100 countries in the year 2021 Global Startup Ecosystem Index by Startup Blink, India ranks 20th position (IBEF, 2021). s, India is riding high on the entrepreneurial drive and in the journey of India’s entrepreneurial the women entrepreneurs also gained height. There is 13.5–15.7 million women business owned by the women, according to the report of IBEF. India has the massive potential, by advancing women equality, in boosting the country’s GDP by $770 billion, according to the report of Mckinsey (Reddy et al., 2022).
8: “Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth”
Wennekers, S., & Thurik, R. (1999).Over the years economic activity moved away from large firms to small firms. The increased importance of small firms: entrepreneurship, routes of innovation, industry dynamics and job generation. Claims are that small firms play an important role in the economy serving as agents of change by their entrepreneurial activity, being the source of considerable innovative activity, stimulating industry evolution and creating an important share of the newly generated jobs. A rise in the share of smallness in a certain economy, respectively a high share of smallness in a certain industry generates additional output in the entire economy, respectively industry. Many economists and politicians now have an intuition that there is a positive impact of entrepreneurship on the growth of GDP and employment. Furthermore, many stress the role of the entrepreneur in implementing innovations. Entrepreneurship is “at the heart of national advantage” (Porter, 1990, p. 125). It is of eminent importance for carrying out innovations. Both the role of the entrepreneur in carrying out innovations and in enhancing rivalry are important for economic growth. In modern open economies it is more important for economic growth than it has ever been. The reason is that globalization and the ICT-revolution imply a need for structural change, requiring a substantial reallocation of resources. This induces an intense demand for entrepreneurship (Audretsch and Thurik, 1998 and Casson, 1995, p. 94).
9: “Entrepreneurship and Generation Z”
Setyawati, S. M.,(2023).To carry out business using e-commerce, MSMEs still have many problems due to weak information technology and digital marketing knowledge capabilities. One group of people who are considered to have good literacy in the field of information and communication technology is Generation Z, who were born between 1996 and 2016. It is necessary for Z generations who have good information technology and digital marketing knowledge to develop digital businesses in MSMEs by becoming e-commerce business operators who help market MSMEs products. Generation Z is very different from the previous generation of millennials. Generation Z is highly determined, goal-oriented, flexible, and adaptable (Otieno & Nyambegera, 2019). Tang (2019) considered that generation Z is very different from previous generations. Some studies suggest that generation Z is essential because they significantly impact social, cultural, and political factors as well as the changes in global dynamics that shape their behavior and values. Specializing in online entrepreneurship intentions by Z generation is still relatively limited, even though Z generation is considered to have better digital literacy compared to previous generations. According to Maulana (2015), digital literacy can be defined as the ability to understand and apply information in various forms and references presented on computers. Thus, digital literacy can be inferred as an individual’s ability to understand and apply information critically available from various digital sources. Studies conducted by James & Sahid (2022), Mudasih & Subroto (2021), Mugiono, Prajanti, & Wahyono (2021), Primahendra et al. (2021), Islami (2019) found that literacy can increase entrepreneurial intention. Digital literacy has also been shown to improve the ability of self-employed people (Sariwulan et al., 2020). The findings of Bayrakdaroǧlu & Bayrakdaroǧlu (2017) show that digital literacy can increase one’s interest in starting a business over the internet.
10: “Entrepreneurship as Creative Destruction”
Kraehe, A. M. (2019). “The Death of the Artist-and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur”. In this short essay, cultural critic William Deresiewicz (2015) charts the evolution and eventual decline of some familiar artistic models. The current system of art education in schools is wedded to the credentialed professional model, organized as it is by standards, review boards, examinations, degrees, and formal associations. However, a significant disruption to this system is underway. Since the turn of the 21st century, we have witnessed the steady rise of the artist as artpreneur. According to Deresiewicz (2015), this new artist has a broad set of creative, technical, and entrepreneurial skills needed to be successful in the post industrial knowledge based economy of today. In addition to making works of art, artists who fashion themselves as artpreneurs often are selfemployed, they seek out opportunities for new ventures beyond the studio, and create opportunities where there are none. Not only do they develop a body of work, but they also build their own brand, cultivate an audience, maintain a presence on social media, seek investors and collaborators, and execute a business plan. Often precipitated by technological breakthroughs, creative destruction is the dismantling and restructuring of established institutions, ideas, processes, products, and spaces through innovation. As one looks across the field of art education,they see similar changes occurring. Some have started their own pay-as-you-go art classes in storefronts and shopping malls. Others are initiating online art education enterprises, such as blogs, YouTube video channels, podcasts, and webinars. As they bypass traditional institutions and embrace DIY methods of knowledge production, these art educators are entrepreneuring new ways to share original content with large networks of followers. Though entrepreneurship is currently an open-ended concept, there are at least three distinctive ways in which people commonly talk about it. One might hear it described as : 1. Creating artistic start-ups through new ventures that seek to add value; 2. Being enterprising by exhibiting the dispositions and skills needed to recognize and take advantage of opportunities; and 3. Sustaining an artistic life through employment and creative self-management. (Bridgstock, 2012). The motivations underlying these three approaches to arts entrepreneurship may be commercial, social, educational, personal, and/or aesthetic.
CONCLSUION
Entrepreneurship and innovation play pivotal roles in shaping modern economies and societies. The intertwining factors of digitalization, economic growth, entrepreneurship education, women empowerment, sustainability, technical advancements, artpreneurship, and small businesses have collectively transformed the entrepreneurial landscape. In today’s fast paced world it is important to keep ourselves on toes and informed. Entrepreneurship education has become a cornerstone in nurturing innovative thinking and business acumen among aspiring entrepreneurs. By providing knowledge and skills, educational institutions contribute significantly to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, fostering the next generation of innovative leaders. While Covid 19 brought down all the economies it also gave a boost to digitalization, innovation and entrepreneurship. Digitalization has broken down barriers, enabling businesses of all sizes to reach global markets. This digital revolution has not only fostered economic growth but has also democratized entrepreneurship, empowering individuals and small businesses to thrive in the digital age. Entrepreneurship leads to inclusivity and breaking barriers of age, gender, caste, race, region, etc. Women empowerment in entrepreneurship is a crucial aspect of societal progress. As more women engage in entrepreneurial ventures, diversity flourishes, leading to a richer tapestry of ideas and perspectives. Empowered women entrepreneurs contribute not only to economic growth but also to social equality and empowerment. Entrepreneurship and innovation go hand in hand as they are based upon the idea of providing new products and services and improve already existing products and services through new process and finding innovative, effective and cost friendly solutions to problems .Innovation leads to technical advancements. Technical growth and innovation continue to push the boundaries of what is possible. Advancements in fields like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and renewable energy not only fuel entrepreneurship but also solve pressing global challenges, paving the way for a more technologically advanced future. In the modern economical era, businesses and customers put in an extra effort towards sustainability and csr. Sustainability has emerged as a fundamental principle in entrepreneurship. Businesses that prioritize environmental and social responsibility not only contribute to a greener planet but also meet the evolving demands of conscious consumers. Sustainable practices are no longer a choice but a necessity for businesses aiming for long-term success. Nowadays, entrepreneurs come from various backgrounds and professions including science, commerce and arts. Artpreneurship, the intersection of art and entrepreneurship, has gained prominence. Creative entrepreneurs contribute to cultural enrichment and economic growth. Their ventures not only showcase artistic talent but also demonstrate how creativity and innovation can drive successful businesses. The major discussion that happens when we talk about entrepreneurship and innovation is of its impact on the economy. Entrepreneurship and innovation are key drivers of economic growth and development. Entrepreneurs create new businesses, jobs, and products, leading to increased economic activity. Innovation enhances productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness, propelling industries forward. Both contribute to higher GDP, improved living standards, and a dynamic economy by fostering creativity, investment, and market expansion. In essence, entrepreneurship and innovation form the backbone of prosperous and sustainable economies.
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