Who is the entrepreneur?

Without a person who initiates and shapes the entrepreneurial

process the entrepreneurial process does not exist.

New opportunity depends on the individual because no

processes or activities function automatically without the
initiative of an individual.
A person who pays a certain price for a product to resell it at an
uncertain price, thereby obtaining and using resources while
assuming the risk of an enterprise. (Richard Cantillio)

Apparently, it remains a mystery who the entrepreneur is

Meet entrepreneurship in practice
Thomas’s story www.bodyman.dk
Characteristics of the entrepreneur
• Having a dream, ideas
• Commitment and determination
• A strong desire to achieve
• Orientation towards opportunities and goals
• Internal focus of control
• Dare to take the risk
• Skills in taking calculated risks
• Ability to solve problems
• Ability to deal effectively with failure
• Intention to become an entrepreneur
• Creativity
• Ability to adapt
Reasons for independent business
Despite severe economic conditions and a very high financial and
emotional risk, more people are pursuing self employment for the
following reasons:
• To implement an idea for a new product or service
• To gain more independence
• To make more money
• To replace a job that has been lost
• To experience the adventure of a start-up
• To prove that one can accomplish a start-up
• To add supplementary income
• To join a team of entrepreneurs for the fun of working with them
 Born or made?
Entrepreneurs can be divided in six groups
“Novice” entrepreneur (without entrepreneurial experience)
“Habitual” entrepreneur (a person with previous entrepreneurial
experience)
“Nascent” entrepreneur (a person who is in the process of creating a
new organization – he or she can be “novice” and “habitual”
“Serial” entrepreneur (a person who constantly establishes and sells
organizations)
“Portfolio” entrepreneur ( a person who owns several organizations at
the same time)
“Intrepreneur “(a person who acts entrepreneurially in the context of
an existing organization).
 Are Entrepreneurs made?
Whether an individual becomes an entrepreneur or
not therefore depends on the situations and
experiences that he or she is exposed to.
The process of starting a business is not a single
well-known route marched along again and again
by identical entrepreneurs. New venture creation is
a complex phenomenon: “Entrepreneurs and their
firms vary widely” (Gartner 1985:697)
 Contingency theories
Imply that entrepreneurship is not something
that people are born to do
They provide an overview of mechanisms that
are in play in entrepreneurship, they do not deal
with the entrepreneur as a person
Focus placed on overall structures or system
components
 Exploration of the individual
Three cognitive characteristics that make entrepreneurs exploit
opportunities (By Shane 2003)
1. Entrepreneurs are more optimistic that others in their way
of coming to terms with impulses
2. Entrepreneurs have tendency to take big decisions in spite
of the fact that only little information is available
3. Entrepreneurs use their intuition more than others (gutt
feeling)
Shane (2003) suggests that “people who have higher self
efficacy are more likely to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities
that people who have lower self efficacy”
 An intention is result of crystallization of
three variables
View of feasibility: How difficult the individual
considers the entrepreneurial project- the extent of
behavioral control
View of standards: To what extent the individual feels
a social pressure in terms of carrying out the
entrepreneurial action or not doing it
View of desirability: to what extent the individual will
choose the entrepreneurial action in favor of another
action- view of prosperity associated with the action
(Ajzen 1991:183)
 The rule of thumb
The more respect is gained from surrounding world, and the
more the individual experiences the action favourable, the
stronger the individual's intention of becoming an entrepreneur.
An individual with strong internal orientation of becoming an
entrepreneur therefore feels a strong need to discover or create
an opportunity
“People can and will discover entrepreneurial opportunities
without actively searching for them” (Shane 2000:451)
Often, new opportunities are discovered or created as a result of
our everyday actions with people in different contexts- that is
through activities that are externally oriented
 Externally stimulated entrepreneurship

Externally stimulated entrepreneurship is rather

a question of a more unconscious start-up
Who will become an entrepreneur is hard to
predict it, because it depends on: the
circumstances, who we meet, opportunities,
coincidences, our needs and self-perception and
much more than that.