Session 1

What is entrepreneurship
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STUDENT activity
• Based on the 2 videos discuss the following:

• What are the characteristics of entrepreneurs?

• What are the needed components for a small
company to be successful?

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What is entrepreneurship?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDc4zjAdp5A
Sir Richard Branson
• video

Click in full screen mode

Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs tend to exhibit:

• A high degree of commitment
• Tolerance for ambiguity
• Creativity
• Flexibility
• Resourcefulness
• A willingness to work hard
• Tenacity
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CHARACTERISTICS OF ENTREPRENEUR
• Desire for responsibility • High level of energy
• Preference for moderate • Future orientation
levels of risk: risk • Opportunity entrepreneurs
eliminators • Necessity entrepreneurs
•
• Serial entrepreneurs
Self-reliance
• Skilled at organizing
• Confidence in their
• Value achievement over
ability to succeed
• Determination money
• Desire for immediate
feedback
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Success Stories (Oprah, Amazon
, Facebook, Google, Apple) 16min.
 Owner-managers
Owner-managers Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs

•• Opportunistic
Opportunistic
•• Need
Need for
for independence
independence
•• Innovative
Innovative
•• Need
Need for
for achievement
achievement
•• Proactive
Proactive and
and decisive
decisive with
with high
high energy
energy
•• Internal
Internal focus
focus on
on control
control
•• Self-motivated
Self-motivated
•• Ability
Ability to
to live
live with
with uncertainty
uncertainty and
and take
take
measured
measured risks
risks •• Vision
Vision and
and flair
flair

•• Willingness
Willingness to
to take
take greater
greater risks
risks
Entrepreneurship
What Do Entrepreneurs Do?

• The French word entrepreneur began to take on its present-day meaning

in the seventeenth century.

• It was used to describe someone who undertook any

project that entailed risk—military, legal, or political, as
well as economic.

• Entrepreneurs may have different reasons to start and continue their

businesses, but they share the common focus of creating sustained-value.
video
• Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies
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What Is an Entrepreneur?

• Entrepreneur:
• One who creates a new business in the
face of risk and uncertainty for the
purpose of achieving profit and growth
by identifying opportunities and
assembling the necessary resources to
capitalize on them.
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 Entrepreneurs Recognize Opportunities

What Is an Entrepreneur?
A person who recognizes an opportunity and organizes and
manages a business, assuming the risk for the sake of
potential return.

They are somehow engaged in the buying and selling of

products or services in order to earn money.
• A product is something that exists in nature or is
made by human beings. It is tangible, meaning that it
can be physically touched.
• A service is labor or expertise exchanged for money. It is
intangible. It cannot physically be touched. 11
 What is startup company?

Steve Blanks – Small business versus a Startup company

What is Start-Up?
Are you entrepreneurial?

Do the test 

https://
www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/entrepreneur-toolkit/business-assessments/self-a
ssessment-test-your-entrepreneurial-potential?page=1
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Expectations and the assessment
of the course
What is the root of entrepreneurship?

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STUDENT activity

• Discuss the following:

• What might be the root and
reasons for certain
countries/cultures to be
entrepreneurial?
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Global Entrepreneurship Index 2019

Click in full screen mode

Global Entrepreneurship Index 2019
GEDI 2019
• We define entrepreneurial ecosystems at
the socioeconomic level having properties
of self-organization, scalability and
sustainability as “…dynamic institutionally
embedded interaction between
entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities and
aspirations, by individuals, which drives
the allocation of resources through the
creation and operation of new ventures.”
GEDI 2019
• Nascent and new entrepreneurs are at the
heart of the system. Nascent
entrepreneurs are individuals in the
process of launching a new venture.

• This means entrepreneurs start businesses

to pursue opportunities that they
themselves perceive.
Global Entrepreneurship Index 2019
1.Opportunity Perception - Can the population identify opportunites to start a
business and does the institutional environment make it possible to act on those
opportunites?
2.Startup Skills - Does the population have the skills necessary to start a business
based on their own perceptons and the availability of tertary educaton?
3: Risk Acceptance - Are individuals willing to take the risk of starting a business?
Is the environment relatively low risk or do unstable institutons add additional risk
to starting a business?
4: Networking - Do entrepreneurs know each other and how geographically
concentrated are their networks
5: Cultural Support - How does the country view entrepreneurship? Is it easy to
choose entrepreneurship or does corruption make entrepreneurship difficult
relatve to other career paths?
6: Opportunity Perception - Are entrepreneurs motivated by opportunity rather
than necessity and does governance make the choice to be an entrepreneur easy?
7: Technology Absorption - Is the technology sector large and can businesses
rapidly absorb new technology?
8: Human Capital - Are entrepreneurs highly educated, well trained in
business and able to move freely in the labor market?
9: Competition - Are entrepreneurs creating unique products and
services and able to enter the market with them?
10: Product Innovation - Is the country able to develop new products
and integrate new technology?
11: Process Innovation - Do businesses use new technology and are
they able access high quality human capital in STEM fields?
12: High Growth - Do businesses intend to grow and have the strategic
capacity to achieve this growth?
13: Internationalization - Do entrepreneurs want to enter global
markets and is the economy complex enough to produce ideas that are
valuable globally?
14: Risk Capital - Is capital available from both individual and
institutional investors?
Global Entrepreneurship Index 2019
The World of the Entrepreneur

• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study:

• Men are twice as likely to start a business as
women
• Entrepreneurs are most likely to launch
businesses when they are between the ages of
35 and 44
• Most people see entrepreneurial activity as a
good career choice
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http://www.gemconsortium.org
Click the picture for country profiles
STUDENT activity

Discuss the following:

• What are the typical
phenomenons in your culture
which makes it entrepreneurial or
are obstacles against it. Consider
the GEDI factors which were
29
discussed earlier.
Benefits of Entrepreneurship
• The opportunity to:
• Create your own destiny
• Make a difference
• Reach your full potential
• Reap impressive profits
• Contribute to society and to be recognized for
your efforts
• Do what you enjoy and to have fun at it
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Drawbacks of Entrepreneurship

• Uncertainty of income
• Risk of losing your entire investment
• Long hours and hard work
• Lower quality of life until the business gets established
• High levels of stress
• Complete responsibility
• Discouragement

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Sources of Stress for Entrepreneurs

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