Theories and Qualities of an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship
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Entrepreneurship
The private sector comprises small, medium, and large companies, including multinationals. These businesses often begin as entrepreneurial ideas and develop into thriving enterprises. To achieve success, entrepreneurs need to possess various characteristics and qualities. From a theoretical perspective, entrepreneurship is supported by multiple theories that explain how entrepreneurship takes place and what leads to success. The focus of this paper is to assess the student’s own entrepreneurial skills. The essay describes the theories and qualities of an entrepreneur, conducts a self-assessment, and undertakes a self-SWOT analysis.
Theories and Qualities of an Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship Theories
Current literature proposes several entrepreneurship theories. A list of such theories presented by Tiwari (2022) includes economic, innovation, sociological, psychological, opportunity-based, resource-based, and anthropological entrepreneurship theories. The innovation theory of entrepreneurship explains that entrepreneurs differ from regular business persons due to their ability to have foresight and to find innovative solutions. The theory was developed by Joseph Schumpeter, who argues that an entrepreneur is an innovator (Mehmood et al., 2019). In this case, the innovator is expected to develop, promote, initiate and recognize improvements or products and successfully introduce them in the market.
Economic entrepreneurship theory posits that the economy is a field affected by entrepreneurs. Introduced by Richard Cantillon, the economic theory perceives entrepreneurs as producers and exchangers. In this case, the effects of the entrepreneurs are felt across supply chains as raw materials are transformed into finished products. In this case, it does not take special characteristics to become an entrepreneur since even beggars are considered entrepreneurs, like restaurant owners. Any activity that generates income is perceived to be an entrepreneurial practice. Sociological entrepreneurship theory focuses on personal characteristics that make an entrepreneur. The component theories of sociological entrepreneurship theory include locus of control, personality traits theory, and need for achievement theory (Tiwari, 2022). Peter Drucker introduced the opportunity-based theory, which defines entrepreneurship as the practice of searching for change, responding to it, and exploiting it as an opportunity. According to Foss and Klein (2020), the opportunity construct is central to organizing the concept of entrepreneurship theory since entrepreneurship is majorly involved in identifying and exploiting opportunities.
The resource-based theory is another crucial model for explaining entrepreneurship. It posits that entrepreneurs need resources to establish and operate their businesses. in this case, money and time alone are insufficient to create a blooming startup. Other resources are necessary for entrepreneurs. The resource-based theory has been described by Hameed et al. (2021) as emphasizing the importance of internal resources. The lack of such resources hinders a firm’s growth, while their availability helps boost competitive advantage. The resources can either be tangible or intangible. Hameed et al. (2021) also introduce the flow theory, which describes a state in which individuals are intensely involved in activities such that nothing else matters to them. In this case, the enjoyment of the experience keeps people doing something despite the costs. In this case, entrepreneurs are regarded as intensely involved in developing businesses. The theory may not apply to all entrepreneurial practices since the ultimate goal of entrepreneurs is to establish a thriving enterprise.
Entrepreneurial Qualities
Entrepreneurs possess several qualities that make them successful. Various sources produce different lists of entrepreneurial qualities, which means that the qualities are not universal. The essential qualities include creativity, risk-taking, passion, social skills, open-mindedness, planning, and empathy. According to Miller (2020), successful entrepreneurs express a distinct personality of curiosity, which sets them apart from organizational leaders. Curiosity is a quality that makes entrepreneurs continually become involved in the search for new opportunities. In this case, the construct of entrepreneurship can be described as a process of discovery, which means the search for something new. Adaptability is another quality that defines entrepreneurs. The rationale is that the business environment is dynamic, and entrepreneurship is often an iterative process. As such, new challenges and opportunities keep emerging, which requires entrepreneurs to be prepared for every foreseeable scenario.
Risk tolerance is a critical quality of entrepreneurs since their activities majorly entail pursuing uncertain objectives. Developing or taking advantage of emerging opportunities entails moving towards an uncertain future where the probability of success is not guaranteed. Entrepreneurs need to have a high level of risk tolerance to take entrepreneurial risks. This quality is also associated with persistence and comfort with failure. These qualities are necessary since entrepreneurial initiatives do not always succeed, and those that succeed do not necessarily do so on the first attempt. Another key quality of an entrepreneur is innovation, which is attached to the innovation theory. Innovation is characteristic of most entrepreneurs since most are involved in pursuing novel business ideas and opportunities (Miller, 2020). Other qualities include long-term focus, team building, and structured experimentat...