Monday, August 22, 2011

History of entrepreneurship

What is entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is the carrying out of a fresh organization or restructuring an organization, which has already been into existence. It is often a complicated enterprise so consequently numerous enterprises find loads of difficulties in survival. This is an entirely different field involving unique personality traits on the part of the entrepreneur, such as good communication skills, patience, foresightedness, and many more traits, which heads his personality to a brighter side. Entrepreneurship has various forms such as sole trading, partnership, etc. The funding of these firms is now easily done by government agencies, science parks, and NGOs. Entrepreneurship firms are now getting enough funds to establish themselves but earlier it was not so. These firms faced a number of difficulties in establishing themselves. Now let us peep into the history of entrepreneurship and the scenario which was prevalent then to understand it better.

History of Entrepreneurship

Hirsch, Peter and Shepherd revealed that first entrepreneur definition took Marco Polo as an example of an upcoming entrepreneur who made the greatest attempt of establishing the trade routes. The strategy he followed was that he made a contract with a good and dependable venture capitalist on a 25% - 75% basis to get his ventures financed.
This was it! From here entrepreneurship got its origin. According to Hisrich, Peter and Shepherd, any person running huge production projects without any kind of threat, but with the aid of economic funds usually, provided by the government was known as an entrepreneur. In other words their work was clerical in nature, as neither did they own the enterprise nor did they finance. The risk factor was attached to the entrepreneurs in the 17th century as the government financed the activities and made it a fixed source of its revenue. The process was like the franchise business, whether the firm goes in profit or loss the fixed percentage of the government was compulsory to pay. In the 17th century itself, it was the well known author and economist Cantillon, who in his theory regarded entrepreneur as a risk taker.
By the 18th century three of them evolved an entirely new theory in which, he made clear cut distinctions amidst entrepreneur and capital provider. He did this distinction due to the outcome of industrialization, which had geared up in the globe. This was the period of Thomas Edison's financial crunch. He wanted to add on to technological advancements but could not do so because of financial constraints. Later he got a way out by generating capital from private sources to finance his experiments in the fields of chemistry and electricity as well. Hisrich, Peter and Shepherd regarded him as an entrepreneur and not as finance provider (venture capitalist). A venture capitalist was supposed to be a person who is the 'Manager' of capital and along with it he also needs to bear the risk factor of business and lately share a high rate of return. As we moved ahead to the late19th and 20th century the entire global scenario changed. There was not much difference in entrepreneurs and managers, both were often regarded as the same. Now in the late 20th century according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, "An entrepreneur is one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business or an enterprise".
In the year 2005 Hisrich, Peter and Shepherd regarded entrepreneur as an organizer who controls, systematize, purchases raw materials, arranges infrastructure, throw in his own inventiveness, expertise, plans and administers the venture.
Now as we know all about the history of entrepreneurship as a whole let us switch over to the origin of the same in the various economies.

1) Nigerian history of entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship originated in Nigeria when the production exceeded the consumption levels, which resulted in barter system or double coincidence of wants. This is what made producers realize that if they have surplus, the people will not have to wait for double coincident of wants. Now the exchange of products and services was done freely in the Nigerian market. Lately, total commercialization of the act was done.

2) Evolution of Canadian history of student entrepreneurs: The founder of Canadian association of university student entrepreneurs (C.A.U.S.E.) in 1986 was Ian Aitken, whose main objective was development of student entrepreneurs. (C.A.U.S.E.) was changed to (C.A.S.E) Canadian association of student entrepreneurs in 1987, which also included the college campuses as well. Again the name was changed in 1988 and finally it was the association of collegiate entrepreneurs- Canada (A.C.E.-Canada). Now twenty years from the origin the association is known as "advancing Canadian entrepreneurs Inc."

3) History of entrepreneurship in India: Several entrepreneurial phases in India have passed since independence. A slow pace of development was reflected in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the entire economy was changing from an agro based economy to an industrialized economy. Soon after that the upcoming entrepreneurs got support from the government as well. A number of SSI sprouted up in late 1960s and 1970s. Here an intensive movement was initialized for further promotion of entrepreneurship. Finally, in 1980 India was able to liberalize imports and began with small and medium scale entrepreneurs. Further, the economic reforms were introduced in 1990. It was a kind of disillusion for the budding Indian entrepreneurs and now in the 2000 the entrepreneurial scenario has undergone a vast change. Now India is taking part in global entrepreneurship as well.

4) Entrepreneurship in Greece: The pillars of ancient Greece history of entrepreneurship are based on few points give by the great historian Peter Connolly. The points are mentioned below:
a) The positive aspect of entrepreneurial activities for autonomy was realized, which would enhance liberty and strength of the city.

b) The only bet before entering into entrepreneurial activities was that the people practicing it shall keep within the ethical, social, as well as the moral margins.

c) Furthermore, to promote such activities a reward on the city level was to be awarded in the presence of various honors.

d) Certain socio-political perks were also announced for such entrepreneurs such as social advancements, liberalization etc.

Conclusion:
In this era of globalization, the pace of growth of entrepreneurship has increased in leaps and bounds and it has sky as its limit. Entrepreneurship has shown drastic changes in almost all economies of the world providing the mankind with new domains of globalization. It has turned the world into a global village and has made the world a better place to live in.

I need to provide good, informative and resourceful content in terms of quality to my readers.


http://goarticles.com/article/History-of-entrepreneurship/1036828/

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