3608Qca Innovation And Entrepreneurship | Assessment Answers

Importance of entrepreneurial activity in the Australian economy

It helps in enterprising human activity

 Fang Zhao, (2005) argues that an entrepreneur is a person who engages in activities which are based on the future. He only succeeds if he well best serves his customers. His success depends on the attitude of customers towards his products. Thus entrepreneurship cannot only be defined by the formation of a new enterprise. Entrepreneurs can also be considered as those people who license ideas to other firms. According to Logue (2014) Entrepreneurship can be described as how, why, and what happens when entrepreneurs involve themselves in various activates. Through enterprising of human activity great innovation have been experienced in Australia making its economy to stand out.

Leveraging creativity, innovation, and opportunity

Davidsson, Delmar & wiklund (2016, pg., 109) state that for there to be a proper organisation of human activities, entrepreneurial activates are further organised based on markets, capabilities, and resources. Various resources may include physical resources, intellectual property and also financial resources. These resources keep on changing due to the innovation or a unique combination. For example, Regions with a high entrepreneurial culture in Australia have vibrant university sectors as places for research. MIT and Standford have produced 39900 and 28000 students who went to start their own companies which are based on technology.

Helps in the creation of values

Based on Volery &Mazarrol, (2015, pg., 88) an entrepreneur helps significantly in the production of value in an economy which brings about a competitive advantage and a lot of profits. Through this, they create value which brings about the cultural, social and economic significance. According to Logue (2014) Economic value is usually measured regarding output or dollar, but it may also include productivity growth or economic growth. On the other hand, an entrepreneur can create social value regarding the creation of better jobs, job satisfaction, and poverty reduction. Entrepreneur activity has a way of creating value in a whole economy. Based on Volery &Mazarrol, (2015 pg., 45) since 2005 labour productivity had dramatically increased in Australia than any other country while also income inequality has significantly declined

Entrepreneurship process

Based on Davidsson, Delmar & wiklund (2016 pg., 77) argument, an entrepreneur is usually thought to be a change agent acting as an industrialist. He further undertakes risk by coming up with a business venture to be used commercially. He can quickly identify a business gap in the market or the needed goods and services. Entrepreneurship is a process that every entrepreneur must follow for him to be able to plan and launch business ventures efficiently

Entrepreneurial process

Discovery

An entrepreneurial process usually begins where the entrepreneur generates an idea. This idea usually causes from identifying and evaluating various business opportunities. However, identifying and assessing business opportunities is often a challenging task. Schaper, (2014 pg, 140) argues that an entrepreneur must look for inputs from everyone including technical people, channel partners, employees and consumers for him to have the best business opportunity. Once he has decided on the business opportunity to venture on, he must go further and evaluate it. According to Mazarrol, (2014) an entrepreneur can determine a business opportunity by asking himself about whether the given business opportunity is the best for him to invest in., the competitive advantage and the various risk associated with it. An entrepreneur must further be able to put into analysis his skills and hobbies and whether there are in line with his entrepreneurial goals.

Developing a business plan

Once the entrepreneur has come up with a business opportunity, he also has to develop a sound business plan. Fang Zhao, (2005) states that a business plan is very much crucial for the success of any business because it is usually used as a benchmark or a tool of evaluation to assess whether the business organisation is advancing towards the set goal. According to Australian Government office of the chief scientist (2015) report an entrepreneur must spend a lot of time in the business after it has been created. The significant aspects of a business plan include goals and real mission and vision statements, description of products and services and capital requirements.

Resourcing

 The other step in the entrepreneurial process includes resourcing. This occurs when the entrepreneur identifies the various sources of finance and human resources. Kuratko, (2016 pg., 120) argues that in this process, the entrepreneur looks for investors and the people to carry out the different business activities

Managing the company

Having raised funds and employed the various employees, the other process usually includes using the various business processes to achieve some set goals. First of all the entrepreneur must have one of the best management structures or hierarchy capable of solving the various operational problems.

Harvesting

This happens to be the last step in the entrepreneurial process where an entrepreneur comes up with the future expectation of the business. According to Elam (2008, pg., 136) mainly involve growth and development. At this point the actual increase has to be is usually accessed towards the planned growth thus decisions which affect expansion are also made by the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur must always follow the entrepreneurial process whenever he wants to invest in a new business venture thus it is an unending process.

Factors that affect the entrepreneurship process

Entrepreneurship is usually influenced by various factors such as education, culture, technological development and economic development. Burns (2016 pg., 54) argue that every country having this kind of elements it said to be experiencing strong entrepreneurial growth. These factors can negatively or positively affect entrepreneurship. Positive influence occurs when the given factors facilitate entrepreneurship when negative control occurs when the given factors inhibit the growth of entrepreneurship. Some of these factors can be observed in the Australian economy.

Economic factors

According to Australian Government national innovation and science agenda (2015) various Economic factors significantly affect entrepreneurship. This is mostly because people change and become entrepreneurs because of the lack of stable jobs or because of opportunity. According to Mazarrol (2014) the economic factors have greatly affected the Australian economy. The country has never faced any economic setback for the last 26 years thus making is to have one of the strongest economies across around the world. This in turn promotes entrepreneurship and innovation. The following are just a few economic factors that affect entrepreneurship

Capital

Capital happens to be the essential factor of production for any business enterprise to be established. Based on Seymour, (2012, pg., 55) when capital investments increase, it results to increase in profits which help in promoting the process of capital formation. The availability of funds dramatically supports entrepreneurship. In Australia many business small start-up are usually financed by the government.

Labour

The availability of labourers also significantly affects entrepreneurship. Skilled and qualified labourers help in the growth of entrepreneurship.

Raw materials

Availability of raw material also dramatically affects entrepreneurship. The raw material is necessary for there to be a production shortage of raw material significantly jeopardise an entrepreneur.

Market

Markets for the goods produced are also very much essential for the growth of entrepreneurship. According to (Burns, 2016 pg., 67) Entrepreneur has to know of where to sell their products and the different marketing techniques.

Social factors

According to Australian government office of the chief scientist (2015) report, Social factors significantly affect entrepreneurship. Elam, (2008 pg., 38) argues that what made the industrial revolution to be successful in Europe is a cooperative society. Social factors significantly influence the entrepreneurial behaviour which in return affects the entrepreneurial growth, The different social setting that people grow in shapes their values, norms, and beliefs. The various social factors include

Caste factor

There are numerous cultural practices in the society which shape the character of a human being. These factors continue to evolve over many years.

Family Background

Family background has a significant effect on entrepreneurship. Kuratko,( 2016 ,pg. 56) argues that People who come from a poor background in case they get money from their hard labour they cannot efficiently invest because they have to assist the other family members.

Education

Education greatly affects entrepreneurship. Educated people can easily understand and follow the entrepreneurship process as compared to those people who are not taught.

The attitude in the society

In some societies, people are afraid of taking part in entrepreneurship for fear of failure while other organisations usually encourage innovation.

Factors that can promote entrepreneurship in Australia.

The Australian Government can set some conditions which can easily promote entrepreneurship. According to the Australian Innovation System Report, there is the need for more business start-up in Australia being driven by an entrepreneurial culture. In the year 2006-2011, there was the creation of 1.4 million jobs by entrepreneurship in the Australian economy. Entrepreneurs have significantly created employment in Australia economy. While the government dramatically concentrates on promoting innovations in larger firms they still need to support small firm.

A system approach

 Barett & Mayson (2008, Pg., 90) argue that Innovation systems in Australia have not been able to accommodate the various aspects of an entrepreneur. Thus many developed economies such as Sweden, Germany, the UK, and the USA have come up with national systems that promote entrepreneurship. These systems usually link an entrepreneur's, aspiration, ability, and attitude with the allocation of resources. For example, Troy Haines the founder of the Space shared his experiences as an entrepreneur during the national innovation and science day. His experience is said to have motivated many people

However, in Australia, we have no entrepreneurship system thus having a systematic approach is critical because it will help the different policymakers to think in the same way.

Entrepreneurship education and ecosystems

Research organisations also promote innovative entrepreneurship. According to Seymour, (2012) various reports have stated that entrepreneurship activity which affects an economy has to be knowledge driven. However multiple researchers have shown that many of the Australian universities offer many subjects that are related to entrepreneurship. These reports showed that 135 entrepreneurship ecosystem surround these universities showing an important role of entrepreneurship education in entrepreneurship ecosystems.

Barett & Mayson, (2008, Pg. 26) state that despite significant growth in entrepreneurship being experienced in Australia, there is still a room for development. We need to maintain this enormous growth and move towards achieving international best practice.

All or none

 A recent study which involves boosting entrepreneurship in Australia identified universities as the best place where entrepreneurial culture can be developed. This report further argues that collaboration between government and universities will be easily achieved if the government comes up with a national system for entrepreneurship. (Mazzarol, 2014) stated that Leading entrepreneurial nations such as UK and USA national systems of entrepreneurship usually offer a good strategic policy, funding, and an entrepreneurial culture. Despite us having some well-known entrepreneurship ecosystems and entrepreneurship education, we cannot emerge to be the best in the world without us having a national system of entrepreneurship. For example, there has been a lunch of the national innovation gender and science day

Factors that hinder entrepreneurship process in Australia

However various policies have hampered entrepreneurship in Australia. (Mazzarol, 2014) stated that policy environment does not substantially support entrepreneurs even after multiple reports found out that the nation heavily relies on commodity industries. Further studies have demonstrated that technologies that involve start-ups are worth $100 BILLION

According to Global Enterprenuership Monitor ( 2015), research has shown that many Australian universities started teaching about entrepreneurship in recent years thus many of the people that teach entrepreneurship do not have personal experience. According to Mazzarol, (2015) the government funding to universities seems to reward more of the amount of research carried out rather than the social and economic work. However, after the study, the academicians mostly concentrate on writing an article rather than putting into practice the researched works. However, various universities have started coming up with entrepreneurship programmes for studies, and also they support the students when they choose to come up with multiple business start-ups

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship is critical in the Australian economy. Australia plays a significant role in achieving the IMF and World Bank goals which aim at improving the global shared prosperity. Thus the country should try and improve its productivity through an entrepreneurship economy.

References

Australian Government, 2015. National Innovation and science agenda. [Online] Available at: https://archive.industry.gov.au/industry/IndustryInitiatives/Pages/National-Innovation-and-Science-Agenda.aspx[Accessed 28 August 2018].

Barett, R., & Mayson, S. (2008). International handbook of entrepreneurship and HRM. Estados Unidos, Springer New York.

Burns, P. (2016). Launching Your Business. 197-222London; New York:Penguin,Davidsson, P., Delmar, F., & Wiklund, J. (2016). Entrepreneurship and the growth of firms. Edward Elgar Pub.

Elam, A. B. (2008). Gender and entrepreneurship [online): a multilevel theory and analysis. https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781847208293.xml. [Accessed 28 August 2018].

Fang Zhao, (2005) "Exploring the synergy between entrepreneurship and innovation", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 11 Issue: 1, pp.25-41, https://doi.org/10.1108/13552550510580825

Global Enterprenuership Monitor ( 2015). GEM Australia (2014) National Report. [Online] Available at: https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/49493[Accessed 28 August 2018].

Kuratko, D. F. (2016). Entrepreneurship. Cincinnati OH, Cengage Learning. Monitor, Australia: s.n.

Logue, D., 2014. The conversation-The myth of an Enterprenuer. [Online]
Available at: https://theconversation.com/the-myth-of-the-australian-entrepreneur-26906[Accessed 28 August 2018].

Mazarrol, T., 2014. The conversation-enterprenuership ecosystem and the role of government policy. [Online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/entrepreneurial-ecosystems-and-the-role-of-government-policy-35809[Accessed 28 August 2018].

Mazzarol, T., 2015. The conversation-Start-up nation the Rhetoric and the Reality. [Online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/startup-nation-the-rhetoric-and-the-reality-48011[Accessed 28 August 2018].

Mazzarol, T. (2014) “How do Australia’s universities engage with entrepreneurship and small business?” CEMI Discussion Paper Series, DP 1401, Centre for Entrepreneurial Management and Innovation, www.cemi.com.au [Accessed 28 August 2018].

Office of The Chief Scientist., (2015). Australlian Government -Report on Boosting High Impact Enterprenuership in Australia-. [Online]
Available at: https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2015/10/new-report-boosting-high-impact-entrepreneurship-in-australia/[Accessed 38 August 2018].

 Schaper, M. (2014). Entrepreneurship and small business. Milton, Qld, John Wiley and Sons Australia.

Seymour, R. G. (2012). Handbook of research methods on social entrepreneurship. Qld, John Wiley and Sons Australia.

Volery, T, & Mazarrol,T., 2015. The evoulution of small business and enterprenuership field. The international small business journal, 33(4), pp. pg1-23.