ENTREPRENUERSHIP

Introduction

For a long time now, there is an ongoing debate about whether entrepreneurs are born or made. A number of debaters have taken sides while pegging their argument for several reasons. To a large extent, entrepreneurship is an issue revolving around nature or nurture. Entrepreneurs are an imperative part of this society. Their ideas help change and propagate business into higher levels. Every country’s economy relies on entrepreneurship. It is crucial to discern the difference between entrepreneurs, managers, and business owners. Entrepreneurship is chiefly about thinking about an idea and pursuing it to achieve maximum results. This paper discusses entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. While considering both sides, the paper attempts to find a conclusive answer on whether entrepreneurs are born or made. Further, the paper analyzes some of the characteristics of making an entrepreneur successful. Towards the end, the paper makes a conclusion by taking the side of the debate.

Entrepreneurs: Born or Made?

An entrepreneur is an innovative individual who comes up with a new and untapped business idea. This individual builds a business from the idea. The application of a new idea means that the business operates without any experience in the innovative field. This means that an entrepreneur must be creative in coming up with new ways of solving any problem since there are no set business standards for their ideas. Entrepreneurs set business standards through which businessmen/businesswomen follow. The entrepreneur performs commercial activities with the application of a new concept. Secondly, an entrepreneur creates a new market for his/her product since the existing market does not hold a room for the business’s new product. On the other hand, a businessperson creates a room in the market for his business’s products. This is because the existing market has similar products to what the business offers. An entrepreneur is generally intuitive while the businessperson is calculative, where he/she takes advantage of any lacuna in the existing product.

To understand entrepreneurs, we should consider looking at the nature versus nurture debate. The process of entrepreneurship is human behavior.  Nature versus nurture positions human behavior using two different conflicts. Is a human being’s behavior explained because of their genes or due to how they were raised? Some of the theories explaining either side include theories of Kohlberg, Piaget, and Gilligan. In explaining human behavior, it is important to note that neither side of the debate is obsolete. The behavior exhibited by different individuals can be as a result of either nature or nurture. To understand the specific behavior of an individual, it would be more feasible to consider the person as a single unit. Nevertheless, it is paramount to deduce facts discussed in the debate. If the business capability of a child is to develop, he/she has to be exposed or taught about every aspect since birth (Bessant & Tidd, 2015). Regarding the critical period for the acquisition of such knowledge, a child acquires such information via conditioning principles, including reinforcement, initiation, and association over a limited period.

Nature can be defined as the hereditary composition of genes, which makes individuals who they are, whether physically or through behavior. The genetic makeup of a person can influence how he behaves. On the other hand, nurture is a combination of all aspects of the environment, which can influence an individual’s behavior. The variables within the environment include social, economic, cultural, and experiences. To a large extent, the nature versus nurture debate is based on finding out whether the environmental factors or genetic inheritance have a larger influence on human behavior, in this case, entrepreneurship. Plato held the view that human behavior is innate. This implies that human beings are born with a certain behavior. This is based on a scientific lens. Plato had the viewpoint that the environment within which an individual lives does not shape his behavior. Plato’s position is opposite to Aristotle’s. According to Aristotle, human beings are born without any knowledge. Everything is learned as the individual grows through experiences (Daley, 2013). If the business capability of a child is to develop, he/she has to be exposed or taught about every aspect since birth. Regarding the critical period for the acquisition of such knowledge, a child acquires such information via conditioning principles, including reinforcement, initiation, and association over a limited period.

It is natural for individuals to have knowledge, emotion, and desire. The three are the major sources of human behavior. Whether entrepreneurship is natural or nurtured remains an unresolved issue even though it has been discussed a countless number of times. Specifically, the issue revolves around the extent to which heredity and environment influence the development and behavior of human beings. In this context, therefore, nature is defined as behaviors that result from influence by heredity or the genetic content of an individual, which implies that the behaviors are dependent on an individual’s genetic makeup. Therefore, nature is believed to influence the development and growth of an individual throughout their life. On the contrary, nurture revolves around behavioral and environmental influences. Specifically, this is an implication that the behavioral influence emanates from friends, siblings, parents, guardians, family as well as any other experience to which one becomes exposed to. Some entrepreneurs start their business from scratch and without any external knowledge. Using this perspective would lead to the conclusion that entrepreneurs are born. However, all entrepreneurs born into families with land, resources, and labor are business owners. Such entrepreneurs should not be defined as born with entrepreneurship since the behavior is inherited (Daley, 2013). Therefore, the assumption that entrepreneurship is natural is dismissed by the argument of readily available resources to start a new or run an existing business.

To emphasize that entrepreneurs are made, empiricists or environmentalists believe that during birth, the mind of a human being is a blank slate (tabula rasa), which is slowly filled through an experience like behaviorism. From this perspective, behavioral differences and psychological characteristics emerging through infancy, as well as childhood, are outcomes of learning. It is how a person is nurtured or brought up, which governs the psychologically important aspects regarding child development. For example, according to the social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura in 1977, an individual’s behavior is learned through observational learning process obtained from the environment. This theory maintains that a child can observe individuals around them as they behave in many ways. Individuals whom the child observes are referred to as models. Within society, a child is surrounded by various influential models like parents, TV characters, teachers, friends, etc. The models offer examples of behavior that could be observed and imitated like feminine, anti or pro-social, masculine, or even entrepreneurship. The theory argues that a child will reproduce the imitated or observed behavior in their subsequent actions, either negatively or positively (Daley, 2013). Therefore, a child born in an entrepreneur family will only adopt the behavior due to modeling from the family. If the child were raised in an ordinary family, then he/she would most likely venture into other sectors other than entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs are made through behavior modeling both inside and outside the classroom. In most cases, prominent entrepreneurs curve their behavior as a factor of the learning. Behavior modeling simply entails the act of guiding people on how things are done via the process of emulating modeled behavior. The behavioral theory argues that behaviors are learned through observation and conditioning. It is no doubt that television, as well as aspects within the environment, have a great influence on the behavior of the viewers. Imitated and modeled behavior is therefore learned, copied, and put to practice by viewers, especially if it is negative behavior. Some entrepreneurs copy or imitate business but end up coming with their own venture. According to behavioral and social cognitive theories, once the entrepreneurship classes are viewed, especially by the children, they will be learned, remembered, and eventually emulated in subsequent real-life behaviors (Bessant & Tidd, 2015). Individuals tend to learn and copy what they experience. In most cases, entrepreneurship is learned through media or from an individual. Therefore, entrepreneurs are made; they are not born.

Characteristics of an entrepreneur

All entrepreneurs have distinct characteristics that increase their success. Among these characteristics is decision making. The process of decision making can be measured using different parameters. The most imperative measurement of quality decision making is the process used in reaching the results. It is true that the decision is more important than the outcome. The communication of results is determined by some factors. The quality of results is not important when looking at the measure of the decision-making process. Entrepreneurs make decisions based on their ideas instead of thinking about future results. In entrepreneurship, results are not equated to the decision. It is vital to understand the difference between the two. The decision is immediately met after deliberation, but the results are realized after some time.  The outcome of a decision is therefore influenced by some factors which nobody can control. For this reason, it would be wrong to measure the quality of a good decision immediately after making it. This is the entrepreneurs’ model of decision making. A good decision is one that is appropriate and satisfies the purpose of the decision-making process. A good decision is determined by the successful process used to reach it (Bessant & Tidd, 2015). Entrepreneurs’ decisions are precise without considering any other influencing factors. Good decision making is the most important characteristic of entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs solve new problems which require good decision making.

Secondly, entrepreneurs are optimistic. Since entrepreneurship requires the startup of a new business, entrepreneurs need to have faith in their idea. In most cases, new ventures end up disappointing, which can possibly lead to despair. Most successful entrepreneurs have undergone some failure, but they have enough faith to move on. Entrepreneurs are also good communicators. As they seek to grow their new businesses, entrepreneurs often communicate with different parties either to consult or give instructions. Entrepreneurs are also courageous and daring. This characteristic applies due to their willingness to start a new business irrespective of the chances of failure. Entrepreneurs are also keen to learn new skills and knowledge. When starting a new venture, there are no set-out plans or structures. Therefore, entrepreneurs learn with every business encounter, thus curving their own paths. In conclusion, all the discussed characteristics are vital to entrepreneurs. However, the characteristics are dependent on decision making.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship can be explained using several perspectives. Although there might be evidence to support either nature or nurture viewpoint, it is more precise to note that children are born without knowledge. Every aspect of human behavior is learned from a factor in the environment. For this reason, it would be more accurate to explain entrepreneurship using a nurture perspective. To put it more precisely, wouldn’t it be impossible for an infant to start a business? Since the answer to this question is yes, then entrepreneurship learned and not innate. For a long time, there has been a raging debate on whether to explain entrepreneurs are born or made. Several theories have been used to explain both perspectives. In most cases, scholars will opt to side with either side of the debate backing their positions with different theories. Nature versus nurture positions human behavior using two different conflicts. Is a human being’s behavior explained because of their genes or due to how they were raised? Some of the theories explaining either side include theories of Kohlberg, Piaget, and Gilligan. In explaining human behavior, it is important to note that neither side of the debate is obsolete. The behavior exhibited by different individuals can be as a result of either nature or nurture. To understand the specific behavior of an individual, it would be more feasible to consider the person as a single unit. Nevertheless, it is paramount to deduce facts discussed in the debate.

References

Bessant, J., & Tidd, J. (2015). Innovation and entrepreneurship. New York: Wiley.

Daley, J. (2013, September 19). Are entrepreneurs Born or Made? Retrieved March 20, 2020, from Insider: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228273