Q

Managing small business start ups in global market altering the perception of individuals w.r.t entrepreneurship

Home, - Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management

Introduction

The global business dynamics have been altering the perception of individuals regarding entrepreneurship. People are enhancing their knowledge regarding the concept of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. While an entrepreneur is one who is capable of organising, managing, and assuming the risks of an enterprise or business, entrepreneurship signifies the initiatives that are undertaken by individual to start a new organisation or business, either for personal profits or for social causes (Welter, 2011). The success or failure of an entrepreneur or the entrepreneurial venture relies on the efforts that have been made by the individual in establishing the business and maintaining its existence, thereafter. The various traits, characteristics and skills of an individual, along with their previous background and knowledge, make equal contribution towards the establishment and sustenance of the entrepreneurial venture (Storey and Greene, 2010). There are several successful small businesses that have initiated as an idea for entrepreneurial ventures and then have raised to become a prosperous organisation. One such start-up firm is The Culture Trip, that has become one of the fastest growing media start-up in the internet (Syndicate Room, 2017). The following report aims at providing a detailed information regarding the various types of entrepreneurial ventures as well as the significant contributions of these small businesses to the national and global economy.

Types and Typology of Entrepreneurial Ventures

Entrepreneurial ventures that pertain in the global business market can be described under the four types:

 

Small Business Entrepreneurship

In the modern competitive global market, there has been an overwhelming rise in the number of start-ups and entrepreneurs, however, they still remain small businesses. These have taken up a large portion of the entrepreneurship and start-up business world (Burns, 2011). The various travel agents, grocery stores, street food venders and salons are some of the small businesses that occupy the global market position (Drucker, 2014). These include those businesses that are run by the owners and these businesses are barely profitable. The small businesses generally hire local employees or are run by family members to ensure that the different activities are operational (Morris et al., 2016). The success of these businesses is measured through small and simple tokens like being able to pay the bills, and the profits are usually spent on trivial luxuries such as travelling. Examples of such enterprises would include new start-ups such as The Culture Trip.

Scalable Start-up Entrepreneurship

Scalable start-up enterprises comprise of the ground-breaking software and web-based ventures such as the various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Some of the examples of successful large scalable entrepreneurships include eBay and Amazon.com. the scalable start-ups, unlike small scale businesses, emerge from entrepreneur hotspots such as Silicon Valley, New York, Bangalore, Shanghai and so on (Welter, 2011). These enterprises are risk takers and are known for being venture capitalists, as they make their investments as per the market dynamics. These business ventures are capable of increasing their revenues, despite the additional high incremental costs (Obschonka, Silbereisen and Schmitt-Rodermund, 2010). For instance, initiating start-ups like Facebook require initial investments on the software development, however, once the product is able to attract large number of consumers from target market, the download of their apps by the unlimited global users, protects the company from incurring significant additional costs, thereby benefiting the entrepreneur.

Large Company Entrepreneurship

Corporate entrepreneurship encompasses development of new business opportunities and ideas within an established organisation, which leads to growth of new business ventures, thereby enhancing the corporate profitability and competitive position of the company (Griffiths and Wall, 2011). Many large companies evolve radically depending upon the customer needs, market competitors, and new technologies, thereby producing new ideas that are deemed as ‘disruptive innovations’, which bring significant changes within the market. Many entrepreneurial ventures emerge through these disruptive innovations and develop to become successful larger enterprises. Examples of such businesses would include Airbnb, Uber Technologies Inc. and so on (Brenkert, 2017).

Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship encompasses those innovators who aim towards transforming the world’s status and societal conditions, by making it a better place. They can be considered as those agents who bring positive change to the world, by solving various social needs and issues by identifying the programs and people who can contribute to this change (P.A. Dacin, M.T. Dacin and Matear, 2010). These enterprises can either be non-profit or for-profit organisations or could be a hybrid companies. A few of the major social entrepreneurs who have been significantly contributing towards changing the world would include Gravity Light, Speakset, Smart Glasses, Skin Analytics and Open Utility (Prosser, 2014).

Scope, Development and Growth of Entrepreneurial Ventures

Entrepreneurship play a significant role in the growth and development of the market economy and therefore, there exists several scopes for its own development, despite the rising market competitions. The vast majority of the businesses in the UK comprises of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with less than 250 employees. It has been identified that 75% of the businesses are SMEs with 0.6% are mid-sized businesses (Card, 2014). However, lately there has been a reduction in the growth of the SMEs businesses in the UK. These have resulted as these ventures require high initial capital investment. Capital investment comprises of both financial and management capitals. Growth of SMEs require high financial investment and there are several risks associated with these ventures and therefore, it is not a feasible option for the SMEs (Card, 2014).

Similarities and Differences between Various Entrepreneurial Ventures

The various entrepreneurial ventures have certain similarities and dissimilarities associated with each other. Each of the entrepreneurial ventures, namely small business entrepreneurship, scalable start-up entrepreneurship, large company entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship arise as a single idea and then develops to become a full-fledged business (Down, 2010). The fundamental concept behind the emergence of these businesses remain the same. However, the difference lies in the manner in which businesses are conducted on these ventures. These can be listed as follows.

Small business entrepreneurship Scalable start-up entrepreneurship & Large company entrepreneurship  Social entrepreneurship

These businesses employ very limited human resources. The human resources of these businesses vary as per the requirement of the firm. Being large enterprise, the business requires large number of human resources to fulfil the operational requirement as well as to fulfil the corporate objectives. The requirement of human resources varies as per the tasks that are conducted by these firms. Most of the employees are volunteers who are not interested in the monetary benefits, but the social causes.

These businesses require less financial investments.These businesses require monetary investment at the initial stage only. These businesses require high financial investments throughout the business processes. The financial investments vary for these ventures as the investment is dependent on the task or issue that is being addressed by the firm

Impact of Micro and Small Businesses on the Economy

The small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) have high impact on the national economy, which cannot be undervalued. As per the reports of Nesta (2017), the SMEs accounted for over 99% of the total businesses of the UK, in the year 2016. Of the total SMEs, 95% of them are micro-businesses that employ only 0-9 human resources. Medium businesses occupy less than 1% of the total SME population, however, it is responsible for nearly a quarter of the total SME employments, with a turnover of 30% (Nesta, 2017). As per the reports of Department of Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy (2017), SMEs account for 99.3% of the private sector businesses, employing over 16.1 million of the UK population. SMEs have provided a combined annual turnover of £1.9 trillion, in the beginning of 2017. This can be represented by the following illustrations.

The private sector of the UK, is majorly dominated by the small-business employers and non-employing enterprises. It has been estimated that there were 5.7 million private sector businesses in the UK, in the early 2017. Of these, 4.3 million did not have any employees, while 1.3 million had their employees (Department of Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy, 2017).

The composition of the business population in the early 2017, can be represented by the following illustration.

In the report presented by Young (2015), the government of the UK has introduced the option of funding small businesses, so that the aspiring entrepreneurs would obtain the opportunity to initiate their own entrepreneur ventures and proceed further to develop the same into successful business organisations. In this manner, the development of the small business would eventually produce revenue that would revert back to the bank that had provided the initial start-up loan.

Impact of Large Businesses on the Economy

The large businesses contribute 7,300 of businesses to the UK market, thereby making a major contribution towards turnover and employment. The employment at large businesses account for 10.6 million (40%) employment, along with a turnover of £1.8 trillion (49%).

Impact of Small Businesses on Different Levels of Economy

Globalisation have opened up several opportunities between the Asia-Pacific and the West which has resulted in the economic prosperity of Hong Kong. The development of the social and economic conditions has further enhanced the opportunities for the ambitious entrepreneurs of the nation. Since 2012, the SIE Fund has been successful in establishing a broad network of NGOs, entrepreneurs, investors and government agencies as well as allocated about 500 million HKD (approx. 64 million USD) for the long-term funding of various projects (Elbech, 2018).

The private sector businesses unevenly distributed throughout the UK as most of the head offices are based in the South East England and London, thereby increasing the businesses over these regions. At the beginning of 2017, there were a total of 5 million private sector enterprises in England, 132,000 in Northern Ireland, 209,000 in Wales and 346,000 in Scotland (Department of Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy, 2017). The number of businesses and density rate of the businesses in the private sector at the beginning of 2017 can be illustrated as follows.

In the past year, the private sector business of the UK has increased by +4% or 197,000. The number of non-employing businesses grew by +4%, while the employing businesses grew by +3%. Between 2016 and 2017, the non-employing businesses have accounted for nearly 79% of the overall rise (Department of Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy, 2017). The rise in the total number of private sector businesses in the UK between 2000 and 2017, can be illustrated as follows.

The SMEs have been contributing highly to the global economy as well. SMEs make diverse contribution towards the social as well as economic well-being, even at the global level. SMEs are essential to deliver more inclusive international growth and globalisation. In several countries, the government has been experiencing the issues of weak investment and trade, low growth, along with persistently rising inequality. To overcome these challenges, SMEs, play a key role, by improving the economy and widening the eco-system of firms (OECD, 2017). SMEs play a crucial role to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing employment opportunities, promoting sustainable industrialisation, reducing income inequalities, sustainable economic growth and fostering innovation.

Importance of Business Start-ups and Small Businesses on Growth of Social Economy

Small businesses and start-ups contribute towards the growth of innovative ideas and creative thought processing. The innovative entrepreneurial ideas that later develops into established businesses contribute greatly towards the economic and social growth (Department of Business Innovation and Skills, 2015). While small businesses play a crucialto drive the economic growth, only a small proportion of the business are responsible for great impact that is laid on the developmental processes (Taiwo, Ayodeji and Yusuf, 2012). In the report presented by Young (2013), it has been identified that small businesses and start-up ventures contribute highly towards the growth of social economy. The changes in the UK private sector has been highly influenced by the growth in the SMEs and start-up ventures, which are driven by the technological innovations and the motivation of introducing new business ideas that would revolutionise the global market (Carter and Jones-Evans, 2012). Furthermore, this rise in the trend of initiating start-ups and micro-businesses have motivated the investors to make their investments on the potential new entrepreneurial ventures, which would eventually develop to become a global business. Consequently, these investments eventually add to the global revenue, thereby resulting in the growth of the social economy (Bridgeand O'Neill, 2012).

The Belt and Road initiative is an ambitious effort for improving the regional cooperation and connectivity on a trans-continental scale. This initiative has been particularly beneficial for the ambitious entrepreneurs as they have been successful in acquiring several opportunities from this initiative. As a result of the same, the investments that are being made by entrepreneurs and their enterprises on the Belt and Road initiatives have been economically beneficial for the parties. As mentioned by Jingjingand Xiaojing(2017), Chinese enterprises have invested more than $18 billion, created more than $1 billion of tax income and more than 160,000 jobs in the countries along the Belt and Road routes. Not only entrepreneurs, but young students with the vision of future entrepreneurship have also been successfully benefitting from the Belt and Road project. Hence, it can be stated that entrepreneurship can be employed in all kinds of projects and not only the entrepreneur or the venture, but the associated agencies are also benefitted with the initiative.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship has been playing a vital role in the development of regional as well as global economy. The various entrepreneurial ventures that eventually grow to become successful global businesses, have been responsible for increasing the global revenue as well as bringing significant changes in the world’s economy and employment opportunities. The number of successful small businesses that have risen across, has resulted due to entrepreneurial ideas that have evolved to become prosperous commerce. Entrepreneurs with the required characteristics and traits have been successful in establishing their entrepreneurial ventures into prosperous businesses. Furthermore, it is important for entrepreneurs to have sufficient background knowledge regarding the industry or market where they are initiating their ventures, to ensure its successful establishment and eventual growth.

 

Leave a comment


Captcha

Related :-