The term and concept entrepreneurship was first coined in 1700s and over the years, the concept has changed dramatically. Generally, people tend to associate the concept with an individual who is starting their own business, idea or enterprise. These individuals are often perceived as someone who is willing to risk to achieve a desired outcome. After all, no risk no gain.
Entrepreneurs go beyond Venturing
While people generalize entrepreneurs as someone who ventures into new business, economists believed that the concept of entrepreneurship is beyond that. These economists strongly agree that entrepreneurs are someone who is willing to bear the risk in exchange for profit. In certain context, these entrepreneurs are also innovators for coming up with new ideas to promote and market their creative innovation.
Joseph Schumpeter, an economist in the 20th century examined the concept from a different perspective. He particularly emphasized on how entrepreneur’s drive to market their innovation will create chaos or change the society. Therefore, he labeled entrepreneurship as nothing more than ‘creative destruction’. He made such conclusions by stating how the entrepreneurs utilize new combinations and take over the old industries.
When Schumpeter introduced his concept, a Malaysian business expert Peter Drucker sided Schumpeter’s opinion and concluded that these entrepreneurs are individuals who aim for a change and respond to improvement and once they find ways to exploit it, the entrepreneurs will take it as an opportunity.
Nevertheless, most economists believed that entrepreneurship is necessary to spur economic growth and provide more employment opportunities for the community. In developing countries, small businesses that are successful in the market helps to create more job opportunities and reduce unemployment rate altogether.
In addition to that, it somehow helps to reduce poverty and lift the income to a certain level. As a result, government tend to support and encourage more individuals to become entrepreneurs as it is one of the most important strategies to stimulate economic development.