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Paper Abstract: Importance of entrepreneurs in organizations. Role & task of leaders in the new economy. Challenges facing entrepreneurs. Fearless, transformatinal approach. Defines & discusses concept of entrepreneurship. Examines several theories. Traits & practices of successful entrepreneurs. Cites literature on entrepreneurship. Views of entrepreneurs & entrepreneurial process. Development of new ideas. Critical ingredients for entrepreneurial success. Paper Introduction: The Idea of Entrepreneurship in the Literature Introduction Business theorists and analysts have pointed out that entrepreneurship has long been considered a significant factor for socioeconomic growth and development because it provides millions of job opportunities, offers a variety of consumer goods and services, and generally increases national prosperity and competitiveness (Zahra, 1999). Given recent trends toward corporate downsizing, the privatization of economies, and global competition based on such characteristics as agility, creativity, and innovation, both popular reports and academic research alike are stressing the overwhelming importance of entrepreneurship as a major driving force in establishing a global business climate (Lee & Peterson, 2000). Entreprene Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The board chair and chief executive officer are different individuals . Because of this,entrepreneurship has taken on a new and more expansive character. W.D. L. A failure to sell or market appropriately . (2 1). Internationally, McDougall and Oviat (2 ) believe thatentrepreneurship has taken on added significance because of globalization.Businesses in an increasing number of countries are seeking internationalcompetitive advantage through entrepreneurial innovation. Lumpkin and Dess (1996) introduced the term "entrepreneurialorientation" or EO to encapsulate a culturally or socially-centeredpropensity to facilitate entrepreneurial activity. J. TheFinancial Times, January 15, 16. Cook's (1997)perspective tends to concentrate upon the individual aspects ofentrepreneurship, but this researcher does not fail to recognize that moreand more frequently, organizations as systems are becoming entrepreneurial. Companies that reducecentralization empower employees at all levels of the organization, andfoster participative, shared team responsibilities tend to be moreentrepreneurial than others. They areindividuals who take advantage of opportunities that arise daily in theexternal environment that result from a shrinking global market, atechnology revolution, demographic changes, and communication networks suchas the Internet. Stevenson, H. It is possible to draw upon Weber's (1958) formulationof the rise of capitalism in Protestant cultures to identify the kinds ofinfluences exerted by culture on business innovation. As Stevenson (1999) suggests, the successful firm of the presentera is one that is capable of rapid response to changes that are beyond itscontrol; the successful businessperson must also be capable of capitalizingupon these changes, and he or she may find that frequent position changesor creating an entrepreneurial enterprise offers a greater chance ofsuccess than ever before. Brigham, W. It is far more than apersonality trait or assortment of traits and is seen by Drucker (1985) asa behavior with a foundation in theory. C. It was left to Schumpeter to recognize, in a return to Say'soriginal construction of the important role played by entrepreneurs, thenecessity of such actors in any economic system. Theconventional wisdom, which posits the existence of an "alpha heffalump" orlead entrepreneur is being replaced with the idea that trueentrepreneurship necessitates several actors capable of capitalizing uponopportunities in the environment. (1997). Academy of Management Executive, 13, 36-42. Further, Brigham (2 1) considers entrepreneurs to have become inrelatively short order one of the most dynamic forces in the economy.Today, entrepreneurs are driving the technology boom, which itself drivesmuch of the world's economic growth. Schultz, J. The movement away from the individual focus isperhaps the most prominent characteristic of the literature. M., & Peterson, S. The importance of entrepreneurship was identified by Stevenson(1999), who states that the number of new business incorporations hasdoubled in the United States in the last 1 years, from annual rates ofabout 3 , to well over 6 , . Firms that actindependently (autonomy), encourage experimentation (innovativeness), takerisks, take initiative (proactiveness), and aggressively compete withintheir markets have a strong EO. These researchers,drawing upon Hofstede's (198 ) dimensions of culture model, proposed thatany given society will either support or avoid entrepreneurship because ofspecific inherent traits or characteristics that lend value to businessactivities and practices while denying value to others. McDougall, P. C. A lack of action leadership . The task of leaders becomes one of challengingtraditional ways of doing business and helping others differentiate betweenimmutable values and outmoded historical practices. Entrepreneurship rests on a theoryof economy and society; the theory sees change as normal and healthy, withthe entrepreneur taking the role of upsetting and disorganizing society bymeans of what is known as "creative destruction" (Drucker, 1985). (1958). Theseare autonomy, innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, and competitiveaggressiveness. J. D. The question that remains, of course, is whetheror not entrepreneurship is something that can be taught or something thatis at some level innate. This section of the report has summarized, albeit briefly, the mainthemes with respect to the theory of entrepreneurship. Drucker, P. Academy ofManagement Review, 26(1), 133. Above all it means a specific kind ofindividual who is determined upon success and excellence and is comfortablewith a relatively high level of uncertainty and risk. (1997). W., & Garland, J. 3. Masculinity and femininityare related to both uncertainty avoidance and risk tolerance with masculinecultures generally tolerant of risk and less fearful of uncertainty. The board is medium in size . . Individualistic societies tend to foster EO that is most productivein terms of developing new technologies. Using the Katz/Heron Skill Typology, subjects were askedto complete a brief survey; additional instrumentation was employed with asmaller sample of initial respondents. Risk is therefore spread throughout the alliance. The Culture of Entrepreneurship. These considerations will be addressed in greater depthbelow.Defining Entrepreneurship While it would seem to be a relatively simple task to defineentrepreneurship, theorists have offered any number of definitions of thisterm and the constructs that underpin it. Some researchers argue that viewingentrepreneurship as a collective activity is a new meta-theme in thediscipline that has remained unexplored either conceptually or empirically. Data obtained from 231 medium-sized manufacturing companiesshowed that commitment to CE is high (and EO is strong) when the followingcorporate characteristics exist: . The Portable MBA. Entrepreneurship. Under the environmental approach,entrepreneurship is viewed as a response to certain perhaps unique oropportunistic environmental conditions that can help or hinder the processby the nature of the climate they establish (Lee & Peterson, 2 ). It is this phenomenon that may explain, at least to adegree, the greater propensity toward entrepreneurship in Western countriesthan in Eastern countries. New York:Harper & Row. (198 ). Entrepreneurs view the world as theirmarketplace and think globally rather than regionally. OfficialBoard Markets, 77(17), 1-2. This supports the belief that whilelead entrepreneurs are important elements in a firm's success,entrepreneurial teams may be critical divers of that success. Third, the new leader must generate and sustaintrust by exhibiting competence, constancy, caring, fairness, candor, andauthenticity. Roberts, and A. (2 1). Organizational Dynamics, 28(3), 18-34. A study in Malaysia employing a sampleof 88 board-level executives from private, public, and nonprofitorganizations across the globe revealed that entrepreneurship is now amongthe most valued characteristics of forward-looking organizations andeffective leaders or managers. Outside directors own stock in the company Zahra, et al, 2 ). How to learn the art of lateral thinking. They areindividuals who see competition as a challenge and not as a threat. Within a company, it refers to a special kind ofspirit, vitality and excellence. New StraitsTimes, July 8, 1764. (1991). Journal of SmallBusiness Management, 38(4), 59-72. (2 ).Investigating the existence of the lead entrepreneur. They are also willing to tolerate failure should itoccur. At the same time, this study also revealedthat approximately 7 percent of the respondents felt that EO was lackingin the vast majority of workers and managers. Theyhypothesized that such teams do not necessarily contain a leadentrepreneur, but are rather driven to success by the collective efforts ofa set of team members who share certain characteristics. D., Garland, J. Many nationalgovernments - including those in collectivist, uncertainty-avoiding,feminine, and status supporting culture - are striving for improved livingstandards among their people through the discovery or acquisition of newtechnologies and through attempts to replicate regional entrepreneurialaggregations. Cooperative strategies make possible entrepreneurial alliancesbetween individuals who pool their resources to achieve competitiveadvantage. In the case of the latter, entrepreneurs were foundto be highly tolerant of risk, desirous of control of their own lives,intrapreneurial in their early careers, ambitious and determined tosucceed, capable of managing through setbacks, and decisive.Entrepreneurial organizations, in contrast, were those in which innovationwas valued, employees at all levels of the organization possessed criticalcompetencies and core skills, and the organization was itself dedicated toagility and flexibility in response to changing market conditions. It is insuch a culture that the entrepreneurial spirit and risk-taking emerged,rather than in collectivist cultures which inhibited social mobility bymaintaining high levels of tolerance for power distance and status. As Malvern(2 1) notes, it is important to recognize that an individual entrepreneurcan be a source of motivation and inspiration for others; in some cases,individuals are able to create highly successful start-up companies thatbecome Fortune 1 or 5 firms. (1999). EO is, however, different from entrepreneurship itself. Executive Excellence,16 (11), 7 - 9. Top-down leadership must be augmented withbottom-up leadership and peer-to-peer or horizontal leadership. In examining attitudes of business executives in Malaysia and otherOccidental countries that have been characterized by Hofstede (198 ) asgenerally collectivist, tolerant of power distance, avoiding ofuncertainty, and feminine rather than masculine, this study revealed aperceived lack of entrepreneurship and EO in the region (Study:Entrepreneurship vital..., 2 1). Say was anadmirer of Adam Smith and a translator of Smith's The Wealth of Nations;consequently, he was an admirer of the capitalist ethos and a firm believerin the importance of responding to ever-changing market conditions and newtechnologies. In otherwords, entrepreneurship is a critical factor reshaping the corporate entityof the new economy, and creating internal opportunities for entrepreneurswhose talents and skills remain with a larger corporate entity rather thanbeing deployed in a start-up. O., & Huse, M. Programs that focus ondeveloping future leaders are increasingly seen as a source of competitiveadvantage. Among thosecharacteristics are: . (2 ). Michael, S. A false sense of security due to too much money . P. The changing rules of global competitivenessin the 21st century. 122) words, and "the entrepreneur[serves] as the catalyst." Entrepreneurship appears, on balance, to be more compatible withcertain cultures than with others. A perspective on entrepreneurship. Culture serves as the"conductor," in Berger's (1991, p. Michael (2 1) considers the entrepreneurial executive to focus hisor her attention less upon administration than on innovation. (2 1). Entrepreneurs Are Made, Not Born. Shefsky (1994) suggested that dictionary definitions of thisterm are essentially useless. The five critical steps in making leadership developmentstrategic, as identified by these authors, include assessment, alignment,action, anticipation, and awareness. Cultures Consequences: InternationalDifferences in Work-Related Values. Culture, entrepreneurialorientation, and global competitiveness. A belief that bigger is better . The current generation ofentrepreneurs, says Mazur (2 1), are more courageous and challenging ofthe status quo than their predecessors. In the new economy, it's agility, not size,that matters. Howard Stevenson (1999), forexample, states that the term itself calls to mind so many varied imagesthat a precise definition can be elusive. C. Cultures with stronguncertainty avoidance, ready acceptance of power distance, a collectiverather than an individualistic orientation, and a feminine profile tend tobe less entrepreneurial than others (Lee & Peterson, 2 ). Zahra, S. Lee and Peterson (2 ) state that the theory behind EO is applicablenot only to the behavior of a firm, but also to the acts of individuals andthe process of entrepreneurial development at the societal level ofcountries. A failure to work sufficiently hard . In the fast-paced worldof the new economy, putting together such a managerial team may well beessential for corporate success. Fearless leaders understand the nature of fear andhave the courage to recognize fear in themselves and act appropriately.Such leaders know how to handle fear and are capable of communicating in amanner that does not make others feel threatened. Cultures that support this way of thinking are less tolerantof power distance, more willing to live with (and actually enjoy)uncertainty, more individualistic than collectivist, achievement oriented,and universalistic (Lee & Peterson, 2 ). Cultural values and norms will either converge orconflict with a society's ability to develop a strong entrepreneurialorientation. Inadequate organization of the business . Such theorists consign the entrepreneur to the realm of"external forces," says Drucker (1985), together with climate and weather,government and politics, pestilence and war, and technology. Entrepreneurshipin medium-size companies. (2 1). The 12 biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make.Denver Business Journal, 52(42), 16-18. Despite thepitfalls of entrepreneurship, about 95 percent of all business leadersbelieve that entrepreneurship is important to their success (Study:Entrepreneurship vital..., 2 1). This transformation of what organizations do is necessitating a shiftin focus and emphasis for organizational leaders. There appear tobe linkages between these variables and national wealth and economic growthin such cultures. Weber (1958) arguedthat a connection between the spread of Calvinism and the development ofcapitalist civilization could be discerned. In other words, in order for leadersto be identified and developed, any organization must examine its ownprocesses and its staffing and then match leaders and potential leaders tothe kinds of training or development activities which will result in bothindividual and corporate growth. Additional validation of the idea that EO has a strong societal orenvironmental context was provided by Steensma, Marino, and Weaver (2 ).These researchers contend that entrepreneurs see value in cooperativestrategies. A conceptual model ofentrepreneurship as firm behavior. Examples of such aggregations include the industrialdistricts of northern Italy and California's Silicon Valley. Shefsky, L. Entrepreneurship isnow being taught in most business schools in the United States and WesternEurope (Bradshaw, 2 1). Ahostile external environment may impede the level of capital investment,place fiscal and regulatory barriers, and dissuade the rise of theentrepreneurial spirit that is characteristic of certain cultures but notof others. They are individuals or firmswilling to take major risks in order to realize advantages with respect totheir competitors. Dess, G. Steensma, et al (2 ) suggest that masculinecultures are much more likely to produce a strong EO in both individualsand organizations than are feminine cultures. R. Additionally, such companies are more oftenthan not located in cultures that value individualism and respondpositively to innovation (Schultz, 2 1). Executives own stock in their company . Opportunity, anentrepreneur, and the resources needed to start a company and make it groware the fundamental elements in an entrepreneurial success story. In contrast, societies thathave relatively rigid class structures, are committed to maintaining asocial and business hierarchy, value job security and consensus decisionmaking, and support entitlement thinking are less likely to be facilitativeof entrepreneurship (Hofstede, 198 ; Lee & Peterson, 2 ). This trend is mirrored in the capitalmarkets that fund these start-ups. There has been a shift from a narrow focuson entrepreneurship as an essentially individual activity (or underlyingset of traits, psychological characteristics, or attitudes) to arecognition that firms themselves can be entrepreneurial ornonentrepreneurial (Lee & Peterson, 2 ). These are a few of the definitions of entrepreneurship that can befound in the literature. Culture therefore matters and matters very much when it comes toentrepreneurship. This is a view that is affirmed by Hatch and Zweig(2 ), who conducted in-depth interviews with the founders of over 5 rapidly growing firms in the Chicago metropolitan area. Hatch, J., & Zweig, J. Whether ornot certain cultures nourish a strong EO depends on a wide array ofenvironmental conditions that those operating in the environment will face. Third, when the firm approach is considered, the stress in theliterature is placed on the entrepreneurial processes and the role of top-level management and leadership philosophies regarding innovation andempowerment. This is as true on the international as itis on the national level. Though the relationship between cultural foundations andentrepreneurship is not direct, entrepreneurship is posited as dependingupon a unique blend of cultural factors (i.e., values, attitudes,behaviors) that together combine to foster or avoid a strong EO. Because anindividual's personality, behavior, and beliefs are formed by the culturein which he or she is reared, willingness to confront the risks ofentrepreneurial activity varies significantly from one locale to another.Any definition of entrepreneurship must therefore take into considerationthe effects of culture. Entrepreneurship as strategy. Inaddition, the cultural values and norms of the environment in which apotential entrepreneur is positioned may either facilitate or impede suchactivity.Theories of Entrepreneurship As Drucker (1985) pointed out more than 15 years ago, every practicerests on theory, even when practitioners themselves are unaware of it.Entrepreneurship, as stated above, rests on a theory of economy and societyand was first articulated by Say more than 2 years ago. Capital District Business Review, 27(5 ), 27. Calvinism permitted and evensanctified the human quest for prosperity, the drive for innovation, and adetermination on the part of specific individuals to succeed. Entrepreneurs help their organizations and their teams to breakthrough fear-based thinking and come to the realization that the role ofleaders and leadership is about continuous learning, relationships, andconstant self-renewal. The literature also reveals that a concept known as the "leadentrepreneur" or "alpha heffalump" has been developed to describe theinfluence of a key entrepreneurial figure whose actions inspire or motivateothers to become entrepreneurial. Fulmer, R. Sahlman, H. Beginning a business too late in life . Entrepreneurial vision, an intuitive process which involves multiple time line horizons; . In most organizations, formal planning processes,centralized decision-making, hierarchical structures, standardizedprocedures, and numbers-oriented control systems continue to be at work.It is the view of Dess and Picken (2 ) that these structures andprocesses provide for organizational efficiency while tending to limitflexibility and to create impediments to the innovation, creativity, andchange that now exists in the workplace. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit ofCapitalism. The Start-Up Entrepreneur. Thedifference between the entrepreneur and the non-entrepreneur is that theformer looks at a successful idea and moves beyond its limits. More than a superficial rebrandingexercise, Sealy's plan underlined how lateral thinking can be used in theentrepreneurial organization to realize competitive advantage. Internationalentrepreneurship. (2 1). Attitudestoward cooperative strategies: A crosscultural analysis of entrepreneurs.Journal of International Business Studies, 31(4), 591-6 7. Individual entrepreneurs are needed, butentrepreneurial teams are equally important. The entrepreneurial process involves all the functions, activities, and actions associated with perceiving these opportunities and creating organizations to pursue them. Weber, M. An important study of entrepreneurship in medium-sized companies wasconducted by Zahra, Neubaum, and Huse (2 ). In W.A. First, new leaders mustunderstand and practice the power of appreciation. (2 ). Theseresearchers suggest that despite the very real progress that manydeveloping nations have made toward economic growth, entrepreneurialactivity remains relative limited in many of these nations. Further, says Stevenson (1999), adecided shift in the nature of business and competition has occurred whichis fostering a need for entrepreneurial activity. G., and Picken, J. Thus, any theory of entrepreneurship must rest on the belief thatdisequilibrium in economic life is a positive and not a negativecharacteristic (Drucker, 1985). K., Marino, L., & Weaver, K. Lee, S. Afirm or an individual's EO refers not to a new entity, but rather to theentrepreneurial process, or how entrepreneurship is undertaken. Fourth, new leaders must create intimate alliances withthose whom they lead. Changing roles: Leadershipin the 21st century. That is, there is a need to develop an entrepreneurship model that"acknowledges the individual person without discounting the portion of theexternal environment that is beyond the individual or the firm's control"(Lee & Peterson, 2 , p. Zahra, S. The theories of entrepreneurship also take into consideration theenvironment in which entrepreneurial acts are to take place. Whilemuch of the literature has described the entrepreneur in these terms,Malvern (2 1) considers entrepreneurship as the capacity to spot anopportunity for a new product or service and to mobilize the resourcesneeded to take advantage of the opportunity. Lumpkin and Dess (1996) outlined five salient dimensions of EO. As Fulmer, et al (2 ) maintain, best-practice organizations,including such firms as General Electric under the leadership of JackWelsh, and Johnson & Johnson under the leadership of Ralph Larsen, haveworked to develop internal entrepreneurial leadership promotion programswhich emphasize an introspective examination of the organization'sstrengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and then match leaders toeach scenario. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. What cannot betaught is the drive, determination, and ambition to become entrepreneurial. In collective, feminine, anduncertainty-avoiding cultures competitive advantage is more often achievedthrough cooperative entrepreneurship rather than autonomousentrepreneurship. (1985). (1996). A. Study: Entrepreneurship vital to success. Entrepreneurial activity istherefore replacing tested, "tried and true" methods of generatingopportunity and maintaining competitiveness. Berger (1991) suggests that economicreform is only one step in this transformation; modernization, which admitsentrepreneurial behavior and tacitly encourages it, must include culturaltransformation as well as a new market orientation. Bennis (1999) claims that today's organizations are evolving intofederations, networks, clusters, cross-functional teams, temporary systems,ad hoc task forces, lattices, modules, and matrices. Thesecharacteristics are said to foster entrepreneurial drive, itself supportedby specific personality traits or characteristics. Entrepreneurs are the prototype of the American persona. These researchers focused oncorporate entrepreneurship (CE) which embodies a company's innovation andventuring activities and which is seen as vital in today's competitivemarkets. Anentrepreneur is therefore an individual or an organization smart enough tounderstand and capitalize on post-industrial values such as health,wellness, education, and cultural tourism. The Idea of Entrepreneurship in the LiteratureIntroduction Business theorists and analysts have pointed out thatentrepreneurship has long been considered a significant factor forsocioeconomic growth and development because it provides millions of jobopportunities, offers a variety of consumer goods and services, andgenerally increases national prosperity and competitiveness (Zahra, 1999).Given recent trends toward corporate downsizing, the privatization ofeconomies, and global competition based on such characteristics as agility,creativity, and innovation, both popular reports and academic researchalike are stressing the overwhelming importance of entrepreneurship as amajor driving force in establishing a global business climate (Lee &Peterson, 2 ). Geert Hofstede (198 ), in his model ofcultural traits and orientations, demonstrated meaningful differences amongcultures on such dimensions as power distance, uncertainty avoidance,individualism/ collectivism, and masculinity/femininity. Third, anoverview of the practices of entrepreneurs (individuals and organizations)will be presented to illustrate how theory becomes reality. In their study Hatch and Zweig (2 ) differentiated between theindividual characteristics of an entrepreneur and the characteristics ofentrepreneurial firms. Inother words, factors external to entrepreneurial agents such as family andsupport systems, financial resources, local community, and governmentagencies can potentially affect such activity. Preference for innovation; . Bygrave (1997, p. In Russia, forexample, entrepreneurial success has yet to become widespread becauseRussia has not as yet experienced a cultural shift to a paradigm thatsupports entrepreneurial behavior. (2 ). Entrepreneurs create businesses, often from little or nothing. Entrepreneurialleadership is therefore key to success. Lumpkin, G. T., & Dess, G. Bhide (Eds.), TheEntrepreneurial Venture. Because of this, Bennis (1999) believes that top-down leadership inwhich heroic individuals or charismatic icons play the dominant role inshaping an organization's culture, mission, and values is no longerapplicable. G., & Slevin, D. Leadership development in such firms is aligned with performanceassessment, feedback, coaching, and succession planning (Fulmer, et al,2 ). Academy of Management Journal, 43(5), 9 2-9 7. 4 3). 2) offered the following definitions: . The solution to adaptive challenges does not solely reside in theexecutive suite, but in the collective intelligence of employees at alllevels. In other words, a culture itself will have enormous influence onwhether or not a strong or weak EO exists. All forms of business activity, certainlyincluding entrepreneurship, are positioned within a larger cultural andsocial context. In the examination of entrepreneurial teams and membercharacteristics, Ensley, et al (2 ), drew on a sample of officers inFortune 5 firms. Bennis (1999) sees fourcompetencies as critical in this process. (2 1). (1999). Inthe case of the individual approach, entrepreneurship tends to beattributed to the internal psychological traits of individualentrepreneurs; those with a propensity toward risk-taking, highachievement, or an internal locus of control are thought to be leaders ofinnovation or catalysts who provide the spur for growth and development(Berger, 1991). Cook, J. For example, contemplating a start-upbusiness, or a major organizational transformation in an establishedbusiness, demands the willingness to confront a great deal of uncertainty.In the development of new ideas, entrepreneurs make decisions in settingswhere there are few historical trends and relatively little directinformation. Managementskills are important in translating an entrepreneurial vision into success. E. Because of this, Lee and Peterson (2 )have advanced the notion that it is important to understand the culturalinfluences on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship - a state of mind. It would therefore appear that theoriesemphasizing the primacy of EO in countries with opposite orientations isessentially correct. (1999). Weber (1958) appears to have indirectly referenced EO in his seminalanalysis of capitalism, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.Weber (1958) saw a moral justification for worldly activity in theProtestant Work Ethic. Second, they mustcontinue to articulate a corporate vision and to give meaning to work thatis done by subordinates. Having a vested interest in the outcome of corporate activitymay encourage an individual to bring to bear entrepreneurial skills on thework environment. P., & Oviatt, B. Ivey Business Journal, 65(2), 68-72. Think lateral, not literal. The pyramidalstructure of the organization of yesterday which required top-downleadership is rapidly disappearing and the new leader must acquire newcompetencies and attitudes in order to succeed. Bradshaw (2 1) claims that the methods ofbeginning an entrepreneurial enterprise or restructuring a firm to becomeentrepreneurial can, indeed, be taught in the classroom. H. They identify,articulate, and model important values and put people first n theiractions. Even Marx didnot admit the entrepreneur or entrepreneurship into his system or hiseconomics. The critical ingredients forentrepreneurial success are a superb entrepreneur with a first-ratemanagement team and an excellent market opportunity. M. A successful entrepreneurial firm is one that sees emergentopportunities, possesses the flexibility to respond to those opportunities,has the resources (human and otherwise) to match effort to opportunity, andto manage and harvest the venture. Journal of World Business, 35(4),4 1-411. Entrepreneurial passion is catching.Entrepreneurs are business celebrities and stars. 69), "they were men who had grown up in the hardschool of life, calculating and daring at the same time, above alltemperate and reliable, shrewd and completely devoted to their business." These characteristics are very much related to the fairlycomprehensive listing of characteristics identified in the literature asintegral to entrepreneurship and typical of the successful entrepreneur.Brigham (2 1) theorized that an entrepreneur is an individual whoorganizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business. Berger, B. 2. Clarifying theentrepreneurial orientation construct and linking it to performance.Academy of Management Review, 21, 135-172. E. Say saw change as endemic in society and in economic lifeand departed from the classical theories of economics (Drucker, 1985). Mazur, L. Others, however, assume a more macro view of entrepreneurship andchallenge the notion that entrepreneurial success depends upon traits orbehaviors exhibited by individuals. (2 1). What is the stuff of anentrepreneur? The next section of this report will examine entrepreneurship in practiceto illustrate how the theories described above play out in the increasinglycompetitive "real world" of the new economy.The Practice of Entrepreneurship Adams (2 1) pointed out that eight out of ten new businesses fail,negatively impacting on employees who lose their jobs, suppliers of goodsand services that have extended credit, inventors who hope to make aprofit, and the entrepreneur individually. New York: McGraw-Hill. Ensley, M. Steensma, H. Entrepreneurship as a means of starting new firms orcreating new business entities has been augmented, in both theory andpractice, by the concept of "intrapreneurship," a term coined to reflectthe growing need for entrepreneurial actors and actions within establishedorganizations (Lee & Peterson, 2 ). New leadership. V. (1994). G. (2 ). By limiting a definition of theidea of entrepreneurship to such a narrow spectrum, however, the broaderscope of the term and its application is ignored. Bygrave, W. Say's views on the necessity and inevitability of change influencedJoseph Schumpeter, the first major economist to advance the notion thatdynamic disequilibrium brought on by the innovating entrepreneur was thenorm of a healthy economy and the central reality for economic theory andpractice (Drucker, 1985). (2 ). (2 ). Bill Gates and Microsoft come to mind,but Gates' firm succeeded because he and his partners were able to puttogether the necessary resources (including human as well as financialcapital) to seize an opportunity and benefit from innovation. A., and Goldsmith, M. New leadership must involve the full inclusion, initiation,and cooperation of followers. Mazur (2 1) reported on the case of mattress-maker Sealy, whichtransformed its image dramatically and became an entrepreneurial firm.This company began to emphasize attitude, flair, and commercial success tofit in with the contemporary zeitgeist. As Lee and Paterson (2 ) have commented, there is agrowing recognition of the need to study entrepreneurship at the societallevel. Journal of Management, 26(5), 947-963. Zahra, et al (2 ), further suggest, based on their research, thatownership may be the most critical spur to entrepreneurial development andinnovation. The literature seems to offerthree main approaches: the individual, the environmental, and the firm. Covin, J. Self-efficacy, or the capacity to realize success internally and to employ personal resources well; . Bradshaw, D. Bygrave (1997) emphasizes that it is not enough to have a good idea:a good idea and a second-rate management team make a poor combination andone that is unlikely to succeed. Poor money skills . Inadequate business capitalization . On the contrary,says Weber (1958, p. It is within these general parameters that much of the research to bediscussed herein is positioned. Hofstede, G. Cognition, or the ability to discern opportunity and the synergies between resources and events; . In this context,Fulmer, Gibbs, and Goldsmith (2 ) have noted that leadership developmentis being tied closely to business strategy. Companies that succeed in the new economy, according toFulmer, et al (2 , p. Abandoning the enterprise too soon Adams (2 1) considers these 12 mistakes to be the root causes ofvirtually all entrepreneurial setbacks or outright failures. Malvern (2 1) takes a slightly different approach to definingentrepreneurship, commenting that the image of the heroic lone entrepreneuror the charismatic maverick is not just a myth, but a damaging one. However, Ensley, et al (2 ) make note of the fact that Fortune 5 firms - the "best and the brightest" - tend to be managed byentrepreneurial teams led by a lead entrepreneur. The entrepreneurs to whom he referred were not dare-devil or unscrupulous speculators or great financiers. REFERENCES Adams, P. 4 1). Lee and Peterson (2 ) believe that it is possible to depict aculture that is most conducive to the development of a strongentrepreneurial orientation (EO). The Financial Times, July17, 2. Malvern, C. Ensley, Garland, and Garland (2 ),drawing upon earlier work by other researchers, have suggested that thereis a growing body of evidence that an entrepreneurial event is more oftensupported by a team of entrepreneurs than by an individual. Whether Keynesian or monetarist, most economists believe thatmaximizing existing resources and establishing equilibrium is key todevelopment. Results of the research indicatedthat lead entrepreneurs or "alpha heffalumps" are often found in such upper-level executive positions as Chief Executive Officer or Company President;however, these key executives reported that their organizational teams wereentrepreneurial in spirit and practice. An entrepreneur, therefore, issomeone (or some organization) that enters a business or a sector in timeto form or change substantially that business or sector's nerve center.Entrepreneurs, says Shefsky (1994) are exciting and attractive for severalreasons: 1. 58), "choose an action-oriented, ongoing learningprocess closely linked to the strategic needs of the business." In otherwords, leaders are seen by these companies as critical entrepreneurialactors in moving the organization forward and programs to identify anddevelop potential leaders are integral to the organization's business plan.Summary and ConclusionsSummary and Conclusions The new economy requires adaptive work, or work which is flexible,situationally responsible, and oriented toward innovation and the constantmanagement of change. In the thirtyyears following World War II, corporations in most advanced industrialnations offered both a variety of career opportunities and a remarkablyhigh degree of career track stability; it was not unusual for an employeeto begin and end his or her career with a single firm. Generally, as Lee and Peterson (2 ) have noted, whileentrepreneurship is most often conceptualized as the creation of neworganizations or enterprises, the construct has been increasingly subjectto analysis using a variety of approaches. Popular views of theentrepreneur as a take-charge, do-it-yourself personality abound in boththe popular and the academic literature. M., Gibbs, P. A sense of opportunity isuseless sunless it can be married or linked to the distinctive know-howneeded to take the opportunity. M. New York: Charles Scribners Sons. Covin and Slevin (1991) argue that the external environment includes, butis not limited to economic, political/legal, and social forces that providethe broader context for an organization's or individual's actions. H. In order to overcome the oddsagainst entrepreneurial success, Adams (2 1) believes it is important torecognize the 12 major reasons that cause so many entrepreneurs to fail.These reasons are: . Bennis, W. San Francisco: ICS Press. Stateddifferently, "EO serves as a mediator of the relationship between nationalculture and entrepreneurship" (Lee & Peterson, 2 , p. The purpose of this report is to examine the current literature tofirst define what is now understood by the catch-all phrase"entrepreneurship." Second, the report will examine several theories ofentrepreneurship, its critical features and the traits associated withsuccessful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial organizations. Furtherdiscussion of the theories of Say and Drucker (1985) will be presentedbelow. A., Neubaum, D. Management theorist Peter Drucker (1985), drawing upon the conceptsadvanced around 18 by the French economist J.B. James R. Theentrepreneurial function is to create tomorrow's businesses today. A penchant for risk-taking and a lack of fear of failure; . An entrepreneur is someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to pursue it. F. As Lee and Peterson (2 ) have pointedout, the entrepreneurial organization has become a focus for much researchon the entire process of entrepreneurship. To a degree, new leaders are transformational with respect toboth themselves and their organizations and entrepreneurial in theirorientation. Such leaders recognize that the strength of theirorganization depends in large measure upon the capacity of workers at alllevels to meet emergent demands and approach change without fear. Inother words, the literature supports the theoretical assumption thatentrepreneurship is all about innovation, opportunities and capitalizing onopportunities. A failure to understand one's own abilities . Equallysignificant, according to these analysts, was the positioning of theentrepreneurial firm or individual in a cultural environment in whichinnovation is not inhibited by excessive regulatory structures or systems.Thus, in practice as well as in theory, culture does matter. In the new economy, theorganizational focus has shifted from capital intensive industries such assteel and automobiles to information intensive industries such asinformation services, financial services, and logistics. Stevenson, M. This set of competencies suggests a somewhat different portrait ofeffective leadership than has been typical in the past. Say, defined anentrepreneur as an individual who shifts economic resources out of an areaof lower and inter an area of higher productivity and greater yield."Drucker (1985) added that entrepreneurship is a distinct feature, whetherit is identified in an individual or an institution. Sloan Management Review,42(1), 49-59. Entrepreneurial management becomes a strategy by means ofwhich both top-down and bottom-up entrepreneurship is encouraged in abusiness entity. New York: PlumeBooks. (2 ). Beverly Hills: Sage. (1991). Dess and Picken (2 )point out that the traditional tools and techniques of management have beendesigned to ensure organizational stability, operational efficiency, andpredictable performance. Finally, given the impetus ofglobalization and the breaking down of barriers that formerly separated anddifferentiated one nation or culture from another, the literature is alsofocusing more than before on the cultural components of entrepreneurship(Hofstede, 198 ). Cook (1997) advances the idea that the very term"entrepreneur" implies success, refers to new products and breakthroughs,quality, and service. New York: John Wiley &Sons. It assesses the relationship between leadership and the resolutionof challenging business issues and places leaders in key spots throughoutthe organization. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice,16, 7-25. Marketing, June 21,18. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 7-22. Shefsky (1994) agreeswith Drucker (1985) that entrepreneurs have an eye on and towardopportunities, but he does suggest that the traits associated withentrepreneurship are important. Goal-oriented behavior (Ensley, et al, 2 ). This is no longerthe case. Organizational entrepreneurs and leaders confront a new set ofmanagement challenges which are the direct result of globalization ofmarkets, the rapid diffusion of information and communication technologies,and the transformation which has shaped a "new economy" that is knowledge-based and service-oriented (Dess & Picken, 2 ). Strategic intent, a capacity for articulating a strategy for opportunity enhancement and response; . A tendency towards emotionalism . This analyst defines the term by breaking itinto its Latin roots: entre, which means "enter"; pre, meaning "before";and neur, which means a nerve center. E. Individuals and firms lacking in thesetraits or behaviors have a weaker EO. Classical economics tend to optimize whatalready exists and to make the case that equilibrium is vital for economicprogress. Developingleaders: How winning companies keep on winning. A favorable external environment - a deregulated economicsystem for example, or a free-trade regime without protectionist tariffpolicies - eases such barriers and encourages entrepreneurial potential. (2 1). Because of this Ensley, et al (2 ), undertook an investigation ofhow entrepreneurial teams function in real-world work situations. Thisincludes, according to Lumpkin and Dess (1996), the methods, practices, anddecision-making styles used to act entrepreneurially. Jackie Schultz(2 1) makes this point, noting that entrepreneurship may very well be morea state of mind than has previously been recognized. However,Steensma, Marino, and Weaver (2 ) also believe that there are somecritical differences between entrepreneurial activities in disparatecultures that shape the very nature of EO itself. The reportwill then conclude with a summary of key themes in the literature. 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