Innovation And Entrepreneurship

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1. Introduction

The twenty-first century leaves space to an entrepreneurial age. In the current globalized economic framework; where information and communication race as fast as technology and science flourishes; entrepreneurs are powerful visionaries, seeking for innovation to rule an industry they’re themselves shaping. However, this incessant growth can be a concern for non-innovative leaders.

Thus, to understand how entities – including individuals, companies and governments – pursue the pathway of innovative entrepreneurship, this essay will go through three sections. This paper will start with the history and meaning of the terms entrepreneurship and Innovation. Which will then lead to the creative destruction of innovation. Finally, the governments funding for new entrepreneurs within the new economy will be analyzed.

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2. History and meaning of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

“Entrepreneurship” is an economic and scientific term that has been studied and explored for more than two centuries. In 1759, Richard Cantillon was the first economist using the term “entrepreneur” to describe a risk-taking specialist. In other words, audacity and adventurousness are famous attributes of entrepreneur’s actions within literature. According to Steve Jobs, entrepreneurs must believe in their own undiscovered success before reaching it. Entrepreneurship is not only a spiritual inner-journey grouping goal and self-challenge; it is also an exploration of enigmatic and obscure valleys of subjective minds. Entrepreneurs follow astonishing explorations, walking from erstwhile to the state-of-the-art. Entrepreneurship can be learned, it is a profession desire-guided. Conclusively, an entrepreneur is an opportunist, ambitious and determined; an opportunities hunter, who uses efforts, capital and efficiency to commercialize new ideas, confronting risks of competitive markets (Kuratko. D. F., 2010).

The recent globalized world is constantly growing and crave for continual modernization. As individuals act accordingly with their own generation, entrepreneurs need to answer the “Y and X generations” technologically and scientifically-captivated expectations; such as renewable energy, environmental protection, healthcare, transport or digital services improvements. Entrepreneurs are usually seen as self-employed laborer; individuals with a pronounced taste for independence. However, the term “entrepreneur” can also describe an entrepreneurial mind-set and behaviour within an existing firm. Some managers and individual employees throughout a company are engaging in entrepreneurially-oriented actions (Gündoğd. M. Ç., 2012). These employees, driven by creativity and innovation, obtain profit and growth. They engage in what is called “corporate entrepreneurship”, a way for corporations to reach a higher level of financial and non-financial accomplishments and to diversify, which develops competitive advantages. To survive and blossom in the worldwide war for power and talent, corporations must seek for uninterrupted innovation. As corporate entrepreneurship efficiently uses human abilities within the organization, it is a path to take to drive this innovation.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) gives a clear definition of innovation as a way to reconstruct or realize products and services by adapting them to the current technology. However, innovation’s definition can be interpreted in diverse ways: be subjective and broad. Innovation is a dreamy concept letting creation, exploration and imagination being the pioneers of a glorious future. As Kuratko (2010) suggests, the twenty-first century leaves space to an entrepreneurial age, where visionaries rule a world they’re themselves designing. Innovation can be reached in different ways. Firstly, it can be about completing non-exhausted resources. Innovation is then, like a Scrabble: it is about using an existing word, adding a single letter, and get credit for the whole word at the end; the whole word plus entrepreneur’s one letter (Reiss. A., 1964). Therefore, improving things that already exist is a way to innovate. Secondly, innovation can be about creating brand-new, original and unique things. Innovation has metaphorically been compared with a window; as a window represents an opportunity: an individual can always see a breakthrough idea behind the curtains of an untaken window (Drucker. P., 2014). Therefore, As Brown (1992) contend, not having the sight isn’t synonym of non-existence, innovation requires faith. As corporate entrepreneurship has faith in innovation, it is its driver. However, can a corporate driver circulate without passengers? Do entrepreneurship and innovation can both live independently or do they need each other to survive?

3. The creative destruction of innovation

How do innovative entrepreneurs such as Thomas A. Edison, Alexander G. Bell, Steve Jobs or Walt Disney kept such a relationship with innovation? As Drucker (2014) points out, there is no mathematical difference between the glass is half full and the glass is half empty, yet, their meaning is different from the perception they represent: this is where the major innovative opportunities are. As seen earlier, an entrepreneur who innovates can: create new things, or, find a new way of doing things that already exist. To put it in another way, innovation isn’t a spontaneous consequence, it is driven by entrepreneurship (Schumpeter, 1934). Therefore, entrepreneurs spot opportunities and use their own creativity to exploit them and reach innovation (Burns. P., 2016). The entrepreneurial ability to conceive and inspire is shown when entrepreneurs use it as their most essential tool. Innovation is a resource and a discipline, it is crucial that entrepreneurs learn, manage and practice it. Admittedly, innovation is the imperative utensil for entrepreneur’s business wealth. However, entrepreneurs are also the individuals permitting innovation to flourish. Innovation and entrepreneurship are dependent, they must co-exist or both die (Lowe. E & Marriott. S., 2007).

No company ever survived without innovation. No matter the scale of their present triumph, lead and inspire isn’t the arduous task entrepreneurs needs to overcome; they cannot allow themselves to be satisfied with their today’s success, as it is never satisfactory enough for the success of tomorrow (Baumol. W. J., 1968). Schumpeter (1934) used the term creative destruction to describe the either change or die cycle of innovation. From the printing press, the paper currency, steel, electric light, antibiotics to cars, aeroplanes and ships, innovation history met many spikes that hit the world’s economy and render older products aged and useless. Afterwards, new breakthrough products are imitated by thousands of other competitors. To that is to say that even the first innovator of a creative product must constantly innovate, or his profit will decrease. Using the image of an entrepreneur as a captain, his company is his ship and his employees are seamen; they must be competent floating the ship on the evolving economical ocean. Only owning the ship isn’t enough for the entrepreneur to prevent the ship to adrift. His seamen must be suited for corporate entrepreneurship, he, himself, must be an innovating captain, and only then, they’ll be together able to navigate through a continuous innovative journey (Gündoğdu, M. Ç., 2012).

Corporation’s abilities in one era becomes disabilities in the next era. Legitimately, innovation is obligatory for the health of any organization, however, great innovation only occurs when entrepreneurs get to the next curve: as an example, innovating from the telephone to smartphones. According to Nokia’s website, the company is “driven by the potential of the Future X network, determined to connect the world through collaboration and ongoing innovation across Nokia and beyond”. However, despite the appearance, the company failed to innovate. Up to seven years ago, Nokia was the world’s biggest manufacturer of mobiles phones, not to mention their monumental customer base. Still, the corporation didn’t anticipate that such a new technological discovery would carry a bloody and cruel competition within the mobile phone’s market. The company couldn’t get to the next curve of smartphones quickly enough and has been overtaken by Samsung and Apple in 2012. From 2007 to 2017, Nokia net income went from €7,205 to €-1,494 million. Many corporations that continually declined like Nokia, such as Blockbuster, Polaroid, Toys R Us or Kodak, couldn’t make their products evolve through the next curve and finally died. When innovation can be an amazing tool for entrepreneurs, it can also be an issue. Some companies struggle fighting the future. Conclusively, entrepreneurs must follow the movement of the new economy and become new entrepreneurs.

4. Funding the New Entrepreneurship in a New Economy

The new entrepreneur shall hunt innovation at any cost to be able to create a smart business that could grow into different curves. This transition would be seen, as a metamorphosis; an evolution of entrepreneurship. Using the information and communication technologies to magnify his resources, the new entrepreneur should cultivate the new economic framework he lives in, where everything changes very rapidly, as a growing potential to raise. As an example, he must be able to market his ideas as fast as communication and advertising goes on social media. The new entrepreneur, innovation-oriented is open-minded, dynamically adapts himself and carefully enhance global change. To meet the needs of the new economy, this entrepreneur must understand the needs of the new customers, constantly and progressively craving for revolutionary ideas. As the new entrepreneurship is waiting for an economy that never waits, corporations such as governments and companies decided to invest in entrepreneurship, and in the future of innovative entrepreneurs.

To eradicate the lack of entrepreneur’s creativity, some consultancy companies in innovation such as PA or Innovation Company raised. They explain seeing a lack of innovation in most companies. Incapable of doing more than fixing problems, these corporations fail to follow the briskly growing innovative business world. Indeed, accorded to PA’s ‘Innovation Matters” Report (2019), 24% of organizations think they entirely completed the higher level of innovation their products or services could reach; 37% made minimal or zero efforts improving innovation, and 50% of firm’s employees believe their leader have neither the passion or the vision to efficiently use the innovation’s tool. Consequently, 88% of the 500 most fortunate firms in 1955 disappeared (Goh. F., 2019). As Andersson (2000) undertakes, ideas circulate through businesses with the envy to imitate successful effigies. By copying business and organizational models of other Start-Ups, SMEs and big corporations, many companies are not innovative at all. They should bear in mind that future is not something that happen but something they have the power to shape.

Innovating entrepreneurship is a major source of new employment, creates demand, add pressure to existing markets and therefore, reduces prices and increases quality of products and services. As a result, with the aim of the National Endowment for Science (NESTA) company, the UK government has invested £300 million in innovation. With their slogan “we bring bold ideas to life to change the world for good”, NESTA works to invest in the long-term most promising innovative ideas in the UK. They strongly believe this investment is essential for the UK to maintain their place in the worldwide competitive market and directly contribute to the prosperity of economic, social and citizen’s well-being. According to the European Commission Report in Research and Innovation, Europe’s investments in innovation permitted entrepreneurs to create new technologies to reduce emissions and the rise of the sea-level; they improved biometric security systems, conceived new materials for new batteries or built a machine to print meals, helping people with chewing difficulties. As Figure 1 shows, Europe’s budget in innovation is colossal as they plan on having a budget of €78,6 billion in 2020. As Innovation and entrepreneurship increasingly takes a central place in economies, corporations might maximize quality of companies’ work instead of quantity; and, therefore, change the ideal goals of companies’ leaders: the entrepreneurs, prospectively seeking for innovation.

5. Conclusion

Entrepreneurs, as leaders or entrepreneurial employees; are audacious and risk-taking individuals, exploring the ambiguous valleys of their own minds while practising. As innovation is the imperative tool and driver of entrepreneurs; creation, exploration and imagination are the pioneers of their glorious future. Moreover, innovation needs to be driven by entrepreneurs to be approachable to all, and, therefore, flourish. Conclusively, the co-existence of entrepreneurship and innovation is crucial for their survival. In the current open-market economy, technology and science daily progress and enhance the globalized information and communication’s rapidity. This new economy must be reinforced by new entrepreneurs: aware and able to cultivate as a constant opportunity the rapidly-changing framework they live in. To do so, entities such as individuals, companies and governments are investing in innovative entrepreneurship: they pursue the pathway of these new entrepreneurs by investing in qualitative and not quantitative businesses.

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