Entrepreneurship concepts and applications

Entrepreneurship as it Relates to Organisational Behaviour

Generally, when organisational behaviour is examined, the entrepreneur is not consulted. In other words, people interview managers and do research on employees, but these same researchers do not stop to think about the entrepreneurs that have worked to build businesses and therefore helped to build this country. There have also been very few studies done on entrepreneurs specifically as that category of business relates to organisational behaviour. Because of this, looking at the entrepreneur and how he or she handles the behaviour in an organisation is something that should be done in order to determine whether there are differences between the way an entrepreneur handles the organisation and the way that other employees justify or modify their behaviour to fit in with what the company rules state or what their employer feels is appropriate.

Aims and Objectives -- There are specific aims and objectives for this research that need to be listed here, so that the reader will have a better understanding of where the research is going and what the researcher hopes to find out during the course of the study.

Aims

To determine whether entrepreneurs feel differently about organisational behaviour and human resources than those that work for them.

To determine whether these feelings come into play of the actions of these same entrepreneurs.

Objectives

Utilizing other studies done on the same or similar issues in order to determine what has been done on this subject in the past.

Taking the information from the older studies and using it to look at what has not been studied or where there are weaknesses in the literature that can be found.

Singling out behaviours that are specific to entrepreneurs that might not be the same as the behaviours of employees.

Determining whether these behaviours have any effect, either positive or negative, on human resources or overall organisational behaviour.

Theories and Concepts -- The main theory behind this research is the belief of the researcher that entrepreneurs do act differently from standard employees, and that these entrepreneurs may either help or hinder their businesses based on the actions that they take which affect either their human resource abilities or their overall organisational behaviour. Spin-off companies that stem from academia are becoming very common today, and one of the reasons behind this is the strong desire for new products and services (Astley, 1985). There is a great demand for new and different items, and there is also an apparently endless supply of these things thanks to the abilities of human beings and technology (Astley, 1985). This is one of the main ways that entrepreneurs create businesses, and because of their academic knowledge and way of life, they may utilize their human resource departments differently and they may also look at organisational behaviour somewhat differently. These issues are very important for the overall health of the businesses that these entrepreneurs operate, and because of this it is an issue that must be more thoroughly analyzed and discussed, since the literature on the specific subject right now is rather weak.

Chapter Two - Review of Related Literature

Since the literature on this specific subject is relatively weak, the literature review, at least this smaller review for the proposal, will focus on the way that most entrepreneurs come into their businesses - through the spin-off of a company from the academic work done by individuals. This is a very significant way for these people to create new products and technology as well as new businesses, and because of their academic background these individuals may have different ideas about human resources and organisational behaviour. This is what the researcher seeks to explore.

The demand for new technology is growing rapidly in many fields and there is such a strong technological revolution occurring now that it appears this demand will continue and possibly increase in the future (Astley, 1985). Naturally, not everyone believes this to be a good idea, and there are arguments made all of the time that technology is actually making people's lives more difficult and harder to handle (Astley, 1985). They are often busier than they were before all of this technology came to pass and they find that they have more to do and less time in which to do it than they did before all of the technological advances were created (Astley, 1985). However, those that work at universities know that they must continue to produce new things or they could lose respect, grant money, and other things that they have become accustomed to (Astley, 1985). There are various different types of academic entrepreneurship and all of them are important (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). There are individual attitudes and characteristics which relate to many of them and they are also good predictors of how well these things will do in the long run (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Some of these have to do with supplemental income while others look toward commercialization and taking an active and strong role in that (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Many of the policies that universities have do not have much to say about entrepreneurship and therefore most go ahead with it without a problem (Capron & Meeusen, 2000).

Within the literature on management and organisations there is a growing consensus that entrepreneurship is very significant in having an effective organisation (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Innovation and invention are also linked very strongly to entrepreneurship and it has been argued that this is also related to how much productivity can be expected (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Much of this has to do with the supply and demand issue as productivity is important to individuals who are looking to supply the needs of others and it is also important when looking at whether there is actually a demand for particular product (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). How competitive the corporate sector actually is within the world economy also has to do with entrepreneurship and there is a strong link between the two (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Part of this has to do with the fact that entrepreneurship seeks to revitalize many of the traditional organisations and therefore it has a strong social importance (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Considered to be one of the forms of strategic management strategies utilized, entrepreneurial organisations are often based on a very rapid commercialization of new creations and inventions and therefore they work toward a higher performance level in various industries that have operating environments that are somewhat uncertain (Capron & Meeusen, 2000).

Because the relationship between the performance of the organisation and the entrepreneurship issue is so important it has not been limited strictly to the private sector but has also been discussed within the context of education (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Academic entrepreneurship is generally designed to increase the institutional or individual profit, prestige, or influence through developing and then marketing various research ideas or products that were based on that research (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Generally, universities are not seen as being leaders when it comes to entrepreneurship (Capron & Meeusen, 2000). Individual attitudes and characteristics are often emphasized by organisational psychologists as being a strong source of entrepreneurship (Brockhaus, 1982). It is true that the motivation to achieve something does have a very strong predictive power but studies that have been done regarding academics also indicate that there are other individual attributes which may play a role (Brockhaus, 1982). One of the things that may be considered to be important for this issue is past success in research as is generally measured by how many research publications an individual has created (Brockhaus, 1982). The gender of an individual as well as his or her age may also be seen as being related to how willing these individuals are to supply products that individuals may demand (Brockhaus, 1982).

Some studies show that women are less likely to become entrepreneurs because they tend to be somewhat less productive in the arena of creating new things and having a strong concern for supplying items to the public (Zahra, Neubaum, & Huse, 2000). Instead, they might be more interested in the tenure and other items that they can receive (Zahra, Neubaum, & Huse, 2000). The attitude of an individual towards the marketplace and towards education can also play a strong part in whether they are interested in working toward entrepreneurship or in remaining with the university (Zahra, Neubaum, & Huse, 2000). Whether this entrepreneurship has any type of cultural support is also another line of speculation for many individuals (Etzkowitz, 2003). It appears that the local culture of an area is much more important for these individuals than the social values that are much more broad (European Commission, 1998; Dorfman, 1983; Henrekson & Rosenberg, 2000; Freeman, 1986; Zucker, Darby & Brewer, 1998; Woo, Wilard, & Dallenback, 1992). This particular point has been strongly supported by other individuals and appears to be consistent with many of the organisational studies that have been done in the past (European Commission, 1998; Dorfman, 1983; Henrekson & Rosenberg, 2000; Freeman, 1986; Zucker, Darby & Brewer, 1998; Woo, Wilard, & Dallenback, 1992). It appears that workgroups have a strong impact on the behaviour of the individuals within them as the workgroup sees a strong demand for something in the marketplace and works toward supplying it (Zahra, Nielsen & Bogner, 1999). It is quite likely that others in their workgroup will all go along with this issue even if many of them have not considered entrepreneurship before (Zahra, Nielsen & Bogner, 1999). There are very high levels of interest in academic entrepreneurship but there appears to be little data on the nature of it within universities (Bresnahan, Gambardella, & Saxenian, 2001). Some of this may have to do with the fact that it is often kept quiet until it is determined for certain whether an individual at a particular university is going to make an attempt at entrepreneurship and whether the demand for particular product is actually there (Bresnahan, Gambardella, & Saxenian, 2001).

Chapter Three - Methodology

Research Approach and Methods -- As for the approach to the research and the methods that are used, the literature review will be used to some extent, largely for background and understanding of how entrepreneurs come about and what is generally most important to them. However, the only way to truly understand entrepreneurship and the human resource and organisational behaviour that comes with it is to study entrepreneurs in the real world. This has to be done through the use of interviews, surveys, and questionnaires, which will be utilized extensively. Some of these can be conducted face-to-face or over the phone, but in order to get a larger picture of the issue, surveys or questionnaires will also have to be mailed.