Individual Entrepreneurial Essay

Essay Topic: Graduates with an entrepreneurial mind and skill-set enable the creation of new business and development of existing business, all of which are critical to social and economic well-being in our modern society.

Introduction

The establishment of new business disciplines and simultaneous development existing businesses are essential for the purpose of expansion of commercial activities within any incumbent market scenario. Such activities, in the long term, contribute critically in the social and economic progression of the concurrent societies. To this effect, the corresponding essay would be discussing about concept that entrepreneurial minded graduates with particular skill sets could contribute to the development of entrepreneurial ventures which could invigorate and provide the progressive impetus to existing market economies. The essay would be structured in three individual segments with the first being the introduction section where the brief outline and content of the subsequent sections of the essay would be delineated. Next, the key points of arguments and theoretical approaches pertaining to the core concept related to the research essay would be delved into through the discussion and debate section. Finally, at the conclusive segment, a brief summary of the entire discussion of the essay would be highlighted with critical reflection to the efficacy of the study which could be managed so far.

Discussion and debate

Research perspectives

Nabi andLiñán(2011)have noted that throughout the years of pre-university education,the graduate students generally have to experience multiplicity of levels of cultural changes and the outcomes of such changes could be comprehended as the vision for future career which could be generated by the individual thoughts and motivational inclinations of such students towards their preferred professional orientation in future. This concept has been observed by McKeown et al(2006)to be the point from which the personality and individual characteristics traits based propensity to undertake entrepreneurship ventures by graduate students could emerge. Pittawayand Cope(2007)have observed that University based programs/ studies in entrepreneurship have remained mostly a separate stream of commercial educational discipline from that of the mainstream subjects, however, such entrepreneurial programs have fascinated the graduate students who have preferred to undertake entrepreneurship education as their stepping stone towards a vibrant career.

Nature of Graduate Entrepreneurship

Greene and Saridakis(2007)had brought forth the research which was conducted through the duration of 2016-2018 across 25 different urban entrepreneurial ecosystems by the Churchill Fellowship Grant regarding determination of the strategic priority of entrepreneurial mind-set fostering amongst the graduate student population within the UK. The outcomes of such a research undertaking, along with the observations of Rudolf Dömötör, the current MD of the WU Entrepreneurship Centre as well as the initiator of the Entrepreneurship Avenue, have emphasised that entrepreneurship is part of a particular mind-set which transcends the curriculum based courses bordered on the subject of entrepreneurial literacy.

Thus, Mitra, Abubakar and Sagagi(2011)have been off the opinion that students could decide that commencement of any business entrepreneurial venture could be not in their benefits or they could have misgivings regarding the timing of such an entrepreneurship. However, the exposure which such entrepreneurial minded graduates could obtain through the interaction with the entrepreneurial curricula based subjects hosted at the various Universities or at Post Graduation course levels, could define the accuracy of entrepreneurial orientation based benefits against other career paths such as becoming bankers, lawyers or consultants. According to Lourenço, Taylor and Taylor(2013), the core essentials for any graduate entrepreneur are resilience and adaptability to existing financial conditions. Furthermore, broad sightedness and courage of taking risks are also significant traits in this context.

Personality traits of graduate entrepreneurs

Sewelland Dacre Pool (2010)have been of the opinion that for the graduate entrepreneurial minded students, it becomes necessary to evaluate their inherent entrepreneurial features through which, distinguishing the factors which, could influence entrepreneurial behaviour, could be achieved. Beyhan andFindik (2018)have determined a cursory estimate of various entrepreneurial features which could be found within the graduate students or personnel who have such mind-sets.Two of the most significant features in this context are social acceptance and individual personality traits of the entrepreneurial minded graduates/university students.

Birchet al(2017)have been off the opinion that such personality traits are mostly characteristics which are both enduring and predictable and such factors could explain the differences within the individual actions which such entrepreneurial personnel could execute under similarity of circumstances. The sub-factors which influence the extent of such personality traits are comprehended as exclusivity, implicit and subjective nature of personal knowledge, experiences and perceptions concerning the various situations and business opportunities which such personnel could come across. Heet al(2016)have been off the opinion that personality traits and their social acceptance are primarily the facilitators for entrepreneurial minded graduates regarding risk taking. The graduates are required to be rationalistic and should have an extensive urge for acquisition and utilisation of knowledge pertaining to their fields of career so as to establish themselves as effective entrepreneurs with the correct sets of business and visionary skills.

In this context,Potter(2015)has specified that economic theories could only partially define the value of such entrepreneurial minded graduates within the UK regarding their contribution to the greater economic health retention of the current and future societies in the long term through innovative business venture development and also, through expansion of the horizons of existing businesses. However, the actual potential for the student or graduate entrepreneurs has been delineated byScott, Penalunaand Thompson (2016) in the measure of intersection of innovative and entrepreneurial approaches and thinking in relation to particular industrial and services sectors such as core technology sectors or social service sectors as well.

Examples of gradual entrepreneurial initiatives

The research of Faggian, Modrego and McCann (2019) has outlined two particular examples regarding the innovative thought and approach intersection based realisation of entrepreneurial potential. The first one is the VenutreKick which is currently based at Switzerland and is a provider of pre-speed capital to the various educational institutions at the country previously mentioned. The second one has been the in-university organisation of Demola which currently supports various students at the Tempere University of Applied Sciences in terms of facilitation of their projects through co-creation methods and consultancy services to the companies which hire such students as employees regarding particular business disciplines.

The investors have also taken cognisance of such entrepreneurial trends and greater capital investment has been taking place in recent years in the student graduate ventures. In the international context as well, the most notable funds in this context have been First Round and Rough Draft Ventures at the USA.Such funds have demonstrated a particularly robust mechanism towards garnering investment in more than 200 different companies which had been founded by graduate entrepreneurs.

According to Eesley(2016), the evaluation of global economic history could clarify that academic institutions have primarily played the part of establishing the rules which have shaped financial structural interaction between various commercial disciplines. The various economic and socio-cultural issues which exist could be influenced by the innovation based particular business efforts which the entrepreneurially minded are capable off. Moseset al(2016)have emphasised on the factor of knowledge capital being the foremost determinantfactor in the entirety of current economic systems in terms of the competitive advantage gaining in the business sectors. This knowledge capital could be further complemented by the entrepreneurship capital which is demonstrated by the activities and initiatives of mostly the graduate or post-graduate entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial capacity demonstration by such graduate and post-graduate students to engage in innovative business activities is crucial for the progression of any entrepreneurial economy.

Role of graduate entrepreneurs is financial and social developments

Thus, the newly graduated entrepreneurial personnel could explore and utilise the scenarios generated by entrepreneurial venture based economies, such as the one at the UK. This culminates into the promotion of new entrepreneurial phenomena and establishment of new business opportunities which could not have been realised previously. To this effect, the entrepreneurial students of University levels generally serve as the conduits of efforts of new business performance which contributes to the economic and social developments. The educational backgrounds and institutional affiliations of such students could further reinforce the propagation of financial and social developments through various teaching and research endeavours as well as entrepreneurial actions oriented towards convincing greater numbers of students to take up innovative business ventures as their preferred career progression paths in future rather than other conventional occupational options. Guerrero, Cunningham and Urbano(2015) have also opined that graduate entrepreneurs contribute to the establishment of effective links in between research and education through productive and creative means. Such a contribution entails generation of new alternatives within the existing business scenario and such alternatives could lead to new opportunities of entrepreneurial ventures. Thus, this is a cyclical process which greatly contributes to the encouragement of economic diversification of the GDP growth process within any social and financial scenario.

Socio-economic factors influencing the graduate entrepreneurial initiatives

As per the observations of Bridgstock and Cunningham(2016), the graduate entrepreneurs are characterised by the socio-financial adaptation to the changes in economic environments. Such changes could be exemplified as increasing decentralisation and segmentation of the existing economic systems. Other poignant factors are new activity based development of entrepreneurial approaches at every business level and distinctive nature of the organisational governance and managerial structures. The sum total of such entrepreneurial approaches is the formulation of new ventures of commercial activities. Another outcome is the commercialisation of knowledge and skill-sets as well.

From an academic perspective, application of the parameters of the Personality Trait Model could be effective to build better understanding concerning the influence of the factors such as status and social acceptance of different skill sets of graduate entrepreneurs.

The social networks of a potential entrepreneur are the most significant influents in terms of determining the extent to which the dual factors demonstrated in the above mentioned Figure 1 could influence the decisions of any such entrepreneur. Such factors also devise the substantial shifts in the entrepreneurial ventures which could characterise the future innovations and new business development postures in such endeavours.

According toHalkias et al(2016), the element of entrepreneurial status within the overall structure of the PTM could be categorised in two distinct manners. The initial one is the status of individual achievement by the graduate entrepreneurs which also delineates the extent of appropriate skill sets which could be in possession of such personnel. This highlights the earned social status by the entrepreneurs through personal achievements. The second one is the placement of any entrepreneur to a higher social podium through the system of social stratification regarding the inherited identity credentials of such personnel. This second form of status could be termed as ascribed status. Apart from these, the elements of credited and attributed status outline the birth lineage based and particular identity or ethnic lineage based social positions of various personnel. The core point regarding such argument could be highlighted as the linkage between the social acceptance measures and those of the status of any entrepreneur since the raising of the status could directly correlate to the improvement of social acceptance.

Particular theoretical observations

Furthermore, the Endogenous Theory Of Economic Growth(ETEG) has been suggestive of the notion that sustaining a positive rate of growth within any economy is incumbent upon the increment in per capita output of the production systems which would have to be served by consistent technological and knowledge based advances. These processes could lead to the emergence of new products and markets. Davey, Hannon and Penaluna(2016) have linked such theoretical approaches with the notion that graduate entrepreneurs operate on the knowledge based external and independent variable which defies the endogenous concept of economic growth. Thus, theETEG does not imply the changes which take place at both the production systems and at the technology utilisation measures through start-up business discipline based entrepreneurship practices primarily promoted by the graduates and post-graduates (Hayter, 2016). The reason is that such innovative business practices cannot be readily explained by the factors of input of labour and capital. This has culminated in the development of Exogenous Economic Growth Theory which propagates the notion of technology and the mechanisms applied to utilise technological innovations as exogenous variables which profoundly influence the conditions of economic productions.

One benefit of graduate entrepreneurship is comprehensible in the measure of scaffolding of student initiated start-ups through punitive equity stakes by the universities/academic institutions. This practice is meant to incentivise follow up investments through changes in existing commercialisation models. The graduate entrepreneurs have to fulfil their service commitments to their academic institutions/universities for the purpose of job creation in the localities. This is a cyclical process which also clears the pathways of progression regarding future entrepreneurs, both on the national and international levels. The core principles are mostly transferable in this context.

Conclusion

At the conclusive stage,Kucelet al(2016) have observed that every one out of 7 companies at UK is established by the entrepreneurial minded students who had either been citizens of UK or would have arrived from any of the 155 different countries from where students arrive at the UK for educational purposes. The advent of Brexit has not diminished the legacy of entrepreneurial opportunities spawned at the Universities at UK. Thus, the next extent of global financial transformation through entrepreneurial start-ups could be supported by the academic institutions through incentivising the ambitious international graduate entrepreneurs.

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Reference List

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