technological entrepreneurship: success factors as perceived by potential young entrepreneurs
TRANSCRIPT
Technological Entrepreneurship: Success Factors as Perceived by
Potential Young Entrepreneurs
Cosmin-Mihai Nacu1, a *, Silvia Avasilcăi2,b 1 Technical University “Gheorghe Asachi” of Iasi-Romania, Department of Engineering and
Management, Blvd. Mangeron, No. 29, 70050, Iasi, Romania
2 Technical University “Gheorghe Asachi” of Iasi-Romania, Department of Engineering and
Management, Blvd. Mangeron, No. 29, 70050, Iasi, Romania
Keywords: entrepreneur, technology, innovation, resources, capabilities.
Abstract. This research paper aims to develop and empirically test a theoretical model, positing
relationships among entrepreneur, technology and resources. The methodology used involved a
quantitative approach, by means of a questionnaire based survey on a sample of undergraduate
management and engineering students across five Romanian faculties. The results were based on
structural equation modeling analysis. Results provide strong support for the proposition that the
success of a good business idea strongly depends on some factors, including the capabilities of an
entrepreneur, the technology used to implement the idea and the necessary resources. The paper
demonstrates that the success of an idea in technological entrepreneurship, based on the potential
young entrepreneurs’ point of view is influenced by the characteristics of the young entrepreneur, by
his capabilities and his knowledge. The success is also influenced in some proportions by the
innovation of technology, its development and globalization. The third category of the success
factors is resources, which includes temporal resources, material resources, financial resources and
informational resources. The conclusion of this research is that the most important factor for a
successful business idea is the entrepreneur.
Introduction
A business idea is successful if it becomes a profitable business venture. But to reach that stage
there are some steps need to be undertaken and the path is influenced by numerous factors.
The research focuses on a successful business idea in technological entrepreneurship, which is
influenced also by the personal and professional characteristics of a young (potential) entrepreneur.
So, the first class of influence factors is represented by the skills and abilities of the entrepreneur,
which are: vision, creativity, industry knowledge, perseverance and determination, charisma and
persuasion, positive thinking, passion for your own business, trust in people and attitude.
The second class of influence factors that was used in this research is the technology, which is very
topical and very present in every business activity, this category of factors being composed of the
innovativeness of the business idea, business/technology development potential, technology
globalization and required public infrastructure.
The third category of factors that influence the success of a business idea is represented by the
necessary resources, composed of temporal resources, physical resources, informational resources,
financial resources and human resources.
This paper aims to measure the importance of these various factors which influences the journey
from business idea in technological entrepreneurship domain to business venture using a proposed
mathematical model.
Advanced Materials Research Vol. 837 (2014) pp 639-644Online available since 2013/Nov/08 at www.scientific.net© (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerlanddoi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.837.639
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Conceptualization of the influence factors
This paper studies three classes of this kind of factors, namely the entrepreneur, the technology and
the resources. For the current research there have been used the abbreviations for the classes of
influence factors, as follows: ‘A’ for ‘Entrepreneur’, ‘T’ for ‘Technology’ and ‘R’ for ‘Resources’.
The first class of influence factors, the ‘Entrepreneur’, abbreviated with ‘A’, consists of the
necessary abilities and skills of an entrepreneur to identify a business opportunity, to create a
business idea, to develop it and to materialize it.
We are in a high tech era, in continuous development and in every domain of activity, the
technology is present, is needed and very often used. So, the technology is very important for the
creation of a business venture and for the proper development of every activity.
But to begin a business, to implement a good business idea, there is need for resources, a lot of
kinds of resources, from time and a good time management to financial support.
From entrepreneurship to technological entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurship has been
defined first time in history, in 1803, as the joining of all factors of production [1], after that as
addressing uncertainty in 1921 [2], as exploring opportunities in 1973 [3], also as the path from idea
to opportunity and success in business in 2011[4].
All who tried to define entrepreneurship are having something in common: the risk. From this
affirmation results that development of a new business idea in technological domain, along with risk
taking, defines the technological entrepreneurship.
The technological entrepreneurship was characterized in many ways and at different levels of
analysis, such as a system [5, 6], as a policy [7, 8, 9, 10] or as an individual attitude [11, 12].
The development of a new business idea in technology, along with risk taking, defines the
technological entrepreneurship.
The young (potential) entrepreneur and his competences. The person who organizes a business
venture and assumes the risk for it is called entrepreneur. This individual needs some competences
to achieve this goal and for this study it has been used a number of nine entrepreneurial
competences (Table 1.) of a young (potential) entrepreneur. These competences are considered the
most important and those with the most pronounced mark on the success of a business idea [4].
Factor found in the literature as one of the qualities of a successful entrepreneur is vision (A1). It is
very difficult to define this factor, because in essence represents to see what others do not see, at
least not yet. Entrepreneurs need to develop a vision and determine ways to combine previously
unidentified component to take advantage of perceived business opportunity [13, 14].
Another factor considered to be as important as the vision is creativity (A2). Creativity and
innovation are very closely related; in some cases, in the business environment, innovation may be
regarded as an applied creativity. Thus, technological strategy involves a commitment of the
company to acquire, develop and launch technology [15].
It is said that it is paramount for an entrepreneur to know the field of activity in which wishes to
open a business. And this knowledge of the industry (A3) refers to the knowledge, the know-how
and the experience in the respective field of activity.
For the idea of an entrepreneur to be successful, the entrepreneur must have perseverance and
determination (A4). Giving up is much easier than risking and trying out, so to create something
requires a combination of many traits, including the discipline and perseverance to transform new
ideas into product" [16]. Entrepreneurs by definition are people very motivated and with a very
good self-control. Thus, motivation, desire and determination play a very important role in
achieving success [17].
Influence factor noted (A5) is represented by the charisma and persuasion. Having a great business
idea or being a charismatic visionary leader is "telling time"; building a company that can prosper is
"clock building" [18]. Also, one of the nine most important entrepreneurial competences is
persuasion – “Entrepreneurs influence other people to follow them or do something for them” [19].
Positive thinking (A6) is a factor with a special influence over the decisions that adopts an
entrepreneur in the process of developing an idea. The beliefs of a young (potential) entrepreneur
640 Modern Technologies in Industrial Engineering
and the energies flowing around are having a prominent effect on the evolution of business ideas to
its success.
Another factor of influence on the ideas of business success is the passion for their own business
(A7). This passion is beneficial first and foremost those who are at the first start-up and to
implement the first idea, because passion is a pretty good motivation to have the courage to begin
the adventure. Passion was identified as a key factor influencing venture capitalists investment
decisions [20].
Trust in people (A8) is also a factor that puts mark on the success of a business idea of
technological environment. "You can't achieve a sustainable entrepreneurship and scalable without
you was based on a very simple and clear concept, called the delegation" [4].
Table 1 Competences of a young (potential) entrepreneur (A)
Notation Influence factors
A1 Vision
A2 Creativity
A3 Industry knowledge
A4 Perseverance and determination
A5 Charisma and persuasion
A6 Positive thinking
A7 Passion for your own business
A8 Trust in people
A9 Attitude
Attitude (A9) is the latest, but not the latter factor of the new list of category of personal and
professional characteristics of a young (potential) entrepreneur. A person is suitable if he has the
right attitude and takes action.
Technology. The technology is everywhere, in every house, in every business environment, it
became a way of life and because of that is needed in implementing any business idea. There are
four technologies used in this research (Table 2).
The first influence factor from this class of factors is noted with ‘T1’ and represents the
innovativeness of the business idea. The innovativeness is very important for the success of a
business idea. It is defined as a ‘willingness to change’ [21] and for Midgley and Dowling,
innovativeness is a form of ‘innate personality trait’ [22].
The factor ‘T2’, the business/technology development potential, has its own proportion of influence
on the success of a business venture.
The technology globalization is noted in the questionnaire with ‘T3’. There is so much ideology
surrounding this notion, and its implications, that it is essential to characterize globalization
precisely, and then determine its extent and evolution in empirical terms [23].
For the implementation of every business idea it is needed one or more kinds of infrastructures, like
the Internet infrastructure or roads and highways. These are included in the influence factor named
‘the required public infrastructure’, noted with T4.
Table 2 Second class of influence factors: technologies (T)
Notation Influence factors
T1 The innovativeness of the business idea
T2 The business/technology development potential
T3 The technology globalization
T4 The required public infrastructure
Advanced Materials Research Vol. 837 641
Resources. Having the required technology and the capabilities of the entrepreneur is not enough
for an idea to become a productive business environment. There is need of resources (Table 3) to
begin the journey to success. Directly deriving from the above definition of entrepreneurship, a
specific skill would appear to be particularly important: that of making use of resources that are
outside the entrepreneur’s control [24, 25], since entrepreneurial behavior implies pursuing
opportunities regardless of the resources under control.
Temporal resources (R1) involve the planning and evolution of the idea of success. Always, your
time is precious, so precious that "time is money". This is fair enough, because if it appears
disturbances in a technological process, they would have repercussions on profit in the end.
Physical resources (R2) represent resources that materialize a business idea. So, for a technology
business idea to reach to be successful, you need resources such as machinery, equipment, and
more.
Information resources (R3) are very precious, especially if they contribute and lead to a successful
business idea.
Financial resources (R4) are those that often make the difference between an idea and a successful
idea.
Human resources (R5) are not more important than free others factors in category of resources.
These resources are irreplaceable and at the same time the most unpredictable and risky.
Table 3 Third class of influence factors (R): Resources necessary for the implementation of the
business idea
Notation Influence factors
R1 Temporal resources
R2 Natural resources
R3 Informational resources
R4 Financial resources
R5 Human resources
Research methodology
In this research paper it is proposed a conceptual model which can tell if a business idea from the
technological entrepreneurship domain is successful of not. The conceptual model is represented by
a polynomial equation, Eq. 1.
R+X*T+X*A=f(x) 2 (1)
‘A’ represents the mean of the grades, given by the potential entrepreneurs for the influence factors
noted ‘A1’ to ‘A9’ – the personal and professional competences of an entrepreneur.
‘T’ represents the mean of the grades obtained for the appreciation of the technology’s importance
for the business success.
The equation factor noted with ‘R’ represents the mean of the grades given by the potential
entrepreneurs for the importance of the resources in the implementation of a business idea.
The order of the equation factors, namely ‘A’, ‘T’ and ‘R’, is not random. It is determined according
to the percentage given to the importance of each class of influence factors.
The equation factor named ‘X’ represent a composite factor, a key factor, which shows if a business
idea is successful or not. After the implementation of this research methodology it will be
established a range for the ‘X’ factor. If a result will be part of this range, than the initial business
idea will be successful.
642 Modern Technologies in Industrial Engineering
For the quantitative research it has been used a sample of 101 subjects, which answered to all 18
questions from the questionnaire.
At first it is needed a business idea from the technological entrepreneurship domain. After it has
been chosen, it is necessary to search for technologies that can be proper for the idea to be
implemented.
After there are calculated the factors of the polynomial equation, these are been replaced into the
initial equation, as in Eq. 2.
4.87+X*3.72+X*3.82=f(x) 2 (2)
Knowing the factors of the polynomial equation, it can be calculated the determinant, noted with ∆
Eq. 3.
-60.774.87*3.82*4-3.72^2 ==∆ (3)
After this stage there can be determined the solutions of this equation Eq. 4.
0114808332
7760.*.
.*
.*=x1,2 i
i±−=
−−±27.3- (4)
Conclusions
From this equation results that the solutions of the polynomial equation, for a proposed business
idea to be successful, it has to be between -0.48 and 1.01. The range of values guarantees the
success of the business idea from the technological entrepreneurship domain, from the young
potential entrepreneurs’ point of view.
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Modern Technologies in Industrial Engineering 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.837 Technological Entrepreneurship: Success Factors as Perceived by Potential Young Entrepreneurs 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.837.639
DOI References
[7] G. Zhang, P. Xuebing, J. Li, Technological entrepreneurship and policy environment: A case of China,
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 15(4), (2008) 733-751.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14626000810917834