Characteristics of Entrepreneurship

From the definition above, entrepreneurship displays the following characteristics.

1. Systematic activity. Entrepreneurship is not a mysterious gift or a matter of chance. It is a systematic, step-by-step and purposeful activity with definite temperamental, skill and knowledge requirements that can be acquired, learnt and developed — through formal education and vocational training as well as through observation and work experience. This is what dispels the myth that entrepreneurs are born rather than made.
2. Lawful and purposeful activity. The object of entrepreneurship is lawful business. One cannot legitimise unlawful actions as entrepreneurship merely on the ground that both involve risk. The purpose of entrepreneurship is the creation of value for personal profit and social gain.
3. Innovation. Entrepreneurship is creative because it involves the creation of value. Innovation may be cost-saving, revenue-enhancing or both; and even when it does neither it is still welcome, because innovation must become a habit. It shows up in the introduction of new products, the discovery of new markets and sources of supply, technological breakthroughs and newer organisational forms for doing things better, cheaper and faster. Entrepreneurs in developing countries may not always introduce path-breaking innovations of their own — they may be the first or second adopters of technologies developed elsewhere — but adapting a technology to a new setting is itself challenging, and there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
4. Organisation of production. Production requires the combined use of diverse factors of production — land, labour, capital and technology. The entrepreneur, responding to a perceived business opportunity, mobilises these resources into a productive enterprise. The entrepreneur need not own any of these resources; it is enough to have the idea and to convince the resource providers and funding institutions, so that with the capital arranged, contracts can be entered into for the supply of equipment, materials, utilities and technology. Organisation of production also involves developing the product, developing the market and even developing the sources of supply of the required inputs. …