Good Example Of Essay On Commercial, Social, And Sustainable Entrepreneurs Demonstrate A Clear Link Between Personality And Entrepreneurial Activity

Entrepreneurship is a business activity such as the creation and management of a profitable business enterprise, which involves risk. The concept of entrepreneurship is associated with income generation. However, not all entrepreneurial activities necessarily revolve around income and personal gains, as it the case with social and sustainable enterprises that pursue social and environmental agenda. Commercial, social, and sustainable entrepreneurial types have often shared characteristics that constitute a combined entrepreneurial personality whose traits tend to correspond with business activities. The point is that social, sustainable, and commercial entrepreneurial activities have a set of characteristics making up entrepreneurial personalities that are in line with business activities.

Social Entrepreneurship

Personality Features
Leadbetter (1997) stated that the generation of revenue was not the paramount objective of a social entrepreneur. When produced, such revenue should be spent for the benefit of the less privileged or economically handicapped group of people (as cited in Bell and Stellingwerf, 2012). Dees (1998) opined that social mission was considered central and explicit by social entrepreneurs. Dees (1998) held that entrepreneurs must recognize and aggressively utilize new opportunities to serve a social mission, enter upon the path of uninterrupted innovation, adaptation, and learning, act courageously, without restricting oneself to resources currently at disposal, and demonstrate intense accountability for results produced and to the constituencies served (as cited in Bell and Stellingwerf, 2012). Reis (1999) and Thompson (2002) noted that nonprofit companies could elaborate innovative solutions that fetch income (as cited in Austin, Stevenson, and Wei-Skillern, 2012). Volkmann, Tokarski, and Ernst (2012) stated that a propensity for taking risk was one of social entrepreneurs’ personality trait.
Bonte and Jarosh (2010) interpreting Schumpeter (1934) noted that an individual setting up a business venture should be willing to revolutionize and reform (as cited in Volkmann et. al. 2012). Dees (1998) maintained that social entrepreneurs engaged in constant innovation, which makes innovativeness a feature of their versatile business personality (as cited in Volkmann et. al. 2012). According to Dees (1998), the pursuit of new opportunities by social businesspersons make it vital the need for achievement, another integral trait of this category of entrepreneurs (as cited in Volkmann et. al. 2012). Cromie (2000) stated that the people of business have hard times limiting themselves to boundaries and complying with rules (as cited in Volkmann et. al. 2012). Light (2011), and Seanor and Meaton (2007) noted that entrepreneurs required autonomy or independence often acting by themselves (as cited in Volkmann et. al. 2012).
Caballero, Fuchs, and Priale (2013) argued that social entrepreneurs had such chief personality characteristics as appreciation for sustainable practices that imply a balance between social, economic, and environmental interests, the third element being fundamental and the ability of developing social networks and support through the establishment of relationships, whether informal or formal, with people in businesspersons’ environment. Other features are the capacity to produce fiscal returns, innovativeness, and social vision, which is emotional connection of advocating an environmental or social cause believed just and the sense of accountability (Caballero et. al., 2013). Bacq, Hartog, Hoogendoorn, and Lepoutre (2011) stated that the median age of social entrepreneurs was between 35 and 44 years. Based on the above-produced definitions, social entrepreneurs also have such traits as a propensity for taking risk, the need for achievement, non-conformism, and autonomy aspiration.

Entrepreneurs Activities

As far as the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and personality traits goes, according to Social entrepreneurs (n.d.), Hugh Evans aged 22 cofounded the Global Poverty Project back in 2008 in attempts to do away with abject poverty in 25 years’ time. To this end, the entrepreneur arranges large-scale awareness campaigns, such as the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. Jason Aramburu aged 27 utilizes biological char to assist East African farmers with cultivating food in larger quantities and battling climate change. Jake and Simone Bernstein aged 15 and 17 created a website VolunteenNation listing all volunteer-related opportunities for adolescents in St. Louis Missouri, which has thus far enabled 7.500 teenagers to engage in the give-back initiative as well as creating a regional Youth and Family Volunteer Fair (Social entrepreneurs, n.d.). Professor of Business Michael Lenox (2012) cited Husk Power Systems as a social entrepreneurial project committed to the electrification of impoverished rural areas via a sustainable technology.

Activity of Social Entrepreneurs and Personality Traits

Social entrepreneur Hugh Evans guided by such personality features as altruism and willingness to address topical social problems like undernourishment and poverty arranges large-scale awareness campaigns. Jason Aramburu’s bold farming undertaking is a good case in point that demonstrates such traits of social entrepreneurs as social vision in the form of a fight for an environmental and social cause as abundance and climate safety, innovativeness due to the novelty status of the technology used in the initiative, and the need for achievement. Additionally, the initiative has an environmental dimension indicative of such personality feature as appreciation for sustainable practices. Jake and Simone Bernstein, young social entrepreneurs, demonstrate social vision fighting for a noble social cause, sustainable practice appreciation due to the social focus of their initiatives, and the ability of developing social networks and enlisting social support. In the case of Husk Power Systems, sustainability, a fight for a good social cause, and financial returns are indicative of the correlation between the project and social entrepreneurial personality. Overall, age seems to be the only category of combined social entrepreneurs’ personality that does not correspond with their activities since their age ranges from 15 to 30.

Sustainable Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs’ Personality
Crals and Vereek (2005) stated that sustainable entrepreneurship is a balance between the strategic orientation and management of social and environmental aims and considerations and certain fiscal objectives that guide a business aim (as cited in Bell and Stellingwerf, 2012). Kalam and Singh suggested that entrepreneurial sustainability comprised technological, economic, environmental, social, learning, and value aspects (as cited in Batra, 2012). Sustainability is a balance of environmental resilience, social equity, and economic health (Cohen and Winn, 2007). Pascual, Klink, and Grisales (2011) suggested that sustainable entrepreneurship encapsulated an environmental issue and aspired to make a sector environmentally sustainable by meeting a certain ecological aim. Bornstein (2004) stated that sustainable entrepreneurs accomplished the principal objectives of their social counterparts by tackling social issues, producing a certain social impact, and stimulating the accumulation of social wealth (as cited in Bell and Stellingwerf, 2012).
According to Bornstein (2004), the personality of such entrepreneurs includes creativity driven by challenging the current state of affairs, the refusal of surrendering, and the desire to search new opportunities for making the world a better place to live in (as cited in Bell and Stellingwerf, 2012). Venkataraman (1997) and Crals and Vereeck (2005) noted that profit generation was central to sustainable entrepreneurs (as cited in Bell and Stellingwerf, 2012). Sustainable entrepreneurs are concerned with generating jobs for local residents and create a sustainable future-oriented economic activity to keep the region from degenerating (Schlange, 2006). Hence, the multi-dimensional personality of sustainable entrepreneurs includes traits like the accumulation of social wealth, social impact, the solution of social problems, creativity, status quo contesting, the utilization of new opportunities, world improvement, profit orientation, and the no-surrender attitude.

Entrepreneurial Activities

As far as the connection between sustainable entrepreneurs’ personality and activities is concerned, Pascual, Van Klink, and Grisales (2011) suggested that sustainable dance clubs. One of its concept is a sustainable dance floor that transforms clubbers’ dancing movements into electricity powering the club. The project is the combination of fun, cost reduction, and environmental value that solves environmental and social issues as well as employing young professionals, business developers, technicians, and companies. Evening Breeze is an energy effective and quiet system of air conditioning combined with a canopy bed. Qurrent is a platform that provides a unique blend of technologies and services that turns electricity consumers into producers. Thredup is a peer-to-peer web-based service of clothes exchange that seeks to solve the dual problem of limited storage space and unused clothing. O’Foil project is a reference to oscillating foil, a specific sheet that creates a driving force in the water thereby producing propulsion. The benefits are maintenance and production cost reduction, fuel saving, and a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions, noise, and vibration. Finally, climate-cars is a taxicab company that provides corporate clients with environmentally safe services based on a hybrid technology coupled with a carbon stabilizing service (Pascual et al., 2011).

Personality and Entrepreneurial Activities

New projects reflect the chief aspects of sustainable entrepreneurs’ personality since they are innovative in view of the fact that they improve the previously designed products like air conditioners, cars, electricity platforms, and propellers. Sustainable entrepreneurs improve the world making it a more comfortable place to live in, as may be seen in the case of Evening Breeze whose quiet system of air conditioning combined with a canopy bed makes sure system owners have a comfortable and cost-effective sleep. In developing new sustainable projects, they seek to address social issues like the storage and utilization of unused clothing. Since it takes plenty of professionals to assemble new prototypes or innovative developments, it is fair to admit that sustainable entrepreneurs create jobs, which is yet another feature that composes their entrepreneurial personality. However, one of the chief novelties is the environment-friendly or sustainable nature of commercial activities. The projects also generate profit since they are quite an improvement over old less energy and production effective developments, which makes them more marketable.

Commercial Entrepreneurs

Personality Traits
Zadek and Thake (1997) suggested that commercial entrepreneurs prioritized the wealth of stakeholder and personal prosperity (as cited in Austin et al., 2012). It is in their interest to secure economic returns (Rubio, Aragon, and Nuria, n.d.). Austin, Stevenson, and Wei-Skillern (2012) stated that the paramount concern of commercials entrepreneurs was the creation of profitable operations that produce private gains. Commercial market forces do not satisfy social needs. However, it should be borne in mind that commercial business ventures do turn out beneficial to the society due to the generation of jobs, the production of valuable and new commodities and services, and the creation of transformative social effects. Rather than reproducing existing practices or enterprises, commercial businesspersons choose the path of innovation.
Rubio, Aragon, and Nuria (n.d.) also asserted that commercial entrepreneurs recognized the opportunity to create something new or innovate. According to Austin, Stevenson, and Wei-Skillern (2012), commercial markets allow entrepreneurs to offset personnel-related expenses in a competitive way. Commercial business executives are reliant on quantifiable and material performance measures like market share, quality, consumer satisfaction, and financial indicators. Rubio, Aragon, and Nuria (n.d.) claimed that essential for commercial entrepreneurs were also reputation capacities since private enterprises depend on a network of contacts. Meyskens, Robb-Post, Stamp, Carsrud and Reynolds (2010), Reynolds (2011), Shane (2003) stated that commercial entrepreneurs needed to spend significant financial and time resources on their enterprise (as cited in Estrin, Mickiewicz, and Stephan, 2011).
Innovation, personal profit and shareholders’ interest, social benefits in the shape of new products, services, and job creation, the employment of personnel and compensation of maintenance expenses, contact networks, and reliance on financial indicators, customer satisfaction, quality, and market share are the principal characteristics that constitute the image of a commercial entrepreneur. Rubio, Aragon, and Nuria (n.d.) noted that, as with social entrepreneurs, their commercial counterparts are in possession of the industry knowledge since it is there that they need to set up a business venture or accumulate resources. Such essential trait as industry knowledge allows them to identify competitors, consumers, suppliers, and talents they need to recruit. Commercial entrepreneurs tend to be young individuals who have a high rate of business-related self-efficiency, a low ratio of failure, and high opportunity perceptions.

Commercial Activities

Speaking of the relationship between entrepreneurial activities and personality, Apple, Microsoft, and Google are among the topmost commercials brands. Kuntze and Matulich (n.d.) stated that Google offered a wide range of services and products it had developed over the years, such as image, web, and product searches, online translations, blogs, and document sharing that allow the company to remain in the vanguard of information services and technologies. Microsoft Corporation (2013) suggested that the company had developed a good number of computing services like Microsoft Office 365, Xbox LIVE service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Skype, Bing, Yammer, and the Azure. Daniel Fund Ethics Initiative (n.d.) stated that Apple Inc. expanded into new lines of product in the field of electronic industry in 2001, the year that the company presented iPod, which was a musical player that changed the very foundation of the music industry. The introduction of jukebox-type software iTunes allowing the management of song libraries was also a fundamental technological innovation, as was iTunes Store launched two years thereafter. Product quality is what defines the Apple brand.

Personality and Commercial Activities

The founders of all companies were visionaries in their own right developing new products that revolutionized and improved people’s lives; they hire and maintain large staff since these are international companies; they have and act in their shareholders’ interests; they try their best to keep customer satisfied. More importantly, as is known, Bill Gates has vowed to give half of his fortune for charity, which shows that social benefit is an important part of commercial entrepreneurs’ personality. Competing to retain their market share through the securing of brand quality, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were young at a time when they established their ventures. All of these had a high self-efficiency in terms of business and a zero rate of failures since their respective companies are now flourishing commercially.

Conclusions

Social entrepreneurs are altruists who seek profits the least of all being concerned with addressing vital social needs. They are no strangers to innovation, risk taking, adaptation, opportunity utilizing, and learning. As far as sustainable entrepreneurs go, they aspire after the accumulation of social wealth, social impact, the solution of social problems, creativity, status quo contesting, the utilization of new opportunities, world improvement, profit orientation, and the no-surrender attitude. In the case of commercial entrepreneurs, they prioritize private gains rather than public good; still, social benefit manifests itself in new jobs and products improving consumers’ lives and making the world a better place, as with social and sustainable businesspersons. The activities and projects of social, sustainable, and commercial entrepreneurs almost completely correspond with the principal features of their respective personalities.

References

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