Entrepreneurship and Innovation - Free Essay Example

Today, about 12.5% of the world population is in self employment.   One thing that is common among this population is their dream to become entrepreneurs and realize their dream of being self employed (Veeraraghavan, V., 2009).   The entrepreneurial dream that drives them is the freedom that allows them to start a business and to work towards its growth and expansion.   Many of the millionaires around the world have time and again explained how they build their business empires through this way.   Who then is an entrepreneur?   An entrepreneur is defined as that person who has the dream, ability of building as well as developing their own business (Morris, M. H. et al, 2010).   The fact is that entrepreneurship is a risky business affair – what with starting a business from scratch with limited resources.   In other words, entrepreneurship is basically starting a business from the ground with the hope that it will develop and grow successfully.   In as much as there is quite a big risk involved in becoming an entrepreneur, it is however rewarding as regards personal endeavor.   If there is anything that other people can do, it is to admire the determination and the hard work that entrepreneurs put into achieving their dreams.   For an entrepreneur to succeed, he/she must display the willingness required to prosper within the risks involved at both financial and personal levels and also go beyond to beat all odds so that they work in the entrepreneur’s favor.  Ã‚   Apart from hard work, other driving forces that entrepreneurs posses are perseverance and commitment at all levels of the business.   They only look at the end result being a winning situation.   Instead of dwelling on mistakes with regret and a sense of giving up, entrepreneurs use the mistakes as learning ground to make them better and more polished.   Despite the ups and downs that come their way, entrepreneurs have a strong belief in themselves and very co nfident on what they have set to do (Cie?lik, J. (2017). Innovation on the other hand refers to applying better solutions directed at meeting new requirements or needs (market or unarticulated needs).   Innovation results in efficiency of products, services, business models, technology and processes which already exist in the market and society in general including governments. If we are to achieve competitiveness in the enterprise, sustainable innovation is a condition (Leal-Millà ¡n, A. et al, 2018).   Through innovation, it is possible to increase competition in the production of goods and services for maximum profit.   However, practical experience in the area of innovation lacks which makes development of innovation to occur in a slow rate especially in developing countries.   This is because research has always taken a back seat when it came to public research institutions.   There is a glaring disconnect between institutions of higher learning, business enterprises as well as financial institutions.   Innovation is a pr ocess – from how an idea inception upto and including the end result.   It involves production, its exchanges and finally the consumption of the end product.   For innovation to be complete, a combination and integration of entrepreneurship, education, science, economics, technology and lastly management is required (Garcia, D. H et al, 2017).   That is to say, innovation requires collective and combined effort for it to succeed.   Just like in entrepreneurship, development of innovation requires motivation combined with commitment towards its development and management.   According to Colombelli, A. et al (2016), innovation companies should be at the forefront in allocating the requisite resources for the development of new products as well as marketing.