Literature Review

Entrepreneurship in Micro-Business Management: A Literature Review
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Entrepreneurship in Micro-Business Management: A Literature Review
Literature review
Entrepreneurship plays an important role in promoting innovation and most of providing opportunity for self-employment. Through entrepreneurship, small sized businesses are born which not only meet the needs of the consumers but also solve the existing problems. Entrepreneurs come up with new and relatively cheap products that meet the consumer needs. Entrepreneurship makes small sized business more competitive and efficient. Despite the impact of entrepreneurship on an individual level, it has a significant impact on the small sized business sector. The understanding of the concept of the entrepreneurship varies, but all the research in this study concurs that it makes small sized business efficient. According to Welter, (2012 pg. 7) entrepreneurship stresses on the effort, passion, and enthusiasm for the development and implementation of the new concept and innovations.
Entrepreneurship requires the ability to integrate the identification, collection, processing, and analysis of necessary data to make informed decisions that solve real world problems (Welter, 2012 pg. 3). Entrepreneurship can also be defined as an activity that include innovation, creation, and exploitation of the opportunities available with the aim of coming up with a new product, new methods, and new ways of organization. In the past, there have been arguments whether, entrepreneurship is a skill that can be taught or it is a talent.

Over the past few years, there is a consensus that entrepreneurship is a skill that can be taught to students.
Role of Entrepreneurship in Micro-Business (Small Business, Or SME)
Many factors lead to the success of a business in which the entrepreneur has the greatest deterministic factor. The entrepreneur’s knowledge is important in the selection of the best business practices that are available but in the opinion of the people, the personality of the entrepreneur is the most fundamental in all the daily dealings that are done (O’Cass, & Weerawardena, 2009 pg. 1330). Believe and persistence of the entrepreneur are subject matters that are considered in the whole process. The deciding power can be given a great definition of how an individual can apply managerial skills in arranging and trying to rank his or her organization in the right way. Basically, during the start of any business, there should be the evaluation of strengths and weaknesses for them to know how they will apply survival skills all through the task coordination. Self-knowledge that is done through the process of self-analysis can be termed as important. The self-analysis that should be done should have the discipline in it and the individual’s honesties that will lead to a better understanding of the personality of the personal behavior (O’Cass, & Weerawardena, 2009 pg. 1328).
How Entrepreneurship affects businesses
SME development and entrepreneurship are important in all day business activities. They are the so-called lifeblood of most of the individual economies. Almost all the companies all over the world are SME’S that in any case they act, they contribute to their country’s GDP and reduce the instances of unemployment by a large percentage. SME’s act as the base or the origin of innovation. This factor implies that they do act as the starting of the country’s technology development and the advancement of the sustainable solutions and the social development of individuals in the country together with the economic growth (Keh, Nguyen & Ng, 2007 pg. 599).
SME’s provide a great majority of the inputs that result in the yield on income. With no existence of small businesses or small firms, there would not be the effect of the market such that the other firms that are big would not have had competition that would put them on their toes. Giving an example, the Boeing has had its success through the many small firms that exist and carry out the same business as theirs which has made it maintain its standard and achieve its required goals. For growth to be effective and influential, there should exist the development of supplier financing program that acts as a tool that foster growth (Dominguez, et.al, 2010 pg. 279). This tool implies that the smaller firms can join their ideas with the bigger ones to make progress together as a unit organization.
SMEs have on core advantage that they have the ability to invest and have a general specialization in talent areas. They help the large firm’s document and manage other resources that they cannot implement. They are much more flexible and have the change they can influence their customers (Keh, Nguyen & Ng, 2007 pg. 595). Entrepreneurs who use their managerial skills to develop the SMEs are very important persons in the business environment. The most contradicting part is that these individuals are the ones that are ignored most and their effect not felt by the concerned individuals as compared to the working of the larger firms that do exist.
How Entrepreneurship affects small businesses managerial skills
There are some entrepreneurship and business skills and experience that will have a positive influence on innovative entrepreneurship. Innovative entrepreneurship will require management skills and the ability to manage change. Some personal attributes are also critical for innovative entrepreneurship, including the ability to be innovative, being change oriented and visionary leadership (Dominguez, et.al, 2010 pg. 277). The use of advanced knowledge-intensive skills is fundamental in an aim to encourage innovation rather that the skills that every individual has and know how to use. In most cases, the entrepreneurship skills are divided into two platforms that have a relation to the innovation factor. The active component and the absorptive component. The active component involves the entrepreneur’s willingness to drive for innovation while the absorptive component entails the entrepreneur’s ability to welcome and recognize the existence of innovation.
Entrepreneurship is mostly concerned with the strength and ability to appreciate the innovation that is achieved by the other companions in business (Schlosser, 2015 pg. 43). This fact will help in the knowledge of how to start other new venture and drive to the success of business information through the learning of how others are doing the same act. In their organizations. Entrepreneurship and advanced business skills and experience are important to the innovation process, and can be a more important factor than access to financing. For example, research suggests that innovative SMEs in the United Kingdom are more constrained by a lack management skills than by financial constraints, which hinders their development of innovation and high-growth strategies (Keh, Nguyen & Ng, 2007 pg. 603).
The Startup Entrepreneur
The character traits of a startup entrepreneur includes;
1. Passionate
Passion and the love of what is being done should be the important fact that makes and entrepreneur keep going. The list of passionate entrepreneurs is endless, Linda Bennett and Thomas Alva Edison. Thomas had failed more than a thousand times before his inventions worked. It is through his passion and patient that he made an invention that we even still use today and that changed the world. Linda worked her way from the bottom to the top in the fashion industry. Up to the date, Linda still designs most of her brand items and always developing new shoes for her brand despite having a net worth of $235.6 million. We can concur that passion is needed to overcome several factors such as the strength that are applied to work where there is too little pay for the salaries. Also, passion acts as a motivating factor and is not dependent on the gains (Gupta, 2014 pg.15).
2. Resilient
High pain tolerance together with deterministic spirit is needed to achieve the required goals of the business. The willingness to learn from mistakes should be a core factor that help in the decision making and aid in the success of the business sector. Several downfalls should be expected all along the way such that one should understand and has the strength to conquer them and move on (Gupta, 2014 pg. 31). Two examples of entrepreneurs who have been resilient are Donald Trump and Penny Streeter. The two failed in their first business ventures, but that did not stop them from starting business again. Trump is known for his amount of failure, at some point he was declared bankrupt and even had $900 million debts. Not to mention Penny, who was left homeless after her business failed and she was later divorced. The two were determined to be successful that the failures they encountered did not stop them. Withstanding the pain and the outfalls will be the main factor to be considered in the business innovation and management.
3. Self-Possessed
The individual’s self-esteem will have great carrying of the business success. Believe in oneself should be the instance where there is no way in which the swaying of a business innovator is done. Martha Stewart was sent to prison for lying to an investigator. One would assume that she would deteriorate inside the prison or even have a mental breakdown that did not happen. She becomes more successful after the end of the five-month jail term. The same can be said about Madame C. J. Walker. She was the first black American entrepreneur and among the wealthiest women of her time. Identifying the problem of hair, she created a business from homemade remedies for hair loss. The knowledge together with the innovation skills should be put together to achieve much of the business success (Dominguez, et.al, 2010 pg. 281).
4. Decisive
The decision that we make is what count in the end. It is important that the entrepreneur learns how to make an informed decision using the information available. Uncertainty is common among the entrepreneur we the likes of the following question coming up during the startup; who will buy my product? Will the product maintain and attract new customers? In most cases, the data is not available and if it does exist it is not sufficient to accurately predict the future. Many people refer to Bill Gates as a college drop-out that is not true, he identified an opportunity and made the decision that was the result of his success. During a road trip, Charles Kemmons Wilson decided to become hotelier, to improve the quality of the hotel service offered. Thus, it is necessary that entrepreneur embraces uncertainty and learn how to making the decision even under unclear circumstances. According to Gupta, (2014 pg. 9) in most only 9 percent of data is available to an entrepreneur who are supposed to make an informed decision. In case one decide to wait for the data to be available so as to make an informed decision, instead of innovating new idea one will be copying other people ideas.
5. Fearless
Walt Disney second business failed due to the expenses that outweighed the revenue he gained. Learning from his mistake, Walt went to the Hollywood and secured a deal with a distributor. Also, Henry Ford went out for more investors after the business failed due to lack of sales and increasing debt. There is always a possibility of a small sized business failing, instead of running away from the risk of failure entrepreneurs embrace the situation by taking calculated risk. After identification of likely risk, entrepreneur implement mitigation measures to prevent risk from occurring and even reducing the impact of the risk in case it occurs. The ability to identify and mitigate the risk of starting up a business is what makes a smart entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs also learn from other people’s mistake and also learn from the mistakes they make (Dominguez, et.al, 2010 pg. 275).
6. Financially Prepared
After Peter Jones business had failed, he had to move back in with his guardian. Similarly, Penny Streeter was left homeless after her business failed. To avoid these situations it necessary to have a sound financial profile. A sound financial profile does not necessarily means having a lot of money. It is important to note that small sized business takes some months or even years before making a profit. Being able to stay without that monthly income is thus essential else one should quit the current job. In some cases it necessary to work part-time so as to pay the bills before resigning from the current employment (Gupta, 2014 pg. 21; Dominguez, et.al, 2010 pg. 280).
7. Zoom Lens-Equipped
Andrew Carnegie first job was changing spools, later become a messenger. He started investing his hard earned money in Adams Express Company and later in the railway industry. After identifying the opportunity offered by the oil sector, he invested $40,000 by the end of the year he received dividend amounting to $1 million (Sorooshian et.al, 2011 pg. 292). He used his success story to become the best-selling author of his era. The same can be said about Matthew Boulton, who was selling toys, after accumulating wealth through two marriages he started production business. To a successful entrepreneur, it is not enough to have a big vision of the business but all the ability focus on the goals that are attainable at the moment (Ates et.al, 2013 pg. 37). The ability to view the business in these two perspectives is what separates the successful entrepreneur from mediocre. Entrepreneur establishes both short term and long term goals where short term goals are used to accomplish the long-term goals.
Social media marketing as a competitive advantage for SME
Social media platforms have gained popularity and are being regularly used in operations of many businesses, stretching from start-ups and SMEs to large corporations (Bulearca, & Bulearca, 2010 pg. 299). Regardless of the widespread usage of online social media tools, there is limited knowledge on the impact it has had on business development performance. All in all, these online technologies are popularized as tools that are enabling cooperation between businesses in a given trade network (Bulearca, & Bulearca, 2010 pg. 301; Gilmore, Gallagher, & Henry, 2007 pg. 340). Corporations with latest social media technology are outperforming their rivals and recording lower expenditures and improved competencies. It is thus crucial to comprehend the effect of social media on businesses performance.
A resource based perception review on micro-businesses assists in explaining the effect of social media platforms on business performance. The perspective of the resource-based model is that a corporation obtains certain resources (such as labor, technology framework, and social media platforms) that are customized to the business, are exceptional and incapable of being easily imitated by competitors (Gilmore, Gallagher, & Henry, 2007 pg. 237). The specific amalgamation of the resources forms a base on which the company competes effectively. A business resource serves as the basic unit of analysis while on the other hand; a firm’s capability is a repeatable pattern of action in the usage of a resource to offer value to a market (Ekanem, & Erukusin, 2014 pg. 53). Although a business resource is easily obtainable, it is cumbersome to develop capabilities to utilize the resource in a way it has a positive effect on the business. Similarly, while a resource is easily imitable, the capabilities entrenched in a given business corporation cannot be easily transferable (Nakara, Benmoussa, & Jaouen, 2012 pg. 390).
References
Ates, A., Garengo, P., Cocca, P., & Bititci, U. (2013). The development of SME managerial practice for effective performance management. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 20(1), 28-54.
Bulearca, M., & Bulearca, S. (2010). Twitter: a viable marketing tool for SMEs. Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal, 2(4), 296-309.
Dominguez, C., Varajão, J., Morgado, L., Oliveira, I., & Sousa, F. (2010). SME managers’ most important entrepreneurship and business competences. In Enterprise Information Systems (pp. 274-282). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Ekanem, I. U., & Erukusin, K. (2014). The emergence of social media and its impact on SME performance.
Gilmore, A., Gallagher, D., & Henry, S. (2007). E-marketing and SMEs: operational lessons for the future. European Business Review, 19(3), 234-247.
Gupta, A. K. (2014). Characteristics of Entrepreneurs and Their Effect on Entrepreneurial Profitability. Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(4).
Keh, H. T., Nguyen, T. T. M., & Ng, H. P. (2007). The effects of entrepreneurial orientation and marketing information on the performance of SMEs. Journal of business venturing, 22(4), 592-611.
Nakara, W. A., Benmoussa, F. Z., & Jaouen, A. (2012). Entrepreneurship and social media marketing: evidence from French small business. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 16(4), 386-405.
O’Cass, A., & Weerawardena, J. (2009). Examining the role of international entrepreneurship, innovation and international market performance in SME internationalisation. European Journal of Marketing, 43(11/12), 1325-1348.
Schlosser, F. (2015). Identifying and differentiating key employees from owners and other employees in SMEs. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 37-53.
Sorooshian, S., Norzima, Z., Yusof, I., & Rosnah, Y. (2011). Descriptive Framework for Entrepreneur’s Capabilities. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 2(4), 292.
Welter, F. (2012). All you need is trust? A critical review of the trust and entrepreneurship literature. International Small Business Journal, 0266242612439588.