ARM402 :: Lecture 11 :: ENTREPRENEURIAL ENVIRONMENT
                  
				
Learning Outcome
- To study different segments of entrepreneurial environment
 - To analyse the environment
 
Introduction
- Entrepreneurship environment refers to the various facets within which enterprises- big, medium, small and other have to operate. The environment therefore, influences the enterprise. By and large, an environment created by political, social, economic, national, legal forces, etc influences entrepreneurship.
 - Entrepreneurial environment is broadly classified into six important segments, namely, (1) Political environment, (2) Economic environment, (3) Social environment, (4) Technological environment, (5) Legal environment, and (6) Cultural environment
 
Environment
- Political-Political Atmosphere, Quality of Leadership
 - Economic-Economic Policies, Labour, Trade, Tariffs, Incentives, Subsidies
 - Social-Consumer, Labour, Attitudes, Opinions, Motives
 - Technological-Competition And Risk, Efficiency, Productivity, Profitability
 - Legal-Rules, Regulations
 - Cultural-Structure, Aspirations And Values
 
Private  Enterprise and Development  
                    The  existence of uncertainty in the economic call for the attention of  entrepreneurs to play a leading role in the growth process. 
                    Individual  entrepreneurs such as farmers and small businessmen and individual enterprises  such as manufacturing, construction, transport, and wholesale enterprises and  collective farms continually face risks. Whether they are privately or publicly  owned, they must take account of uncertainty. Private entrepreneurs and the  managers of private enterprises take risk, despite the heavy costs of failure  because of the possibility of high profits or large bonuses. In any case, they  must run their business efficiently if they are to make a profit and survive. 
                    The  problem usually arises because major industrial decisions, which will affect  the lives of thousands of ordinary people, are taken without proper planning  and without public consultation. The result is that environmental activists  have no choice but to fight a rear-guard action. This often gives the  impression that environmental activists are against all growth and industry. In  fact, they are more than conscious of the need for a balanced approach to  growth and industry. All they say is that industrial decisions ought to be  taken after considering the impact on environment and also that the public has  a right to know all details. 
                    Environmental  activists have repeatedly pointed out the havoc caused by some of our  petrochemical, heavy chemical, dyestuff and other polluting industries, as also  the environmental damage caused by large-scale open mining, quarrying and  deforestation, which will take decades to reverse. For their dogged  determination, these environments deserve our gratitude. 
                    At  the same time, it is now clear that technology has advanced significantly to  allow efficient use of resources. Worldwide, industry has become conscious of  the need to use renewable resources as far as possible and utilize  non-renewable resources within planned limits. With potential development  taking place in the industry, we should learn from past incidences of  industrial disasters leading environmental disaster and ensure further growth,  consistent with environmental protection. 
                    In contrast, the  managers of public enterprises (whether directly or indirectly state-owned or  collectively-owned) tend to be risk averters. Indeed, risk-aversion is  usually, and perhaps inevitably, the emphasis of public service training. 
                    Entrepreneurs and  managers of these enterprises must be offered incentives to boost their  efficiency and take risks. In this case, devising appropriate incentives become  imperative. A variety of possible measures- some positive, such as bonuses for  managers, and some negative, such as budget and operational controls- can be  used in the public sector; even so, the problem often remain intractable. 
                    If  an economy is made up of a large number of entrepreneurial units, risks can be spread  among them. Even though some enterprises may fail, others will be successful  and the economy as a whole can grow rapidly. When inefficient units do not have  access to subsidies or to other public assistance, they must improve their  competitive position or disappear.
                    Such  failures need not be excessively costly because the economy’s expansion creates  job and income earning opportunity for entrepreneurs and employees of falling  enterprises. Some of these may be in “informal” or small-scale activities and  may not be counted in the formal employment sector. Nonetheless, they provide  gainful employment. 
                    Unfortunately,  experience shows that private enterprises have to compete to survive. In most  countries public enterprises are protected from failure by implicit or explicit  subsidies. Public enterprises are often expected to create employment opportunities  for political reasons. But allowing public enterprises to operate inefficiently  will mean very heavy costs in the long run. It affects not only a country’s  ability to produce efficiently but also its capacity to save and invest for future  production. 
Entrepreneurial  Urge  
                    Entrepreneurship is the creative ‘elan’ of  industrial development, which for historical reasons is feeble in backward  areas. It is not feasible to expect entrepreneurial urge among people who live  in poverty, illiteracy and ignorance. Conceptualization of entrepreneurship in terms of self-confidence, optimism,  achievement motivation and other such attributes constituting the variable,  residual non-marketed services receiving the residual profit income as payment  (Kilby) does not have any meaning in backward areas; because these qualities  themselves need a minimum of economic well-being below which the hard  preoccupations with the basic needs of life leave no room for critical  reflection and initiative necessary for any enterprise. Entrepreneurial  qualities are born of an environment through individuals’ creative response to  potential opportunities. 
                    An  entrepreneur needs a clear perception of economic opportunities and the  investment capacity to pursue these opportunities. In backward areas where the  basic struggle for existence is so tough, per capita income so low and where  illiteracy or low level of education prevents access to business information or  ideas, there is neither perception of opportunities nor the capacity to exploit  these opportunities. Not only the environment is timid without brisk activities  or aggressive ideas but also men are too deprived to have an urge to know and  grow. When we think of the capacity to participate in the development process,  into the cosmetic growth of the soil by outsiders’ investment and outsiders’  profit. No effort will be successful to convert such people into entrepreneurs  unless we realize the basic symbiotic nature of entrepreneurship so  inextricably integrated with their total life-situation and environment.  Therefore, in developing an environment and changing the life-situation, we  take the first step to develop entrepreneurship.
Significance of Entrepreneurial Environment  
                    A study of  socio-political and economic environment has a great social and economic  significance to the growth of entrepreneurship. Modern business is treated as a  social and economic institution and is affected by the political, social and  economic forces. The political environment, industrial policy, licensing  policy, foreign exchange regulations, backing policy, technological development  and social change form the framework within which an enterprise has to work. It  is for these reasons that all business plans must be based on the immediate  environment. An entrepreneurial plan cannot be framed and finalized for its  implementation without its relevance to the political, social, economical and  technological requirements. In fact, it is environment, which regulates  entrepreneurial activities. Business environment has a positive relationship  with the development of entrepreneurship. 
Infrastructural Network  
                    It has been argued  that the development of industries be preceded by development of agriculture  which introduces certain economic changes that culminate in industrial  activities. “A developed mass agriculture is normally needed before you can  have widespread successful development in other sectors” (Michael Lipton: Why  Poor People Stay Poor?). But we cannot, perhaps, wait that long till “developed  agriculture sector provides wage goods and savings capacity” needed to support  rapid industrialization. If agricultural development does not create savings  for indictments on certain selected nucleus industries, leading to a number of  ancillary and other related industrial units. This method has gained wide  acceptance. But before such nucleus industries are set up in backward areas,  necessary infrastructural facilities lead to a development is the real  development area utilise the available skills and capacities of a large number  of small artisans or farmers. Otherwise, the entrepreneurial opportunities  thrown up by such nucleus industries will be exploited by affluent  entrepreneurs from outside who have the capacity to invest. It has been seen that  entrepreneurs from developed areas have normally gravitated towards these  backward areas, which are contiguous to developed business centers with a view  to availing themselves of the incentives and concessions. But such enterprises  have not created any economic impact on the people of the backward areas  except, perhaps, creating some negligible employment avenues. 
                    It, is therefore, very  important to ensure that the infrastructure facilities created to pave the way  for nucleus industries are extended to cover vast multitude of small artisans  or farmers whose products can be processed in the nucleus industries. “An  integrated infrastructural programme geared to the needs of small-holder farms  and small-scale enterprises is the best means of promoting both types of  productive activity”. (J. Muller: Promotion of the Manufacture of Rural  Implements in the United Republic of Tanzania). For example, if there are a  number of small dairy farmers, a central refrigeration plant can serve all the  farmers in the area by an active network of communication. As a result, each  farmers in the benefit of an assured market and an enhanced income. 
                    If a large number of  farmers are producing soyabean, a central Soya oil processing unit would serve  as ideal nucleus plant. Such a step would not only integrate agricultural  development with industrial development, it would also bring about a pervasive  growth of both. On the other hand its ancillaries would also bring about a  pervasive growth of both. On the other hand, if a unit manufacturing some  sophisticated machinery is the nucleus plant, its ancillaries would also need  the precision or sophistication which will not be possible to achieve its in  the capabilities of the target-beneficiary group whom we ant to develop through  the development of backward areas. “As Paul Streeten has said, “Industry should  produce consumer goods required by the people, the majority of whom live in the  countryside, hose and simple power-tillers and bicycles, not air conditioners  or expensive cars and equipment’s.
                    Much  of the recent criticism of inefficient, high cost industrialization behind  high walls of protection and quantitative restriction should be directed at the  types of product and technique which cater for a highly unequal income  distribution and reflect entrenched vested interests” (Paul Streeten: “Industrialization  in a United Development Strategy,” World Development, January, 1975). Actually  the production of simple goods depends on the character and potential of a  particular backward areas; and the essential infrastructure so development that  it would be capable of sustaining active linkages between the subsidiary units  in the villages and the central unit. 
Environmental Analysis  
                  This integrated approach, which is the key  to the development of backward areas, implies a very careful environment  analysis or research study of the target groups of beneficiaries; their  activities can be linked with the covering enterprise. Unless these studies are  made meticulously, the entire planning will only give unproductive results.  Most of the development schemes fail to benefit the target clientele because  elaborate linkages are not identified and built up. An imaginative study should
- Identify the beneficiaries or target group
 - Analyse the environment for immediate feasible enterprises in an integrated manner;
 - Delineate the linkage and institutional arrangement;
 - Recommend appropriate organizational structures to provide necessary promotional support.
 
Unfortunately, in most  of the studies on backward areas, there is a tendency to make generalization  and ignore the details of really feasible project. As a result, immediate  perception of concrete opportunities by interested entrepreneurs is left in  confusion. Sometimes “Area Studies” make a general statement of demand and  resources and recommend certain enterprises, which are not immediately feasible  due to important reasons unaccounted for in such studies. It is also not  seriously contemplated whether the recommended enterprises are feasible within the  capabilities and investment capacity of the target-group. In short, most of the  studies fail to discern the real issues of growth in the target area and fail  to identify the concrete and specific needs of these endowments like resource,  skill etc. to flourish enunciation of general objectives and generic  beneficiaries tend to blur the distinct contours of one homogeneous group from  the other.
                  Also,  the extension of certain standard facilities or services does not serve their  actual needs. All this possibly happens because in such basic studies, we fail  to identify clearly the target-group and their specific problems, and make  theoretical studies on resources and demand in an impersonal manner, as a  result of which even the schemes devised on the basic of such studies tend to  become too impersonal and rigid. 
                  Sometimes, the chemise become so  inflexible on account of a standardized petrified approach that in some most  genuine cases demanding a certain departure from the fixed framework, the  scheme is incapable of giving requisite help. It is, therefore, absolutely  necessary that any action plan for a backward area must first identify the  target-group, identify the specific services they need for monitoring their  enterprises and devise an appropriate, structural support for comprehensive  coverage of their needs. 
“The characteristics of entrepreneurship are knowledge, vision, meticulous planning, drive, dynamism, hard work, gambler’s instinct and may be, a certain degree of ruthlessness for achieving results as per the plan.”
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