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Entrepreneurial abilities as a factor in the development of a company. Psychological characteristics of a Russian entrepreneur

Introduction_______________________________________________1

1.1.Economic nature

entrepreneurship_______________________3

1.2.Goals and motives of entrepreneurial activity________________________________9

1.3. Socio-economic evolution of entrepreneurship_________________________________12

2. Entrepreneurship as an economic category.

2.1.Entrepreneurship as a factor of production______________________________14

2.2.Entrepreneurial ability and entrepreneurial income__________________21

2.3.Organizational and legal forms of entrepreneurship_________________________________24

3.Entrepreneurial potential of Russia____30

Conclusion______________________________34

List of used literature___________37

Introduction.

Entrepreneurship is one of the most important components of the modern economy. In market economy countries, entrepreneurship has become widespread and constitutes the overwhelming majority among all forms of organizations. Over the past ten years, millions of entrepreneurs and owners have appeared in Russia. In connection with privatization, only a part of organizations and enterprises remained in the hands of the state, while the rest went into private ownership. The main part of Russian entrepreneurship is small and medium-sized businesses. The main task of an entrepreneur is to manage the enterprise, which includes the rational use of resources, organizing the process on an innovative basis and economic risk, as well as responsibility for the final results of its activities.

The social nature of entrepreneurship means not only the activities of the agents participating in it, but also the presence in the social economy of certain conditions that make it possible to realize the functional characteristics inherent in entrepreneurship. The totality of such conditions constitutes the business environment, the most important elements of which are economic freedom and personal interest. Economic freedom is a defining feature of the business environment. For an entrepreneur, having economic freedom is not only the opportunity to engage in one type of activity or another and have equal access to resources and markets, but also the moral and ethical sanction of entrepreneurial activity. Personal interest is the driving motive of entrepreneurship, therefore, providing conditions for appropriating the results obtained, extracting and accumulating income is a determining condition for the business environment.

The transition to a market economic system is a transition to an entrepreneurial type economy. Creating conditions for the development of entrepreneurship is the most important component of transformational changes in a transition economy. In this regard, identifying the essential features and patterns of entrepreneurship development is extremely important.

1.1.The economic nature of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is the subject of study in many disciplines. Hence the multiplicity of its interpretations and definitions. The essence of entrepreneurship as an economic category is determined by its nature and characteristics as a specific type of economic behavior, the ability of business entities to respond to a potential source of benefit.

Entrepreneurship is an initiative activity associated with economic risk and aimed at finding the best ways to use resources, carried out with the aim of generating income and increasing property.

By its economic nature, entrepreneurship is inextricably linked with the market economy and is its product. As a property of economic activity, it externally manifests itself in the desire to extract additional benefits in the exchange process. Meanwhile, exchange in itself is not yet a source of entrepreneurship. It becomes such when it turns into an integral part of a single economic turnover, and production for exchange becomes the determining function of economic entities. Commodity production is historically and genetically the starting point of entrepreneurship. Exchange, firstly, stimulates the search for new opportunities, i.e. initiative. Secondly, it is in the process of exchange that the entrepreneur sees a source of possible benefit, which is both a motive and an assessment of the success of the initiative he has undertaken. Thirdly, when faced with similar people in the process of exchange, the entrepreneur perceives his activity as competitive. Fourthly, as a mechanism for satisfying social needs, exchange determines the social nature of entrepreneurial activity.

The economic nature of entrepreneurship is characterized through its characteristics: initiative, commercial risk and responsibility, combination of production factors, innovation.

Entrepreneurship is an initiative activity. The constant desire to search for something new, be it the production of new goods or the development of new markets, in a word, the search for new opportunities for profit, is a distinctive feature of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial initiative is the desire to realize the opportunities provided by the process of market exchange itself, which is carried out for the mutual benefit of the participants in this process. Entrepreneurship should not be associated with deception and violence, but with extracting profits by satisfying social needs - with the “spirit of non-violent acquisition.”

Although initiative is a property of human nature, its manifestation as a functional sign of entrepreneurial activity is due to the very nature of the market economy. When initiating his endeavors, any entrepreneur undoubtedly relies on the possession of certain advantages that give him confidence in success. Such advantages can be derived from the market environment itself, for example due to information asymmetries. Persons who have more information receive certain advantages, which gives rise to initiative as a desire to use it for their own benefit.

Initiative requires a certain amount of economic freedom. When the level of regulation of business activity is too high, initiative activity decreases, resulting in business stagnation. In this sense, creating conditions for enhancing initiative among business entities is the key task of the transition to entrepreneurship.

However, information asymmetry also creates a certain uncertainty in the activities of an entrepreneur. Uncertainty arises both due to purely market properties - changes in market conditions, prices and consumer preferences, and due to the specifics of entrepreneurship, expressed primarily in the unpredictable reaction of the market to proposed solutions. Thus, the entire reality surrounding the entrepreneur is presented in the form of uncertainty beyond his control, which gives rise to commercial risk.

Although risk is an organic component of entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurship itself is not associated with risk-taking. The entrepreneur's focus on addressing market uncertainty and his own benefit is a decisive factor in his decision-making. It is not human qualities in the form of a propensity to take reckless risks, but the expected reward that forces the entrepreneur to take risks. Therefore, the amount of risk he takes directly depends on the likely increase in income.

Commercial risk differs from risk in general in that it is based on sober calculation and consideration of possible negative consequences. The desire for success here is always balanced by economic responsibility. The economic responsibility that accompanies risk confronts the entrepreneur with the task of mastering and managing risk. And if the entrepreneur is not able to eliminate market uncertainty, then it is quite possible for him to reduce the risk. The most well-known mechanism for reducing risk is insurance, which allows you to transform the risk into insignificant additional costs. The problem, however, is that the innovative nature of business activity makes it extremely difficult to reliably assess the probable risk, thereby narrowing the possibilities for using insurance specifically in the field of business. Entrepreneurial initiative, on the contrary, involves the creation of new, previously unheard-of situations, the probable outcome of which is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to assess. Consequently, the possibilities for insuring entrepreneurial activities are reduced. Another way to reduce risk is to share it with other stakeholders. Meanwhile, while helping to reduce risk (possible losses for an individual participant), this method undermines entrepreneurial motivation, since entrepreneurial income will be divided among the participants of the enterprise.

The contradiction that arises between the motivated desire for risk and the desire to reduce the degree of risk can be resolved by creating a risk management system . In its most general form, such a system should include:

Identification of sources of risk and consequences of activities under risk conditions;

Adaptive measures to overcome possible negative consequences.

Risk as a property of entrepreneurial activity characterizes not only the specifics of entrepreneurship. It also has general economic significance. The presence of risk forces an entrepreneur to scrupulously analyze possible alternatives, choosing the best and most promising of them, which leads to progressive shifts in the productive forces and an increase in the efficiency of social production. On the other hand, the presence of risk in business activity requires the application of certain restrictions and regulations in relation to it.

Being a businessman is the dream of many, however, not everyone succeeds in reality. Often the obstacle is not even the lack of capital, education or useful connections, but something else, something that cannot be purchased with money or inherited - entrepreneurial ability. What is it and why does this factor have such a strong impact on the ability to be a successful businessman?

Building a business

At one time, when our country was undergoing historical changes in both the political and economic structure, many tried to become entrepreneurs. Successful businessmen of that time can now boast billions of dollars in accounts in foreign banks and oligarch status, confirmed by influential rating publications, but huge numbers of failed businessmen found themselves on the sidelines of the country's business elite.

Organizing an enterprise (industrial or commercial - it doesn’t matter) is a simple matter in words only; in real life, success depends on many components. Before a person decides to invest his own, or even borrowed, capital in a risky business, he should think about whether the risk is justified and whether he will be able to make a profit - the ultimate goal of any businessman. The entrepreneurial ability of a particular person determines the ability to compare risks with opportunities, as well as the ability to lose in case of failure (after all, this happens even to the most successful and competent businessmen).

From expectation to reality

Why do some manage to build a business from scratch, while others work all their lives and burn out, having more opportunities for this? The expectation of quick profit is a good motivator for hard work, and for some it is a real generator of ideas. It is hardly possible to judge in advance how successful they will be. It often happens that even venerable economists and forecasters predict a great future for a business, but in reality it is not worth a dime. On the contrary, cheap business projects, invented by amateurs in the great world of commerce, end up being sold for many millions.

If you dig deeper, then at the helm of any successful enterprise there is always a person with a specific character and set of qualities. The creator and founder of a business can be anyone, but it is more often led by someone who has the ability to do business. This is one of the most important conditions for running a high-quality commercial project, along with a number of other factors.

Factors of production

Economists predict the success of a business if certain conditions are involved in its organization. First of all, the organization of an enterprise is impossible without the possession of natural resources, which are otherwise called objects of labor. That is, before you start producing something, you need to have raw materials for processing or processing.

The next important factor is capital. In other words, these are the means by which the production of goods is carried out. Capital can be personal or borrowed; another source of obtaining resources for business activities is investment.

However, having the subject and means of labor, it is also necessary to have someone who will actually work - labor power. This is the notorious human factor, which can be both a guarantor of future wealth for the employer and his eternal problem and headache. From time immemorial, economists simply called human resources labor, but recently, business scientists are increasingly distinguishing between labor and entrepreneurial ability as separate factors of production. In generally accepted textbooks on macro- and microeconomics, these two concepts are part of a single factor called “human resource”.

Controversial point

This point of view gives rise to much debate. Some experts argue that a person, expressing his entrepreneurial abilities in production, works in principle, and therefore it is simply impossible, investing his mental reserves, talents and knowledge, not to work. Their opponents tend to defend the opposite point of view, proving their arguments by saying that everyone works, but not everyone achieves success.

Nevertheless, the need to distinguish one type of labor from another is obvious. No one will argue with the fact that there is purely mechanical work that does not require either dedication or additional knowledge from the staff. At the same time, even among the hired personnel there are people who do more than their job description requires of them. They are the ones who develop and implement innovative ideas, and that is why their work and entrepreneurial ability are so valuable, pushing them to new achievements.

To each his own

An excellent illustration of how talent for business helps bring a brilliant idea to life is the story of the creator of the global Internet community Facebook. This historical fact is quite truthfully described in the now cult film “The Social Network”.

Its main character is Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard University. A talented programmer, in an emotional frenzy he created a program that calibrates the fair sex according to the principle of popularity based on ratings from users of the local network of the educational institution. The idea received an unprecedented response and resonance, and the young genius himself came up with the idea of creating a global Internet project. However, it was a casual acquaintance, Sean Parkert, who had remarkable entrepreneurial skills, who managed to bring the social network to a new, global level.

Managerial talents

What virtues should a person have so that he can not only bring an idea to life, but also stay afloat in the future? Economists give a fairly clear definition of the concept of entrepreneurial ability. This is a set of human qualities that guarantee the ability and ability to make responsible, informed decisions, each of which will be aimed at optimizing possible risks associated with business activities and making a profit.

Thus, to succeed, a businessman needs: determination, rationality, responsibility, hard work, communication skills, and openness to new things. A very important skill is planning, and in order to be able to foresee, a manager needs to see the situation in his enterprise from all sides, he is obliged to delve into the slightest nuances of the activities of his organization, as well as monitor what is happening “overboard”.

Is it possible to develop entrepreneurial skills?

Many people are probably interested in the question: “Does it happen that such a factor as entrepreneurial ability appears in a person over the years? Is it possible to learn to be successful?” It is difficult to answer this unambiguously. Anyone can learn to play the piano, but their level of skill may vary. Some will only be able to play along with the school ensemble in dances and dances, while others will shine on the world stage. The result directly depends on talent and due diligence.

In business, everything is the same: the ability to run it may be enough to manage a small retail outlet, but after receiving a push, the entrepreneur can become the owner of a huge network. Nowadays, there are many different business schools, training classes, and websites that promise unprecedented knowledge after reading their course. Well, perhaps they will help someone become a great manager.

Business without talent

Entrepreneurial abilities and entrepreneurial capital are two completely different concepts; these are the factors that, together, can become the reason for the success of an enterprise. It is worth noting that it is quite possible for one to exist without the other, although this is a rare case.

A person who has sufficient wealth and resources, including human resources, but who is completely devoid of managerial talent, can successfully manage a business. However, the more difficult it will be for such a business to find its niche, the higher the competition in its field of activity. Fulfilling the duties of a manager presupposes the presence of a certain acumen and instinct, as well as the ability to properly manage these properties; a competent chef should not be afraid to take risks and is simply obliged to act decisively in force majeure circumstances, regardless of pressure from the outside.

Everyone gets what they deserve

The well-known saying “He who doesn’t take risks, doesn’t drink champagne” perfectly characterizes the activities of a businessman. However, entrepreneurship is not so much a risk as it is the ability to minimize it, as well as to bring together all the above factors of production: capital, natural and human resources. As a result of success, the businessman receives income, which is payment for his entrepreneurial abilities. Entrepreneurial income, or rather its size, is predominantly higher than the income of hired personnel.

However, this is by no means an “unfair division between rich and poor”: a businessman, investing personal capital, knowledge, strength and labor into a business, risks losing much more, therefore his reward is often an order of magnitude higher than that of others. This is the point of view of world-famous economists who stood at the origins of entrepreneurial activity. Below are their quotes for your reference:

“The income of a businessman is his reward for entrepreneurial talent, industrial ability, spirit of order and leadership” (Jean Baptiste Say).
“Businessmen shoulder a heavy burden of uncertainty and risk without the confidence that the business can become a thriving enterprise. Their main motive for activity is the expectation of future profit” (Frank Knight).
“Income is the price of the entrepreneur's abstinence” (John Mill).

Being a businessman is undoubtedly a difficult and troublesome task that requires a person to have extraordinary abilities and a strong business acumen. Having the necessary set of talents, a manager will be able to achieve his goals.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Emelyanov

Entrepreneurial ability is a special kind of talent. The psychological portrait of domestic entrepreneurs indicates their distinctive features from other people: independence, responsibility, risk-taking, initiative and a penchant for innovation.

Describing the personality of an entrepreneur is one of the first steps of a novice businessman towards entrepreneurial activity. One of the first creators of the psychological portrait of an entrepreneur is V. Sombart, who argued that the spirit of entrepreneurship is one of the constituent parts of the capitalist spirit, along with philistinism and bureaucracy.

An entrepreneur must have the following qualities:

conqueror (spiritual freedom, will and energy, perseverance and constancy);
organizer (the ability to correctly evaluate people, make them work, coordinating their actions);
merchant (the ability to recruit people without coercion, arouse their interest in their products, and inspire confidence).

The tradesman requires other qualities:

economics associated with rational business management, reasonable savings and frugality;
business morality, which is commercial solidity and trustworthiness, fidelity to contract and strict record keeping.

The third component of the capitalist spirit is bureaucracy. Traits of a bureaucrat: devotion to the corporation, working for its profit - a way of personal career advancement and well-being, collective interest, discipline, the need for clear instructions, the presence of assigned functions.

It is noteworthy that with such a versatile description of the capitalist spirit, W. Sombart put entrepreneurship in first place. If you remove the entrepreneur from this picture, you get a different economic structure. Therefore, it is not surprising how often the previous governments of Russia, striving for totalitarianism, fought against entrepreneurship, thereby eliminating the slightest possibility of manifestation of elements of capitalism.

Within the framework of the socio-psychological theory of deprivation (the process of reducing or depriving the opportunity to satisfy the vital needs of individuals or groups), it was found that people from socially disadvantaged segments of the population and national minorities have higher entrepreneurial potential than representatives of the propertied segments.

Qualities important for the psychological portrait of an entrepreneur include:

in the intellectual block: competence, combinatorial gift, developed imagination, real fantasy, developed intuition, long-term thinking;
in the communication block: the talent of coordinating employee efforts, the ability and readiness for socially loyal communication with other people and at the same time the ability to go against the flow;
in the motivational-volitional block: risk-taking; internal locus of control, the desire to fight and win, the need for self-actualization and social recognition, the predominance of the motive of achievement over the motive of avoiding failure.

An entrepreneur is associated with good health, endless energy and optimism. Literary data and completed research prove only the obligatory presence of the components given in the motivational-volitional block, because the entrepreneur is, first of all, an active, seeking figure. These components are present in his psychological portrait, regardless of the form of entrepreneurship (industrial, commercial, financial).

The definition of entrepreneurship focuses on independent activity that involves choice, risk, and responsibility. Studies of representatives of small and medium-sized businesses have shown that among Russian entrepreneurs the complex of independence and autonomy is especially pronounced. Cross-cultural studies have determined that Russian small and medium-sized business entrepreneurs are more alienated from society and psychologically protected from social disapproval than, for example, German ones. This is due to the development of Russian entrepreneurship in an unbalanced market, without real and consistent support from the state, in a sociocultural environment of disapproval, and demonstrates open opposition of business to the state and an extreme manifestation of individualism.

Western, and especially American, theories of motivation recognize the craving for success as the main human desire. Success is luck in achieving a goal, public recognition, good results at work. And an entrepreneur, “undertaking” any “enterprise”, counts on its success. Modern domestic sociologists note the complexity of this phenomenon and the diversity of conditions for the success of entrepreneurship. It can be achieved as a result of the action of one or several factors, circumstances, causes and be the result of quite different forms of behavior. Achieving entrepreneurial success can be influenced by:

simple luck (by chance I found myself in the right place at the right time and at the same time managed not to miss the chance);
active search for “that winning option” using the trial and error method;
competent calculation of various combinations and selection of the optimal option based on theoretical research;
obtaining and using confidential information or another type of resource at favorable times;
using one’s own unique abilities, experience, and competence as a product that generates income.

Let's add to this the common point of view of Russian and American business experts on the motives and set of professional qualities of an entrepreneur.

the desire to be the master of one's destiny;
the desire to overcome the alienation of professional activity from the rest, to merge work and life together, to change the principle of “work to live” to “live to work”;
the desire to receive decent remuneration for your work and significantly improve your financial situation.

Here are the qualities of an entrepreneur noted by B. Karlof:

Prefers to make decisions independently.
Receptive to new things, focused on getting results.
Open to constructive criticism and praise.
He strives to take an active part in business, and therefore is immensely happy in a small organization.
Loves rapid development and innovation.
In a business environment, when expanding a business, he feels like a fish in water.
He is extremely demanding of himself and the abilities of his companions.

In the conditions of modern post-industrial society, when everyone is a real or potential participant in processes that significantly affect the lives of other people, and sometimes humanity as a whole, when, thanks to the achievements of civilization, any person can find himself in a situation where the well-being or even the fate of many depends on his behavior , the role of morality is increasing. Entrepreneurs, by their status, determine the well-being of the people they employ and the surrounding organizations within their sphere of activity.

Entrepreneurial risk is the danger of a potential, probable loss of resources or loss of income compared to an option designed for their rational use. Entrepreneurial risk can be understood as losses: material, labor (working time, finances), damage to health and life, prestige, as well as moral and psychological damage. The features of entrepreneurial risk, according to some authors, are inconsistency, alternativeness and uncertainty. Thus, doing business is always associated with risk or danger.

Any human activity, including entrepreneurial activity, has a certain structure. It contains goals - future results towards which the activity is aimed, needs, motives that motivate activity, an object that can be modified to achieve the goal, knowledge about this object, ways and means of achieving the goal, as well as the conditions of the activity.

The distinctive features of entrepreneurship, aimed at making a profit as the main goal, are independence, responsibility, uncertainty, riskiness, creativity, innovation, and initiative.

Entrepreneurship is an innovative activity of people belonging to a special social group called entrepreneurs, who have rare abilities that allow them to bear the burden of not only the distinctive features of this activity, but also develop the economics of functions in order to make a profit.

Since entrepreneurial activity is widespread, search activity becomes a factor in the survival of the system, which is especially pronounced during periods of bans on its existence. According to A. G. Shchedrovitsky, any activity cannot disappear at the request of an individual or group of people if it objectively exists and is necessary for society. Any system operates according to its own laws, traditions, and norms that must be known and followed in order to achieve the desired and socially useful results.

The psychological portrait of an entrepreneur highlights personal traits that distinguish him from other people. Foreign and domestic authors are unanimous regarding a number of features characteristic of an entrepreneur. These are creative economic activity, risk taking, sociability, the desire for self-realization, stress resistance, etc. There are also a number of differences that allow us to highlight the characteristics of a domestic entrepreneur in comparison with a foreign one. This is a weak inclusion in society, a low assessment of the usefulness of his activities by society, a low assessment of the moral qualities of an entrepreneur by society, etc.

Entrepreneurs' behavior

Discoveries of great importance include S. Freud's statement about the dominant role of the unconscious in human behavior. The great psychoanalyst believed that this area of the psyche is filled with various kinds of unsatisfied desires, mainly of a sexual nature, repressed from a person’s consciousness. As they accumulate, they acquire enormous power and break out in the form of aggression, obsessions, inexplicable actions, etc.

In our country, Freud's theory has been around since the 30s. was subjected to harsh criticism. Up until the 60s. translations and publications of works on psychoanalysis were stopped. Despite this, in the thirties in Georgia, the famous school of experimental psychologist D. N. Uznadze used modern Western knowledge on the psychology of the unconscious to create a theory of attitude. Only in the early 70s. these works were translated into Russian. As a result of experiments, D. N. Uznadze discovered that the accepted two-link scheme (stimulus-response) explaining behavior is not entirely correct. Namely, between the stimulus and the response there is a certain formation, which was called an attitude.

The classic definition of an attitude is as follows: if there is a need and a situation in which it is satisfied, a person develops an attitude - a state of readiness to perform a certain behavioral act. Uznadze and his followers believe that when a need and a situation repeatedly collide, the attitude is fixed. According to S. A. Nadirashvili, the variety of stable relationships between an individual and the outside world is inserted by a system of fixed secondary attitudes, while immediate behavior is controlled by a dynamic primary, or actual, attitude. Moreover, all fixed attitudes are in the area of the unconscious, and actual ones are in the conscious area, because their formation occurs under circumstances that are not encountered by a person’s past experience.

Domestic researchers A.D. Smirnov, V.F. Maksimov, D.N. Akulenok and others see the motivational structure of an entrepreneur this way. Firstly, you need a strong desire to stand out, to prove yourself, to satisfy healthy ambition. Secondly, strive for independence. Third, want to benefit society. Fourth, satisfy personal leadership needs. Fifthly, show the need for self-expression, self-actualization, which is a desperate struggle for immortality (according to A. Maslow, G. Allport and C. Rogers). This motivation is most pronounced among creative people, and it lies in the desire to “leave a mark on the earth.”

None of the above motivational structures contains the motivation for being forced to engage in this type of activity to the detriment of their interests, which is very relevant for Russian entrepreneurs. Let's call it a forced motivation to provide oneself and one's family with vital consumer goods. To ensure the reality of realizing any of the above motives, an appropriate income is needed. In this regard, V. S. Avtonomov writes that achieving large profits for an entrepreneur is a necessary condition for satisfying the needs of life, as well as a symbol of success.

The next element of entrepreneurial activity is the method and means of achieving the goal. They mean special knowledge, abilities, skills, as well as abilities and inclinations.

A significant number of researchers are of the opinion that entrepreneurship cannot be taught. This type of activity requires special abilities. A natural prerequisite for the development of abilities is the presence of inclinations - some innate anatomical and physiological characteristics of the brain and nervous system. According to the position of Russian psychologist V.A. Krutetsky, the inclinations include the typological properties of the nervous system, the natural properties of analyzers, and individual variants of the functioning of the cerebral cortex.

People have innate individual differences in their abilities. Therefore, some have advantages in mastering certain activities. Inclinations are determined by the genetic program and manifest themselves in the form of abilities - lifetime formations that shape the social experience of a person, the conditions of his life, training and upbringing.

The statement that one must be born an entrepreneur is confirmed by the following fact: according to surveys conducted in the United States and other countries, in 50–72% of cases, the founders of companies have at least one of their parents in a liberal profession. These figures significantly exceed those for other types of activities. Harvard Business School, for example, accepts people who have an entrepreneurial personality type according to a special Meyers-Briggs test. As a result, 83% of graduates of this school remain entrepreneurs for at least 5 years, which significantly distinguishes them from those who do not have any special training. For contrast, here is an example: out of 5,500 people who expressed a desire to study, but did not pass the test after graduating from business school, only 28% were able to organize their own business. If we give data for Russia, according to surveys of sociologists in St. Petersburg, up to 12% of the population would like to engage in entrepreneurship (we are not talking about abilities), and in the Tver outback - less than 1%.

J. Dolan and E. Lidsay define entrepreneurship as the ability to be creative, emphasizing that creating situations that maximize creative activity is a key problem of entrepreneurship and innovation processes, as well as achieving peaks in art. We find a similar understanding in R. McConnell and L. Brew, who believe that entrepreneurial abilities are a special kind of human talent. Ability is understood here as one of the qualities of a person, revealed in the speed, depth and strength of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities used in specific activities.

According to Schumpeter, the first basic quality of an entrepreneur is developed intuition, which makes up for the lack of information. Thorough preparation, special knowledge, and the ability for logical analysis can only become a source of failure. The second main quality is a strong will, which helps to overcome not only the inertia of one’s own and social thinking, but also the resistance of the environment - traditions, legal and moral norms, etc. Finally, the third quality is a developed imagination, which helps to conceive new combinations and reduce the degree of uncertainty that lives in the minds of every entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs, according to B. Karlof, are creative, inventive, energetic people. Often these are extraordinary individuals who have difficulty fitting into the administrative and corporate culture. They can build ships, learn to play the piano, create companies. In general, their importance for the creation and prosperity of a company cannot be overestimated.

Currently, in no country in the world does the profession of “entrepreneur” exist, despite the fact that entrepreneurship as an occupation exists. A common belief among entrepreneurship researchers is that it is virtually impossible to teach.

There are two more very important qualities of an entrepreneur noted by researchers.

The first is the ability to complete a task, the second is the ability to unite people around you who are conducive to completing the main tasks.

Professor of the Department of Entrepreneurship in the USA R. Hisrich and his colleague, Professor of the Faculty of Marketing M. Peters, believe that special courses for entrepreneurs can develop the necessary skills in students capable of business and provide the necessary knowledge. Referring to R. S. Ronstad, they give 14 names of special entrepreneurial skills and knowledge. Here are some of them:

a clear understanding of entrepreneurship;
separating facts from myths;
the ability to give balanced assessments;
ability to find non-standard solutions;
ability to behave and make decisions in conditions of uncertainty;
ability to develop new commercial ideas;
the ability to evaluate the prospects of new ideas;
knowledge necessary to create a new business;
the ability to assess the external situation;
the ability to evaluate actions from the point of view of ethics and morality;
ability to conclude deals, establish contacts, negotiate;
the ability to get what is due.

It remains to be found out exactly what inclinations contribute to the manifestation of entrepreneurial abilities, and then a unique opportunity may arise to identify those inclined to entrepreneurship from early childhood.

So, another understanding of entrepreneurship as a skill has been clarified, as well as the need to find people who have this rare gift. For a person to prove himself as a talented entrepreneur who benefits society, it is not enough to have rare abilities and certain motivations. Favorable conditions are needed that, like a nutrient medium, will grow mature and juicy fruits of economic well-being from entrepreneurial seeds.

R. Reig revealed the secret of the honor of entrepreneurship in America. He writes that there is no contradiction between entrepreneurial and civic culture. They can be successfully synthesized. Where this synthesis exists, entrepreneurial activity is ennobled. If government views on methods for solving economic problems are compatible with entrepreneurial interests, this ensures a qualitative and quantitative increase in entrepreneurship. As a result, a businessman in the United States is a national hero and role model.

According to A. I. Ageev, innovation is an inevitable attribute of any structural changes, the creation of new and the growth of existing industries. He gives the following interpretation of entrepreneurial activity: entrepreneurship is an innovative economic activity, where innovation consists in combining production factors or, in other words, in creating, changing or developing organizational structures with the aim of opening or increasing the production of certain goods or services.

Innovation often goes hand in hand with creativity and invention. To create anything new, even as an idea, you need to think in a certain way. Not everyone is able to construct a fundamentally new idea on the basis of past knowledge, and then, with the help of special abilities, cut through the stereotypes of social thinking and bring this idea to life. S.I. Kretov defines entrepreneurship as a way of thinking of an enterprising person who quickly mobilizes available resources to organize production in any highly profitable area or industry.

So, the distinctive features of an entrepreneur are independence, responsibility, risk-taking, initiative, and a penchant for creativity and innovation. Entrepreneurship is considered as an activity, its structure is determined, the main features and social functions are highlighted. This allows us to define entrepreneurship in terms of activity. Entrepreneurship is an innovative activity of people belonging to a special social group, called entrepreneurs, who have rare abilities that allow them to bear the burden of the distinctive features of this activity and the functions that develop the economy in order to make a profit.

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What is entrepreneurial ability (entrepreneurship)?

In turn, to entrepreneurs These include primarily company owners, managers who are not their owners, as well as business organizers who combine owners and managers in one person.

The term “entrepreneurial potential” is also used.

Entrepreneurial Capacity: Definition, Features and Requirements

In general, entrepreneurial potential can be characterized as potential opportunities for realizing people's entrepreneurial abilities.

Uniqueness of meaning entrepreneurship is that it is thanks to it that other economic resources come into interaction - labor, capital, land, knowledge. Initiative, risk and skill of entrepreneurs, multiplied by the market mechanism, make it possible to use all other economic resources with maximum efficiency and stimulate economic growth. As the experience of many countries with market economies shows, their economic achievements, including rates of economic growth, investment, and innovation, directly depend on the realization of entrepreneurial potential. Thus, an economic course focused on supporting entrepreneurship, reducing government spending, and government regulation, allowed the United States and a number of other Western countries to effectively overcome many of the difficulties of the 80-90s.

In countries with high entrepreneurial potential, an important role is usually played by small and medium-sized businesses, which are the breeding ground for entrepreneurship, a kind of “forge” of entrepreneurial personnel. In the USA, for example, 40% of GNP is created by small and medium-sized businesses. The state provides broad support to entrepreneurship. In the country, along with the federal body supporting entrepreneurship - the Small Business Administration, there are 19 thousand regional economic development commissions under local executive authorities, designed to promote business development in a particular region, growth in the production of promising goods and services that are in demand in a given area . In addition, in the USA in the mid-90s. There were about 600 so-called entrepreneurial incubators, i.e. specialized public and private government agencies providing multifaceted support to newly created companies. Such a business incubator geographically unites new companies under one roof and contributes to their “growing” and establishment.

Entrepreneurial income

Entrepreneurial ability as a resource has its own specific payment - entrepreneurial income. In real economic life it is difficult to distinguish, however, it is not an abstract economic category. Entrepreneurial income- this is the payment that an entrepreneur receives for his organizational work on combining and using economic resources, for the risk of losses from the use of these resources for economic initiatives (innovations) and monopoly market power.

In economic theory, entrepreneurial income is divided into two parts, which form the basis of normal profit and economic profit (see 3.3). The first includes the entrepreneur’s guaranteed income, a kind of wage; to the second - payment for risk, innovation, monopoly power.

It is clear that the amount of entrepreneurial income fluctuates primarily due to the second component.

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Entrepreneurial abilities (entrepreneurship as an economic resource)

Entrepreneurial skills (entrepreneurship) can be defined as an economic resource that should include entrepreneurs, business infrastructure, and business ethics and culture.

In turn, entrepreneurs primarily include company owners, managers who are not their owners, as well as business organizers who combine owners and managers in one person.

The term “entrepreneurial potential” is also used. In general, entrepreneurial potential can be characterized as potential opportunities for realizing people's entrepreneurial abilities.

Uniqueness of meaning entrepreneurship is that it is thanks to it that other economic resources come into interaction - labor, capital, land, knowledge. Initiative, risk and skill of entrepreneurs, multiplied by the market mechanism, make it possible to use all other economic resources with maximum efficiency and stimulate economic growth. As the experience of many countries with market economies shows, their economic achievements, including rates of economic growth, investment, and innovation, directly depend on the realization of entrepreneurial potential. Thus, an economic policy focused on supporting entrepreneurship, reducing government spending and government regulation allowed the United States and a number of other Western countries to effectively overcome many of the difficulties of the 80s and 90s.

It can be argued that entrepreneurial abilities as a resource are more effectively realized in the conditions of a maximally liberal economic system, not burdened by excessive state bureaucracy, which also has established entrepreneurial traditions and appropriate legislative design. At the same time, it is obvious that the key to the successful use of entrepreneurial abilities is, first of all, the entrepreneurs themselves, their qualifications and level of education, the ability to take responsibility and initiative, the ability to navigate a highly competitive environment, as well as their sense of social responsibility.

What is entrepreneurial ability

In addition, in the USA in the mid-90s. There were about 600 so-called entrepreneurial incubators, i.e. specialized public and private government agencies providing multifaceted support to newly created companies. Such a business incubator geographically unites new companies under one roof and contributes to their “growing” and establishment.

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Entrepreneurial ability and entrepreneurial income

Phenomenon entrepreneurship acts as an integral attribute of a market economy.

In economic theory, the concept of “entrepreneur” appeared in the 18th century. and was often associated with the concept of “owner”. At its origins was the English economist R. Cantillon, who first introduced the term “entrepreneur” into economic theory. According to Cantillon, an entrepreneur is a person with an uncertain, non-fixed income (peasant, artisan, merchant, robber, beggar, etc.). He buys other people's goods at a known price, and will sell his own at a price still unknown to him. It follows that risk is the main distinguishing feature of an entrepreneur, and his main economic function is to bring supply into line with demand in various product markets.

A. Smith also characterized an entrepreneur as an owner who takes economic risks in order to implement some commercial idea and make a profit. He himself plans and organizes production, manages its results, etc.

A major French economist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries held a similar view of the function of the entrepreneur in a market economy. J.-B. Say, who characterized him as a person who undertakes to produce some product at his own expense and risk and for his own benefit. He emphasized the active role of the entrepreneur as an economic agent, combining factors of production, as an intermediary, and as a possessor of knowledge and experience.

Say described in some detail the specific properties of an entrepreneur and the nature of his income, part of which is a payment for his rare entrepreneurial abilities.

A major contribution to the development of the theory of entrepreneurship was made by the German economist W. Sombart and the Austrian economist I. Schumpeter. An entrepreneur, according to Sombart, is a “conqueror” (willingness to take risks, spiritual freedom, wealth of ideas, will and perseverance), an “organizer” (the ability to bring many people together to work together) and a “merchant” (the ability to convince people to buy their goods, to awaken them interest, gain trust). Describing the goals of an entrepreneur, Sombart identifies as the main one the desire for prosperity and growth of his business, and the subordinate - profit growth, since without it prosperity is impossible.

I. Schumpeter calls an entrepreneur a person who undertakes the implementation of new combinations of factors of production and thereby ensures economic development. At the same time, Schumpeter believed that an entrepreneur is not necessarily the owner of production, an individual capitalist - he can also be the manager of a bank or joint-stock company.

To characterize entrepreneurship as economic category the central problem is the establishment of its subjects and objects. Business entities can be, first of all, private individuals (organizers of individual, family, as well as larger production). The activities of such entrepreneurs are carried out both on the basis of their own labor and with the involvement of hired labor. Entrepreneurial activity can also be carried out by a group of persons connected by contractual relations and economic interests. Subjects of collective entrepreneurship are joint-stock companies, rental collectives, cooperatives, etc.

In some cases, the state represented by its relevant bodies is also considered a business entity. Thus, in a market economy there are three forms of entrepreneurial activity: state, collective, private, each of which finds its own “niches” in the economic system.

The object of entrepreneurship is the implementation of the most effective combination of factors of production in order to maximize income. New various ways of combining economic resources, according to I. Schumpeter, are the main business of an entrepreneur and distinguish him from an ordinary business executive. Entrepreneurs combine resources to produce a new good unknown to consumers; discovery of new methods of production (technologies) and commercial use of existing goods; development of a new sales market; development of a new source of raw materials; carrying out reorganization in the industry to create one’s own monopoly or undermine someone else’s (Schumpeter I. Theory of Economic Development. - M., 1982. - P. 169-170).

For entrepreneurship as farming method the main condition is the autonomy and independence of economic entities, the presence of a certain set of freedoms and rights - to choose the type of business activity, to formulate a production program, to choose sources of financing, access to resources, to sell products, set prices for them, dispose of profits and etc.

The second condition for entrepreneurship is responsibility for decisions made, their consequences and associated risks. Risk is always associated with uncertainty and unpredictability. Even the most careful calculation and forecast cannot eliminate the factor of unpredictability; it is a constant companion of entrepreneurial activity.

The third sign of entrepreneurship is focus on achieving commercial success, desire to increase profits. But such an attitude is not self-sufficient in modern business. The activities of many business structures go beyond purely economic tasks; they take part in solving social problems of society, donate their funds to the development of culture, education, healthcare, environmental protection, etc.

Entrepreneurship as special type of economic thinking characterized by a set of original views and approaches to decision making that are implemented in practice. The personality of the entrepreneur plays a central role here. Entrepreneurship is not an occupation, but a mindset and a quality of nature. To be an entrepreneur means to do something different from what others do, I. Schumpeter believed. “You need to have a special imagination, the gift of foresight, and constantly resist the pressure of routine. You need to be able to find something new and use its possibilities. You need to be able to take risks, overcome fear and act not depending on the processes taking place - to determine these processes yourself” (Op. cit. - P. 199).

IN domestic In literature, entrepreneurship is also viewed through the prism of economic art, economic and organizational creativity, free expression of initiative, innovation, willingness to take risks, etc. for the sake of making a profit. And this is quite natural: after all, management is a kind of “art of the possible.” Moreover, we are talking about the management and organization of production in the conditions of the revival of a market, competitive economy, where individual inclinations, skills, and judgment play an important role.

Entrepreneurial income- this is the payment that an entrepreneur receives for his organizational work on combining and using economic resources, for the risk of losses from the use of these resources, for economic initiatives, innovations and monopoly market power.

It is important for an enterprise to determine not only its income, but also the costs of production (primarily the costs of purchasing resources in the markets).

The costs of producing products are called production costs. The difference between total revenue and costs is called profit(net income).

In economic theory, entrepreneurial income is divided into two parts: normal profit and economic profit (see the topic “Production Costs” for more details).

Entrepreneurial ability

Basically, the amount of entrepreneurial income fluctuates due to the second component.

2. The economic essence of the concept of “enterprise (firm)”: institutional and neoclassical approaches

Company is an independent economic unit that combines economic resources to carry out various types of activities. It may be an establishment in the form of a factory, farm, mine, small or large store, which performs one or more specific functions in the production and distribution of goods and services.

Company - This is an organization that has the status of a legal entity, a property-separated economic unit that carries out production, commercial or other activities with the aim of making a profit.

An entrepreneurial firm may consist of one or more enterprises.

In contrast to the naturally occurring market order, firms are based on hierarchical the principle of organizing economic activity. “The firm, then,” wrote Coase, “is a system of relationships that arises when the direction of resources begins to depend on the entrepreneur.”

Some economists view modern firms as the result of development cooperation and division of labor based on a system of machines (K. Marx); others believe that firms are the result risk minimization and uncertainty (F. Knight); still others explain the emergence of firms by the need to reduce transaction costs(R. Coase, O. Williamson).

In modern institutional theory, a firm is understood as a coalition of owners of production factors interconnected by a network of contracts, as a result of which transaction costs are minimized. A system of contracts is concluded between the owners of certain resources. O. Williamson divided all resources into three groups: general, specific and interspecific.

Shared Resources- these are resources whose value does not depend on their location in a given company: both inside and outside it they are valued equally.

Specific Resources- These are resources whose value inside the company is higher than outside it.

Interspecific Resources- complementary, mutually unique resources, the maximum value of which is achieved only in a given company and through it. The presence of such resources gives synergistic an effect that exceeds the simple sum of the contributions of each coalition member. Thus, the core of the firm is a long-term relational contract concluded between the owners of interspecific resources. The presence of interspecific and specific resources in a company allows them to save transaction costs, and their owners to receive economic profit (quasi-rent).

An entrepreneur must have the following qualities:

conqueror (spiritual freedom, will and energy, perseverance and constancy);
organizer (the ability to correctly evaluate people, make them work, coordinating their actions);
merchant (the ability to recruit people without coercion, arouse their interest in their products, and inspire confidence).

The tradesman requires other qualities:

economics associated with rational business management, reasonable savings and frugality;
business morality, which is commercial solidity and trustworthiness, fidelity to contract and strict record keeping.

Qualities important for the psychological portrait of an entrepreneur include:

in the intellectual block: competence, combinatorial gift, developed imagination, real fantasy, developed intuition, long-term thinking;
in the communication block: the talent of coordinating employee efforts, the ability and readiness for socially loyal communication with other people and at the same time the ability to go against the flow;
in the motivational-volitional block: risk-taking; internal locus of control, the desire to fight and win, the need for self-actualization and social recognition, the predominance of the motive of achievement over the motive of avoiding failure.

Specific features of a Russian entrepreneur

simple luck (by chance I found myself in the right place at the right time and at the same time managed not to miss the chance);
active search for “that winning option” using the trial and error method;
competent calculation of various combinations and selection of the optimal option based on theoretical research;
obtaining and using confidential information or another type of resource at favorable times;
using one’s own unique abilities, experience, and competence as a product that generates income.

Let's add to this the common point of view of Russian and American business experts on the motives and set of professional qualities of an entrepreneur.

the desire to be the master of one's destiny;
the desire to overcome the alienation of professional activity from the rest, to merge work and life together, to change the principle of “work to live” to “live to work”;
the desire to receive decent remuneration for your work and significantly improve your financial situation.

Here are the qualities of an entrepreneur noted by B. Karlof:

Prefers to make decisions independently.
Receptive to new things, focused on getting results.
Open to constructive criticism and praise.
He strives to take an active part in business, and therefore is immensely happy in a small organization.
Loves rapid development and innovation.
In a business environment, when expanding a business, he feels like a fish in water.
He is extremely demanding of himself and the abilities of his companions.

The distinctive features of entrepreneurship, aimed at making a profit as the main goal, are independence, responsibility, uncertainty, riskiness, creativity, innovation, and initiative.

Entrepreneurs' behavior

The next element of entrepreneurial activity is the method and means of achieving the goal. They mean special knowledge, abilities, skills, as well as abilities and inclinations.

There are two more very important qualities of an entrepreneur noted by researchers.

The first is the ability to complete a task, the second is the ability to unite people around you who are conducive to completing the main tasks.

a clear understanding of entrepreneurship;
separating facts from myths;
the ability to give balanced assessments;
ability to find non-standard solutions;
ability to behave and make decisions in conditions of uncertainty;
ability to develop new commercial ideas;
the ability to evaluate the prospects of new ideas;
knowledge necessary to create a new business;
the ability to assess the external situation;
the ability to evaluate actions from the point of view of ethics and morality;
ability to conclude deals, establish contacts, negotiate;
the ability to get what is due.

Entrepreneurial activity. A special type of human resource, which consists in the ability to most effectively use all other factors of production.

An indispensable condition for any production process is its material and personal factors. Material factors (they are also called objective) are the means of production. The personal factor of production (also called subjective) is labor.

Labor power is the totality of a person’s physical and spiritual abilities that are put into action when he produces any use value. Labor is the active and most important factor of production. It sets the means of production in motion. Without labor they are dead and represent a pile of motionless things.

Economic theory considers the personal factor not as a set of biological and physiological properties of a person, but as a social, public phenomenon. She is interested in how labor enters the production process, how it is used and reproduced.

For the effective combination of material and personal factors of production, entrepreneurial talent is of exceptional importance.

Of the existing factors of production - land, labor, capital, knowledge, entrepreneurial ability - entrepreneurial ability is becoming an increasingly important economic resource. Entrepreneurship (entrepreneurial resource) has always been one of the most important subjects of research in economic science, since the entrepreneur is the main character of the market economy.

An entrepreneurial resource is understood as the ability to effectively organize the interaction of other economic resources to carry out economic activities. Defining entrepreneurial abilities more broadly, we can highlight such human abilities as the ability to use a certain combination of resources to produce a product; make reasonable, consistent decisions; apply innovations and take (justifiable) risks.

Thus, we can give the following definition of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the search for such combinations of resources (money, materials, labor) available to the entrepreneur that provide him with maximum profit. The goal of entrepreneurial activity is to obtain profit as the excess of monetary proceeds from the sale of products over the costs of its production and sale.

An entrepreneur views the sale of goods as a means of communication with the consumer. The goal of business is to create a consumer. If consumers are not satisfied, the entrepreneur changes his way of acting, his entire policy and product concept. It is not limited to just changes in the sales process.

Entrepreneurship is a form of expression and development of a person’s personality, his abilities and needs. People's social needs determine their desire for economic freedom. As a person emerges from poverty, a person’s entrepreneurship becomes more and more closely associated with competition, the desire to attract attention and earn recognition in society.

Freedom, competition and responsibility imply inequality in the position of workers, their hierarchy based on differences in abilities and, as a consequence, results of work. This natural-historical principle cannot be abolished by any social formation.

Entrepreneurship is associated with both general (intellectual, creative, physical) and special (for certain types of economic activities) abilities of an individual. Only 5-7% of workers have the ability to engage in private entrepreneurship. Other forms of entrepreneurship are available to any free person. The degree of entrepreneurship is determined by the following factors:

1) social type of economic thinking (commercial thinking now predominates, rather than long-term economic thinking);

2) national characteristics;

3) the current economic mechanism;

4) individual personality structure.

The composition of an entrepreneurial resource includes its carriers - entrepreneurs, its infrastructure - market institutions, its ethics and culture. An entrepreneur is a person involved in organizing economic processes at the micro level. A true entrepreneur is the source and driving force of creativity and entrepreneurship.

American economist Joseph Schumpeter, within the framework of his theory of creative destruction, assigns the main role to the entrepreneur. By introducing new inventions, ideas, and organizational measures into economic life and implementing on the market at his own risk, the entrepreneur thereby carries out innovations. According to Schumpeter, such innovative activity of entrepreneurs is the engine of economic development.

From his point of view, entrepreneurial ability is a unique and infrequently discovered ability to promote innovation through risky business.

Another component of the entrepreneurial resource of a particular country is the market infrastructure, i.e. such institutions and norms of a market economy as stock exchanges and banks, insurance and auditing companies, consulting and auditing firms, courts, government and economic bodies, and economic legislation.

In general, we can conclude that in a given country the entrepreneurial resource is abundant if it has a lot of experienced and educated entrepreneurs, the market infrastructure is developed, the entrepreneurial ethics and culture are deeply rooted, and the spirit of the society itself is not just favorable to entrepreneurship, but permeated with the desire to him a significant part of the population.