Entrepreneurship — Concept & Functions
उद्यमिता — अवधारणा, सिद्धांत और कार्य
Who is an entrepreneur? — the theorists
The word comes from the French entreprendre, 'to undertake'. Each major thinker stressed a different side of the entrepreneur:
| Thinker | The entrepreneur as | Key idea |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Cantillon (essay written c. 1730, published 1755) | risk-bearer | buys at a known price to sell at an unknown one — the first to use the word in economics |
| J. B. Say | coordinator | brings together land, labour and capital |
| Frank Knight (1921) | bearer of uncertainty | profit is the reward for risks that cannot be insured |
| Joseph Schumpeter (1934, English edition) | innovator | 'creative destruction' (1942) — new ways replace old ones |
| David McClelland (1961) | the achiever | a high need for achievement (n-Ach) drives enterprise |
| Peter Drucker (1985) | the opportunity-seeker | 'always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity' |
Schumpeter's five kinds of innovation
Entrepreneurship is therefore the process of spotting an opportunity, gathering resources, and building an enterprise that creates value — bearing the risk that it may fail.
The trap: Knight separated risk (which can be insured, like fire) from uncertainty (which cannot, like a change in consumer taste) — and said only uncertainty earns the entrepreneur a profit.
उद्यमिता — अवधारणा, सिद्धांत और कार्य
Kinds of entrepreneur
Clarence Danhof's classification (1949), drawn from a study of American farming:
| Type | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| innovative | introduces new ideas and methods first; needs a developed setting |
| imitative (adoptive) | copies innovations that have already worked elsewhere; common in developing economies |
| Fabian | very cautious and sceptical; changes only when failing to change would cause loss |
| drone | refuses to change even at the cost of falling profits |
Other ways of grouping them
Entrepreneur, intrapreneur and manager
| Entrepreneur | Intrapreneur | Manager | |
|---|---|---|---|
| who | the owner who starts the venture | an employee who acts like an entrepreneur inside an existing organisation | a salaried employee who runs operations |
| risk | bears it personally | the organisation bears it | bears little |
| reward | uncertain profit | salary, recognition, perhaps a share | fixed salary |
| focus | creating something new | innovating within the firm | running what exists efficiently |
The trap: an intrapreneur innovates inside someone else's organisation and does not bear the financial risk — the employer does.
उद्यमिता — अवधारणा, सिद्धांत और कार्य
What an entrepreneur does — and what makes one
Functions
Role in the economy
Entrepreneurial competencies — McClelland and later studies listed traits that successful entrepreneurs show more often:
| Group | Competencies |
|---|---|
| achievement | initiative, seeing and seizing opportunities, persistence, concern for quality, commitment |
| planning | seeking information, systematic planning, problem-solving, goal-setting |
| power | self-confidence, persuasion, using networks |
A calculated risk-taker — not a gambler: entrepreneurs prefer moderate risks they can influence, not wild bets.
The entrepreneurial process — identify an opportunity → assess it → prepare a business plan → mobilise resources → launch the enterprise → manage and grow it.
The trap: entrepreneurs are moderate, calculated risk-takers — high-n-Ach people avoid both very safe and very wild risks.
उद्यमिता — अवधारणा, सिद्धांत और कार्य
Entrepreneurship in India and Bihar today
Startup India — launched on 16 January 2016. A business is recognised as a startup by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) for up to 10 years from incorporation, if its turnover has not exceeded ₹100 crore in any year and it works on innovation or improvement of products or services.
Stand-Up India — from 5 April 2016, bank loans of ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore for a new enterprise set up by a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe person or a woman, with at least one such borrower for every bank branch.
Bihar's support for new enterprises
Bihar's natural openings — agro-processing (makhana, litchi, maize, honey), handicrafts (Madhubani painting, Bhagalpur silk, sikki grass work), dairy through the Sudha cooperatives, and services in fast-growing towns.
First-generation entrepreneurs — most enterprises in Bihar are started by people with no family business behind them, which makes training, mentoring and access to credit decisive.
The trap: a DPIIT startup must be under 10 years old and have turnover of up to ₹100 crore — an old or very large firm cannot be a startup however innovative it is.
उद्यमिता — अवधारणा, सिद्धांत और कार्य
Points to Remember