Entrepreneurial Motivation
The entrepreneurial motivation is the process that activates and motivates the entrepreneur to exert higher level of efforts for the achievement of his/her entrepreneurial goals. In other words, the entrepreneurial motivation refers to the forces or drive within an entrepreneur that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of his / her voluntary behaviour as entrepreneur. So to say, a motivational entrepreneur will be willing to exert a particular level of effort (intensity), for a certain period of time (persistence) toward a particular goal (direction).
Motivation is regarded as “the inner state that energizes activities and directs or channels behavior towards the goal”.
Motivation is the process that arouses action, sustains the activity in progress and that regulates the pattern of activity.
Nature of Motivation
The nature of motivation emerging out of above definitions can be expressed as follows:
1. Motivation is internal to man
Motivation cannot be seen because it is internal to man. It is externalized via behaviour. It activates the man to move toward his / her goal.
2. A Single motive can cause different behaviours
A person with a single desire or motive to earn prestige in the society may move towards to join politics, attain additional education and training, join identical groups, and change his outward appearance.
3. Different motives may result in single behaviour
It is also possible that the same or single behaviour may be caused by many motives. For example, if a person buys a car, his such behaviour may be caused by different motives such as to look attractive, be respectable, gain acceptance from similar group of persons, differentiate the status, and so on.
4. Motives come and go
Like tides, motives can emerge and then disappear. Motives emerged at a point of time may not remain with the same intensity at other point of time. For instance, an entrepreneur overly concerned about maximization of profit earning during his initial age as entrepreneur may turn his concern towards other higher things like contributing towards philanthropic activities in social health and education once he starts earning sufficient profits.
5. Motives interact with the environment
The environment in which we live at a point of time may either trigger or suppress our motives. You probably have experienced environment or situation when the intensity of your hunger picked up just you smelled the odour of palatable food.
You may desire an excellent performance bagging the first position in your examination but at the same time may also be quite sensitive to being shunned and disliked by your class mates if you really perform too well and get too much of praise and appreciation from your teachers. Thus, what all this indicates is that human behaviour is the result of several forces differing in both direction and intent.
Entrepreneurial Motivating Factors
Most of the researchers have classified all the factors motivating entrepreneurs into internal and external factors as follows:
Internal Factors
These include the following factors:
- Desire to do something new.
- Become independent.
- Achieve what one wants to have in life.
- Be recognized for one’s contribution.
- One’s educational background.
- One’s occupational background and experience in the relevant field.
External Factors
- Government assistance and support.
- Availability of labour and raw material.
- Encouragement from big business houses.
- Promising demand for the product.
Meaning of Entrepreneurial Competencies
The business operation is considered to be very complex in a competitive business environment, which is constantly changing with fast technological advancements. An entrepreneur is expected to interact with these environmental forces which require him to be highly competent in different dimensions like intellectual, attitudinal, behavioral, technical, and managerial aspects. Entrepreneurs are therefore permanently challenged to deploy a set of competencies to succeed in their entrepreneurial endeavors. Entrepreneurial competencies are defined as underlying characteristics possessed by a person, which result in new venture creation. These characteristics include generic and specific knowledge, motives, traits, self-images, social roles, and skills that may or may not be known to the person. That is, these characteristics may be even unconscious attributes of an individual. Some of these competencies are innate while others are acquired in the process of learning and training and development.
Entrepreneurial competencies can be defined as underlying characteristics such as generic and specific knowledge, motives, traits, self-images, social roles, and skills that result in venture birth, survival, and/or growth.
– Bird (1995)
“Total ability the entrepreneur to perform this role successfully. Several studies have found positive relationship between existences of competencies and venture performance”.
– Man, Lau& Chan
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