Module 1: Entrepreneurship: An Overview

This introductory module allows you to revisit the core values of Saint Louis University and
align them to your personal and professional vision. You will be tasked to describe yourself
as a person and a professional who manifests these core values.

Likewise, this module gives you insight on what entrepreneurship is and its significance
to your field of discipline, whether or not you are a business student. It will help you
understand the schools of thought of entrepreneurship and the categories of
entrepreneurship, which will further help you decide which entrepreneurship is applicable
to you according to your field of discipline.

Learning outcomes:
At the end of Module 1, you should have achieved the following topic learning outcomes:
1. Understand the significance of SLU’s core values in entrepreneurial undertakings
2. Understand and have an in-depth knowledge of entrepreneurship and realize its
relevance to your field of discipline.
3. Integrate the various stages in the entrepreneurial process
4. Classify the various forms of entrepreneurship

The topics to be tackled in order to realize the topic learning outcomes are the following:
1. Understanding entrepreneurship
• Why entrepreneurship education?
• Evolution of entrepreneurship
• Definition of entrepreneurship
• Myths of entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurial schools of thought
2. The entrepreneurial process
3. Categories of entrepreneurship
PREASSESSMENT

True or False: Write true if you agree to the statement; False if you disagree to the statement:
_________1.
T Entrepreneurship covers more than just inventions; it also requires innovation.
_________2.
F Entrepreneurs are academically and socially ineffective.
_________3.
T Entrepreneurs are doing entrepreneurs; they lean towards action.
_________4.
F Only people who have certain natural talents can be entrepreneurs.
_________5.
T Entrepreneurs are extreme risk takers
_________6.
F Entrepreneurs seek success but experience high failure rates
_________7.
F Ignorance is bliss for entrepreneurs
_________8.
F All entrepreneurs need is luck
_________9.
T Money is what the entrepreneurial venture need to survive.
_________10.
T Entrepreneurs must fit the standard entrepreneurial profile.

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 Topic 1: Understanding Entrepreneurship
This topic introduces the world of entrepreneurship. It commences with an
understanding of the need to learn entrepreneurship.

Why Entrepreneurship Education

 Republic Act No 10679
Because universities focus on traditional programs, the Philippine government
approved the Youth Entrepreneurship Act in 2015 to promote the sustained
development of young Filipinos in the areas of finance and entrepreneurship. Through
this Act, the government intends to change the mindset of Filipinos – from wanting to
be employees to being business owners. Initiatives under this law include standardizing
the current programs of schools on entrepreneurship and financial literacy, providing
government assistance and training programs to students, developing mentoring and
coaching programs for young entrepreneurs, and setting up incubation laboratories
and creative spaces in schools.

 Entrepreneurial Louisians

As emphasized in the introduction of this course, this entrepreneurship course is for you
learners to ignite your entrepreneurial spirit and to be innovators in your chosen career
path and thus, able to introduce changes in your field of discipline – changes that
transform the world for the better.

It has been observed that in the past, students’ creativity is wasted. How? Learners’
creative outputs are dumped in the storage rooms. With entrepreneurship education,
learners may be able to see the opportune use of their creative outputs and turn
them into reality.

“The purpose of innovation in higher education is to create entrepreneurial universities

with graduates who will be change-adept to meet the emerging challenges of an
evolving world” Rev. Fr. Gilbert Sales, CICM, PhD.

Evolution of Entrepreneurship
The word Entrepreneur is derived from the French entreprendre, meaning “to
undertake.” It was a term coined by Richard Cantillon, a French economist.

a. The entrepreneur is one who undertakes to organize, manage, and assume the
risks of a business.

b. Although no single definition of entrepreneur exists and no one profile can

represent today’s entrepreneur, research is providing an increasingly sharper
focus on the subject.

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 Definition of Entrepreneurship
 Entrepreneurship is a mindset. It is not only about the creation of a business, but rather it
involves seeking opportunities, taking risks beyond security and having the tenacity to
push an idea through to reality.
 In the book of Kuratko, an integrated definition states that entrepreneurship is a
dynamic process of vision, change, and creation.
 Essential components of entrepreneurship include the following:
• The willingness to take calculated risks—in terms of time, equity, or career.
• The ability to formulate an effective venture team; the creative skill to marshal
needed resources.
• The fundamental skills of building a solid business plan.
• The vision to recognize opportunity where others see chaos, contradiction, and
confusion.

 To have a better perspective on entrepreneurship, let us look into this contribution by

the Commission Communication “Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education
and learning” COM (2006).

“Entrepreneurship refers to an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action. It includes

creativity, innovation and risk taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage
projects in order to achieve objectives. This supports everyone in day-to-day life at
home and in society, makes employees more aware of the context of their work
and better able to seize opportunities, and provides a foundation for entrepreneurs
establishing a social or commercial activity.”

Myths of Entrepreneurship
To have a good grasp of entrepreneurship, we need to dispel misconceptions that
were created due to lack of research on entrepreneurship in the past.

Myth 1: Entrepreneurs Are Doers, Not Thinkers

• Entrepreneurs are actually doers at the same time that they are thinkers. We
need entrepreneurs who lead us with clear vision and serve as role models in
achieving the company’s aims and purposes.

Myth 2: Entrepreneurs Are Born, Not Made

• Entrepreneurs are either born or made. There are innate traits that entrepreneurs
are born with. Likewise, there are models and processes that need to be studied
and knowledge that are to be acquired; hence, the purpose why
entrepreneurship is taught.

Myth 3: Entrepreneurs Are Always Inventors.

• Not all inventors end as entrepreneurs; not all entrepreneurs are inventors.
Entrepreneurs are innovators, though.

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 Myth 4: Entrepreneurs Are Academic and Social Misfits
• Not all drop outs are successful entrepreneurs; not all successful entrepreneurs
are drop outs. Likewise, entrepreneurs are recognized in and by society due to
their enormous contributions. Today, entrepreneurs are considered as heroes –
socially, economically and academically.

Myth 5: Entrepreneurs Must Fit the “Profile”

• There is no such profile of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are as varied as they
come.

Myth 6: All Entrepreneurs Need Is Money

• We need ideas to start with an entrepreneurial undertaking, not only money.
There are other factors contributing to the failure of a business, such as poor
financial planning, managerial incompetence, poor investments and poor
planning.

Myth 7: All Entrepreneurs Need Is Luck

• You need hard work to be successful. Actually, luck happens with preparation,
determination, desire, knowledge and innovativeness.

Myth 8: Ignorance Is Bliss for Entrepreneurs

• You need the right information/data when making decisions.

Myth 9: Entrepreneurs Seek Success but Experience High Failure Rates

• Not all experience failure. Some succeed after some failure, and some fail
because they are yet learning how to succeed.

Myth 10: Entrepreneurs Are Extreme Risk Takers.

• Entrepreneurs are calculated or moderate risk takers; neither low risk taker nor
high risk taker (gambler). As a moderate risk taker, the entrepreneur weigh
chances of failure or success before taking action.

Entrepreneurial Schools of Thought

The schools of thought provide us with perspectives on what factors influence one
to entertain entrepreneurial thoughts; factors that relate to the success or failure of
entrepreneurial ventures. There are two viewpoints – the macro and the micro views.

 Macro View. The macro view of entrepreneurship includes external factors that are
beyond the control of the entrepreneur but could affect him/her.

 The environmental school of thought

• Considers the external factors that influence a potential entrepreneur’s lifestyle.
These could be positive or negative factors that mold the entrepreneur’s
entrepreneurial desires. Example, the pandemic situation may influence one to
be an entrepreneur.

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  The financial school of thought
• Based on the capital-seeking process — the search for seed and growth capital.
Availability of funds needed for potential business venture may influence one to
be an entrepreneur.

 The displacement school of thought

• Alienation drives entrepreneurial pursuits. Displacement focuses on the negative
factors. Frustrations will drive you to your entrepreneurial pursuits.
 Political displacement. Examples are governmental regulations or policies
that limit certain industries, causing job displacement and turning toward
entrepreneurship.
 Cultural displacement. Examples are ethical background, religion, race and
sex factors that drive people away from standard professions and toward
entrepreneurial ventures.
 Economic displacement. Economic variations of recession and depression
can create the foundation for entrepreneurial interest. Example is the loss of
their job during this pandemic, which prompted some to be entrepreneurial.

 Micro View. The micro view of entrepreneurship examines the factors that are specific
to entrepreneurship.

 The entrepreneurial trait school of thought

• Focuses on identifying traits common to successful entrepreneurs. Believing that
entrepreneurs have traits common to them and that if you have these traits, you
could be a successful entrepreneur might prompt you to be an entrepreneur.

 The venture opportunity school of thought

• Focuses on the opportunity aspect of venture development. The more idea
sources and resources that are available for the development of business
concepts and their implementation to take advantage of venture opportunities,
the more people are motivated to be entrepreneurs.

 The strategic formulation school of thought

• Emphasizes the planning process in successful venture management and
development. Involves establishing a business venture with all its internal factors
aligned with each other and with the external forces as the entrepreneur pursues
the venture’s vision and mission, its dream and purpose.

KEY POINTS:
Entrepreneurship is a MINDSET.
It is about CHANGE and DEVELOPMENT.
It is about CONSTRUCTION and VALUE CREATION.
It is about INNOVATION and CREATIVITY
It embraces RISK and UNCERTAINTY

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 Topic 2: The Entrepreneurial Process
Every entrepreneur, whether operating a micro, small, medium or large business,
undergoes a series of activities prior to and while operating a business. This sequence of
activities is the entrepreneurial process. This process serves as a guide in this course –
GENTREP: The Entrepreneurial Mind. The focus of this course will be on the first 3 stages; self-
assessment, environmental scanning and opportunity identification and evaluation, and
product ideation and development.

Figure 1: The entrepreneurial process

In life, before you commence any journey, you assess if that journey is right for you.
That is the purpose of the first stage in this entrepreneurial process. You examine yourself if
you do have the passion and interest in pursuing your entrepreneurial activities. When you
start to measure up yourself and ask: “how entrepreneurial am I?” your entrepreneurial
process has begun. The outstanding entrepreneur needs to have passion in what he is
doing. Having no passion in what you are doing will guarantee failure. Interest dictates
commitment. Starting a new enterprise entails total commitment in order to stay in the
journey. Without commitment, eventually you decide to divorce yourself from the journey.
One has to love what he is doing, to be passionate about it, in order to succeed in it.

Once you know that you have the entrepreneurial passion, examine if you have the
skills needed to become a superb entrepreneur. Do you have what it takes to be an
entrepreneur? Do you have the right stuff to be an outstanding entrepreneur– the mindset,
the attitudes, the competencies? Can you perform the roles and tasks of an entrepreneur?

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 Do you think and behave like one? These are some of the questions that you should
consider during your entrepreneurial assessment. As you will see, answering ‘no’ to these
questions does not mean that you should not be an entrepreneur or cannot be
entrepreneurial; it only means that you are not yet one, but can become one as you
develop through this course. This stage is the core of Module 1, Module 2 and Module 3 of
this course.

The second stage in the process is environmental scanning and opportunity

identification and evaluation. Now that you know and have developed the passion and
the capability to do entrepreneurship, you will scan your environment to be able to search
for business opportunities that can eventually be turned into business ideas. This is a critical
and challenging task for every entrepreneur. Not all businesses that failed are due to the
absence of opportunities, but because of the incapability of the entrepreneur to spot
them, assess which of them is the most advantageous to pursue, and to derive clear
business ideas from it. This stage is the focus in Module 4 of this course.

Once an opportunity has been selected, a business idea is generated through the
ideations process. The third stage is to develop the product concept through the product
ideation and development process. In this course, this is covered in Module 5.

The enterprise management and enterprise development stages are not covered in
this Entrepreneurial Mind course. The enterprise management stage is the implementation
stage; where the business opportunity is turned into business reality by planning, organizing,
staffing, leading and controlling its resources and performance. Developing strategies to
keep the business going and to derive the most benefit from it is the concern in Stage 5 of
the entrepreneurial process.

Entrepreneurs realize that the entrepreneurial process is cyclical, a continuous spiral

of development that entrepreneurs go through as they evolve together with their
enterprises in their entrepreneurial journey.

With the entrepreneurial process in mind, entrepreneurship may also be defined,

thus:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP is the passion and power to engage in the process of managing

and developing a profitable enterprise, assuming its risks and enjoying its rewards,
while creating and providing innovative goods and services to solve problems and
improve lives, and thereby sustainably satisfy the needs of society and of the
entrepreneur.

Topic 3: Categories of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship comes in different forms. It may be corporate entrepreneurship
(intrapreneurship), technopreneurship, ecopreneurship and/or social entrepreneurship, to
name a few. An understanding of these variations of entrepreneurship will help you decide
which one to become – will you be a corporate entrepreneur? a technopreneur? an
ecopreneur? or a social entrepreneur?

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 A. Corporate entrepreneurship

It is also referred to as intrapreneurship. This is entrepreneurship WITHIN existing

organizations or companies. It is observed when the company organizes its structure to
instigate innovation within the company. The corporate entrepreneurs are managers or
employees who lead the company to NEW directions. Companies that encourage
intrapreneurial environment motivate their employees to take initiative, commitment
and risk taking. This is an option for non-BS Entrepreneurship learners who have set their
minds to work in existing companies, not just employees, but as entrepreneurial
employees and managers.

B. Technopreneurship

This involves doing business with the use of technology in transforming ideas into
products; use of new technology in the enhancement of the existing operations. It is
said that the first use of term technopreneur was in 1987.

A technopreneur is a new age entrepreneur who makes use of technology to come

out with something new to make new innovation.
(https://definitions.uslegal.com/t/technopreneur)

For example, it is the aim of SLU’s School of the Engineering and Architecture (SEA) to
produce learners who will be technopreneur engineers and architects.

C. Ecopreneurship

Ecopreneurship involves the use of entrepreneurship principles in crafting businesses

that solve environmental problems or that operate sustainably. (Wikipedia)

An ecopreneur is an entrepreneur whose business efforts are not only driven by profit,
but also by a concern for the environment (Schuyler, 1998).

D. Social entrepreneurship

This is a new form of entrepreneurship, which focuses on solving social problems through
innovation and risk taking; venturing into business in pursuit of a social mission. This is
different from the concept of corporate social responsibility. Characteristics of Social
Entrepreneurs as Change Agents are:

• Adoption of a mission to create and sustain social value (beyond personal value)
• Recognition and relentless pursuit of opportunities for social value
• Engagement in continuous innovation and learning
• Action beyond the limited resources at hand
• Heightened sense of accountability

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 These four varieties of entrepreneurship that were introduced here are applicable
both to BS Entrepreneurship and non-BS Entrepreneurship learners. You can also be an
intrapreneur, technopreneur, ecopreneur and social entrepreneur all at the same time.

Additional readings for this module:

Bruce R. and R. Duane Ireland. (2006). Entrepreneurship Successfully Launching New

Ventures. New Jersey, Pearson Education, Inc.

Kuratko D. (2017). Entrepreneurship Theory, Process, Practice. Cengage Learning. 10th

edition

Kuratko D. Corporate Entrepreneurship

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2012). Vocation of the Business Leader: A
Reflection

Read stories of entrepreneurs through the: The Entrepreneur Magazine,

https://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine

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 ASSIGNMENT 1
Read: Module 1

1. Fast forward to 2027. You are now practicing your profession as an SLU BSHM or BSTM or
BSBA MM graduate. Describe yourself as a person and a professional manifesting in your
life each of the SLU core values. You may follow this format:
A. As a person and a professional HM, TM or MM who is imbued with the Christian Spirit, I
am....
B. As a person and a professional HM, TM or MM who is socially involved, I am....
C. As a person and a professional HM, TM or MM who is professionally competent, I
am....
D. As a person and a professional HM, TM or MM who is creative and a critical thinker, I
am....
Note: 3 to 5 sentences per core value. 5 points per core value

2. Explain how developing each of the SLU core values in your life is compatible with
learning how to think and act like an entrepreneur. 7 to 10 sentences. (10 pts)

Short bond paper; 1-inch all borders; Arial 12. maximum: 2 pages
Filename format: GENTREP1381.surname.assignment1; e.g., GENTREP1381.delacruz.assignment1
Submit to our Google classroom; if not, to [email protected]

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