Page 53 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

42 Ron Hustedde

ENTREPRENEURS AREN’T JUST SMALL BUSINESSES

Before further discussing an entrepreneurial culture, one must examine en-
trepreneurship more closely as is undertaken by Dabson in the previous
chapter. Although there isn’t a universal definition for entrepreneurs, there
are some common threads in the literature. Entrepreneurs are innovators
who create new products, new services, or new markets which are mani-
fested in new organizations. Entrepreneurs are not high risk takers; rather,
they tend to share risks with investors. They bear the risks of failures but
also reap the rewards of success.
Entrepreneurs come in many forms. First, civic or social entrepreneurs
seek to strengthen the arts, recreation, health, environment, or other aspects
of public life and thus are crucial in forming and maintaining an entrepre-
neurial culture. These rural social entrepreneurs are innovators whose new
services, products, or markets are expressed in forms such as nonprofit,
civic, or governmental organizations or through informal networks. Like
business entrepreneurs, they are creative; however, they don’t necessarily fo-
cus on profit. Rather, they concentrate on public outcomes such as mini-
mizing poverty, educating children, or supporting entrepreneurs.
Rural social entrepreneurs are valued for four major reasons: (1) they im-
prove the quality of life in a region; (2) they are critical leaders within rural
places; (3) they engage in building entrepreneurial environments, which
are essential for business innovators; and (4) they may directly support
business entrepreneurs (Markley and Macke 2003).
Business entrepreneurs seek profits, but they can also be interested in so-
cial issues such as reducing pollution, providing more accessible health
care, or offering better recreation opportunities. As Dabson notes in the pre-
vious chapter, entrepreneurs can be classified in several ways, including as-
piring, start-ups, and growth-oriented (Dabson 2003). Aspiring entrepre-
neurs are actively considering going into business and are engaged in
researching a business idea. They may be motivated by a job loss or other
changes in their lives.
Start-up entrepreneurs have an idea, have formulated a plan, and have
made a decision to start a business or have already started one. Both aspir-
ing and start-ups tend to have a modest early impact. In some cases, start-
ups emerge because of a necessity; it is the only alternative to a job and in-
come loss. Those attracted to opportunities (versus necessities) are more
likely to grow.
Growth-oriented entrepreneurs tend to represent a relatively small group
of enterprises that are already successful and are motivated to grow. They
have the opportunity for high impact growth such as increasing the num-
ber of employees, market expansion, and profit growth. While some state
and regional strategies focus exclusively on high growth firms, one can ar-