Engineering Entrepreneurship: Research Paper

Engineering
Entrepreneurship:
Research Paper

ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurs are born with great skills and traits that enable them to launch a venture
with innovative ideas. They have the potential to do something new or turn innovative thoughts
into business ideas. In the present research, recognising the journey of famous entrepreneurs in
the filed of engineering that are Mark Zukerberg and Ankiti Bose, it has been evaluated that they
have possessed great skills from their childhood. Mark Zukerberg through guidance of his father,
has become the famous computer programmer who has invented the Facebook that aid people to
connect with others easily. While in context with Ankiti Bose who has launched e-commerce in
apparel industry, that provides innovative way of shopping to customers. So, reflecting on case
studies of both, it has been analyzed that individuals in the field of engineering, have abilities
and high thinking ways that enable them to become famous entrepreneurs in future.
Keywords: Famous entrepreneurs, engineering entrepreneurs, engineering entrepreneurship,
traits and skills of engineering entrepreneurship, software inventions

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
TITLE : “To conduct a research on entrepreneurship journey in the field of engineering with
their traits and skills”.......................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Concept and theories of entrepreneurship...................................................................................1
Traits of entrepreneurship...........................................................................................................2
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

TITLE : “To conduct a research on entrepreneurship journey in the field of
engineering with their traits and skills”.
INTRODUCTION
In today's world of entrepreneurship, starting a business in not easy for everyone, where
to establish a firm, an entrepreneur needs to develop specific ideas and skills (Andalibi, M.,
2019). The idea of establishing a business is generally arise at the young age, where a person
have creative ideas and energetic qualities, that helpful for them to become successful
entrepreneur in future. Option regarding for crowdfunding an idea changes the mind of youth to
launch business rather than to find a job. In context with engineer, as they are always engaging in
inventing new technology or creating solutions for business related problems, so, it raise their
entrepreneurship skills and predicted that they can become good entrepreneurs if they start-up a
business (Mani, 2018). The aim of this study is to examine the different nature of entrepreneurial
behaviour as well as their role within an engineering context in both small and large
organisations. Hereby, a focus is given on critical thinking of entrepreneurs based on their
success stories, by addressing their traits and skills. For this purpose, two famous entrepreneurs
in the filed of engineering are taken as Mark Zukerberg and Ankiti Bose, to extract how they
inspire other engineers to start-up a new business. This study also suggests that development of
an approach by taking a number of theoretical approaches of entrepreneurship which helps in
evaluating why engineer entrepreneurs want to start-up a new venture, also highlighted.
MAIN BODY
Concept and theories of entrepreneurship
Entrepreneur can be defined as individuals who are risk barriers and always ready to
work under uncertainty. They have potential to take risks for implementing new ideas to start-up
new ventures. While entrepreneurship refers to the process of developing, designing, launching
as well as running a business with new ideas initially at small level. This concept describes the
capacity and willingness of entrepreneurs who are ready to take risks for launching and
managing a business successfully (Huang‐Saad, Morton and Libarkin, 2018). The concept of
entrepreneurship can be determined by various theories like innovation, need of achievement,
behavioural theory etc. As per innovation theory, the entrepreneurs are born with desire to launch
1

a new venture with innovative idea, where they desires to launch something unique. For this
purpose, they utilise their creative skills and willing to earn new experience and skills for
launching business successfully. Along with this, they also focus on finding new sources like
production for development of high quality of products, talented workers, new machineries and
more (Marques and et. al., 2018). Similarly, as per theory of need of achievement, entrepreneurs
have possessed adequate capacity of thinking, imagination and developing new ideas, for
achievement of success in business.
Traits of entrepreneurship
According to the article given by Kerr, Sari & Kerr, William & Xu, Tina, (2018), it has
been analysed that baseline personality traits that every entrepreneur should have includes Big-5
model; locus of control; self-efficacy and innovativeness; the willingness for achievement.
While considering the risk attitudes, they always focus on short-term goals to create a path of
achievement of long goals. Hereby, Big 5 Model includes five factor model of personality traits
as Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
Each trait helps in measuring the unique aspect of personality of each entrepreneur and analyse
their risk attitudes as well (Kuratko, and Morris, 2018). Similarly, self-efficacy and
innovativeness shows the sense of competence, creative level of thinking and decisive skills of
entrepreneurs that enable them to successfully launch a new venture. In the field of engineering,
the skills and traits of individuals that reflect their entrepreneurship is self-efficacy and
innovativeness, with strong locus of control. This would shows that having self-control and
efficacy, engineers possess capabilities to become a good entrepreneur.
Considering the famous entrepreneurs in the field of engineering, like Mark Zuckerberg
is a famous internet entrepreneur and known for co-founding the Facebook. This social
networking website is one of the biggest innovation in internet in the year 2004, that has
connected entire world with each other. It gives opportunity to people to make connection with
other people are lived at nearby or distant region on internet and make chats, exchange photos,
videos and more (Frederick, O'Connor and Kuratko, 2018). This American entrepreneur has born
on 1984 and established the successful business in social media through entrepreneurial skills.
When Mark Zukerberg was at age of 12, then he has innovated a messaging program which was
implemented further as an inter-office communication system, under the guidance of his father.
This reflects the early signs of entrepreneurial skills that enables this person to become a
2

computer programmer (software engineer) at college time (Mark Zuckerberg Biography: Success
Story of Facebook Founder and CEO, 2018). Based on this aspect, Mark has partnered with
colleagues for innovating the social networking site, which has officially launched in 2004 and
just at the end of year, more than 1 million users have used this site. So, this explosion has
attracted many venture capitals to make investment in Facebook (Holzmann, Hartlieb and Roth,
2018) . This innovation has inspired a number of software engineers to move at corporate world
and create innovations to start-up a new venture. The key skills or psychological abilities that
make Mark Zuckerberg to become a famous engineering entrepreneur, includes equanimity,
critical thinking, problem-solving, effective communication and the most important one is
mindfulness and vision. These abilities have helped Mark Zuckerberg in reshaping his global
business landscape as well as encourage others who are engaging in technology field to follow
his suit and take risks to launch business with innovative engineering idea (Huang‐Saad, Morton
and Libarkin, 2018).
Another main entrepreneur is Ankiti Bose who has started her own start up and grown it
up within 4 years in effective manner. The name of her startup was Zilingo which worked as
the base for Fashion Asian e-commerce site. The company mainly offers online Fashion service
to its customers via e commerce website. The respective site has around user base of
approximate 7 million. The lady is considered as the youngest entrepreneur as she is only 27
years old, who born in Mumbai, India (Holzmann, Hartlieb and Roth, 2018). At the current
basis, she lives in Singapore and handles her own startup effectively. Ankiti Bose belongs to
engineering stream and was initially aiming to become Astronaut (Ankiti Bose Wikipedia,
Biography, Age, Net Worth, Education, Husband & More, 2019). If it is talked about the family
background of Ankiti Bose, father of the female entrepreneur is an engineer in a well known oil
company due to which they have to move in different countries when she was a child. This help
her in order to gain knowledge about different culture as well as languages (Frederick, O'Connor
and Kuratko, 2018). Her mother was a designated professor at a well known university but later
she resign from her post and gave her all time to give best up bringing to her daughter. This is
the result, she is one one of the best student in her life and studied maths and economics. She
was having strong command over the academics subjects like Mathematics, Physics, and
Economics (Mani, 2018).
3

Apart from the studies Ankiti Bose was also having interest in singing and dancing in
order follow her own hobby the lady has obtained various training for Indian Classical music.
Later she worked with McKinsey & Co. which give her opportunities to gain experience in the
field of technology, telecom and media sector (Kuratko, and Morris, 2018). In the starting age of
her career, Ankiti Bose has initiated working with many companies among them maximum
were belonging to internet users. Among them all she has further chosen to grab opportunities
available on mobile platforms especially E commerce sites. In the year 2014, she met Dhruv
kapoor who is an IIT graduate and was working in a gaming studio Kiwi Inc in Bangalore. Later
they both decides to open their own venture and for this they left their respected job. Both Dhruv
& Ankiti invest their savings and increase funds with the help of investor in order to start their
venture named as Zilingo in the year 2015. After almost four year Zilingo become a well known
Unicorn business with almost $1 billion start up value, with a headquarter located in Singapore
(Andalibi, M., 2019). All the functions is managed by CEO Ankiti Kapoor and on the other hand
technical office is handled by Dhruv Kapoor. At current, she is handling all major activities of
own startup named Zilingo. The growth of the respective venture is so high which simply
depicts that she has not only succeeded at 1%. In order to grow it in the clearer manner, Ankiti
wants to execute her future operations in such a manner that will supported her in enhancing
growth rate to 100% with negligible barrier factors or points (Marques and et. al., 2018).
Ankiti Bose childhood spend in Tripura and Himachal Pradesh. She wanted to become
Astronaut. She was good in mathematics, physics and economics. This result in that she
completed her graduation in economics. Pursing her interest she started working in Mckinsey
company from 2012 to 2014. Afterwards, she joins as investment analyst in Sequoia Capital. In
2015, she started own business and named Zilingo. The traits and skills which are depicted in her
from overall journey includes effective communication skill, good in management of money,
knowledge of handling diversified portfolios along with risk taker in nature. All these are
considered as the traits and skills that have by the entrepreneurs too. All these mentioned above
has huge contribution behind the formulation of new venture along with the attainment of
success in such less period of time (Frederick, O'Connor and Kuratko, 2018).
Mark Zuckerberg and Ankiti Bose are the two entrepreneurs. The ideas of their business has
huge success in market. Lots of efforts are provided by both to build their enterprise and
organisation. Mark Zuckerberg is an American entrepreneur. Fame is ascertained by the
4

entrepreneur after starting of the Facebook in 2004. Initially the purpose of its development is
different which is emerged over the period of time and become one of the most accessed or used
social site. At the time of launch of this site, he studied in college (Mani, 2018). To attain growth
he shifted with their friends in silicon valley. At this place, he takes the house on lease to start its
own office. There are many offers are ascertained by Mark as that from the very large
corporations but he does not focused over the same. The main objective or idea behind he is
working is about the development of platform that allows open flow of information in between
the people. The different number of traits which are depicted from the same in Mark includes
risk taking, passionate, knowledgeable and focused. The trait of risk taking of Mark has been
justified in the form that at the college going age he succeeds is formulation of own venture
along with separate office in silicon valley. Passionate from the characteristic is justified in the
nature as after getting many offers from the large corporations not takes the decisions to sell the
business. The characteristic of focused is justified from the statement where he said that want to
develop the platform that allows open communication. In last, knowledgeable from trait is
ascertained from the fact about development of own online platform (Huang, Saad, Morton and
Libarkin, 2018) .
Ankiti Bose is the entrepreneur able to start own business at the very early stage along
with the attainment of success. The organisation named Zilingo founded by her in 2015. It is a
online fashion market place along with e commerce website. At initial level the amount of fund
ascertained by her is around $8million dollar from Sequoia India. The traits that are visible in her
includes risk taking and honey. Risk taking as trait is justified from the point of starting business
from Singapore at the very early age of 27 without any financial support. Honesty of Ankiti Bose
is justified as able to get the high amount of investment from the previous organisation where she
works (Holzmann,Hartlieb and Roth, 2018).
Mark Zuckerberg is an American internet entrepreneur. He has huge interest in
technology that result into usage of computers and writing software's in middle school. Also,
contributed from his father side where he learned Atari BASIC Programming. He started college
and goes Harvard where get the good reputation in programming. The characteristic and skills
depicted by its earlier story that good in academic which allows in development of Facebook.
Also, innovative in nature which possible found in other successful entrepreneurs too. This help
in emergence of working of Facebook along with growth in market (Kuratko,and Morris, 2018).
5

Recommendations
Both the entrepreneurs are good and successful in all respect. The way they operates their
business depicts that having all the ability to handle the business in successful nature. The one
aspect that can be recommended to both as focus over the deployment of CSR activities. This
will help to gain more success in market along with enhancement of profit. The impact over the
brand of this is direct as further help in future to grab large market share (Marques and et. al.,
2018) . Lots more aspect which are inspiring in both of these entrepreneurs that having the
passion to do something which allows them to attain success at very early stage of life. Also,
focused nature of both is inspiring in nature as guides in the development of overall personality.
The aspects which are learned from the working of both entrepreneurs is about hard
working in nature along with able to handle difficult situations (Andalibi, 2019).
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the entire discussion that individuals who are mainly belonged
from engineering background possess unique skills and knowledge. They have potential to create
innovative ideas for launching a new venture and become successful entrepreneurs in future.
Through contribution of engineers, living standards of people have more raised like development
of social apps give benefits to people in easily connecting with each other.
6

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Mani, M., 2018. Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering Curriculum: Some Insights Into
Students' Viewpoints. In Entrepreneurship, Collaboration, and Innovation in the
Modern Business Era (pp. 243-261). IGI Global.
Huang‐Saad, A. Y., Morton, C. S. and Libarkin, J. C., 2018. Entrepreneurship Assessment in
Higher Education: A Research Review for Engineering Education Researchers. Journal
of Engineering Education, 107(2), pp.263-290.
Holzmann, P., Hartlieb, E. and Roth, M., 2018. From Engineer to Entrepreneur-Entrepreneurship
Education for Engineering Students: The Case of the Entrepreneurial Campus
Villach. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 8(3), pp.28-39.
Frederick, H., O'Connor, A. and Kuratko, D. F., 2018. Entrepreneurship. Cengage AU.
Kuratko, D. F. and Morris, M. H., 2018. Examining the future trajectory of
entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business Management, 56(1), pp.11-23.
Marques, C. S. and et. al., 2018. Entrepreneurship education, gender and family background as
antecedents on the entrepreneurial orientation of university students. International
Journal of Innovation Science, 10(1), pp.58-70.
Andalibi, M., 2019. Early Incorporation of Entrepreneurship Mindset in an Engineering
Curriculum. International Journal of Higher Education, 8(4), pp.98-107.
Kerr, Sari & Kerr, William and Xu, Tina., 2018. Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review
of Recent Literature. Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship. 14. 279-356.
10.1561/0300000080.
Online
5 Personality Traits of an Entrepreneur. 2014. [Online] Available
Through:<https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2014/04/14/5-personality-traits-
of-an-entrepreneur/#688a5eff3bf4>.
Mark Zuckerberg Biography: Success Story of Facebook Founder and CEO. 2018. [Online]
Available Through:<https://astrumpeople.com/mark-zuckerberg-biography-success-
story-of-facebook-founder-and-ceo/>.
Ankiti Bose Wikipedia, Biography, Age, Net Worth, Education, Husband & More. 2019.[Online]
Available Through:<https://celebsadda.com/ankiti-bose/>.
7

8