Characteristics and Traits of Entrepreneurs: Example Fairphone

The paper identifies and assesses the characteristics and traits of entrepreneurs, using Fairphone as an example. It discusses the concept of social entrepreneurship and the challenges faced in implementing a change. The paper concludes by summarizing the traits and characteristics of entrepreneurs.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary:
The purpose of the paper is to identify and assess the characteristics and traits of
entrepreneurs and linking the traits with the Fairphone entrepreneurial activities. In this
paper, the each traits and characteristics are discussed coordinating with the business
operation of Fairphone. In the paper, the concept of social entrepreneurship is highlighted
with the major boundaries and challenges in the process of conducting and implementing a
change. The paper concluded by presenting a summary of the traits and characteristics, which
depicts the activities of an entrepreneur.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Characteristics and Traits of entrepreneurs- Example Fairphone:.........................................3
Challenges and boundaries- Social entrepreneurship:...........................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The process of initiating a business venture with the actions of preparing strategy,
launching the idea and operating the functionalities is known as Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial activities involve risks and a range of support from internal and external
resources for establishing a change in a specific market segment (Kuratko 2016). There are
three types of entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, private entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.
The role of a social entrepreneur is to use the expertise and competencies of entrepreneurship
for developing and implementing funds in order to bring change for the cultural,
environmental or social issues (Dees 2017, p. 36). The purpose of the paper is to identify the
characteristics and traits of entrepreneurs in coordination with the operations of Fairphone
enterprise. The paper will highlight the concept of social entrepreneurship followed by
mentioning the challenges faced by a social entrepreneur during the implementation and
maintenance of business strategies. Summarising the characteristics of entrepreneurs will
conclude the paper.
Discussion
Characteristics and Traits of entrepreneurs- Example Fairphone:
 Vision: Fairphone was not started with the motive of commercialization, the main of
objective revolved around societal and environmental benefits. Bas Van Abel,
Fairphone founder and owner reflected a long-term vision for brining change in
regards with the social and environmental awareness about smartphone manufacturing
and usage. The change was implemented by educating users with the concept of a
‘fair supply chain’ (Akemu, Whiteman & Kennedy 2016, p. 846).
 Innovation and creativity: the Fairphone founder reflected the traits of innovation
and creativity. The innovation can be identified from the very first stage of

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entrepreneurial process, identifying issue or gap and then constructing concept of
‘unethical manufacturing process’ or/and ‘unethical sourcing of raw materials’. The
traits can be identified in the idea of introducing an ethically produced smartphone,
which focuses on long term usage. The creative approach can be depicted from the
understanding of constructing a business venture by collecting funds and
implementing the business strategies, without a prior knowledge about business
activities (Olivari 2016, p. 339). The creative skills can also be identified through the
process of raw materials sourcing like recyclable materials, which was required for
synchronizing the core objectives with the actual manufacturing and business process.
 Risk tolerance: The risk-tolerance traits can be extracted from the business operation
activities of the company Fairphone, the manufacturing process was started in
response of the increasing demand for an ethical smartphone. In spite of not having
required experience and investment funds, the business was started by satisfying the
motive of ethical supply chain in the entire process of production (Akemu, Whiteman
& Kennedy 2016, p. 846).
 Versatility- Versatility is one of the major traits possessed by an entrepreneur. The
appropriate response to the increasing demand for an ethically produced smartphone
was created by facilitating the traits of Versatility as the founder Bas Van Abel
constructed a business plan out of a social awareness campaign (Akemu, Whiteman &
Kennedy 2016, p. 846). The founder or entrepreneur of Fairphone embraced various
functional responsibilities and roles in order to set up a social enterprise by
implementing an ethical supply chain from sourcing to selling a durable ethically
produced smartphone.
 Inventor- The entrepreneurial trait of inventing or introducing a change in the society,
community or environment can be depicted from the institution of an new concept of

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‘ethical supply chain’ or the identification of the unethical practices for producing a
basic smartphone (Obschonka & Stuetzer 2017, p. 203).
 Relating business ideas with a social campaign- The capabilities of conjoining
business activities with the medium of creating societal and environmental change is
one of the crucial traits portrayed by social entrepreneurs.
 Integrity and ethics: A long-term vision and mission of an entrepreneur can be
reflected through the business activities, which involves ethical and moral
consideration. The entrepreneurial activities of Fairphone are completely based upon
the ethical practices. The business operations of Fairphone is not perfect in terms of
ethical operational activities as the source of cobalt involves child labour practices.
However, Fairphone is a great example of ethical supply chain. The company
involves transparency in their business objectives and operational functions (Akemu,
Whiteman & Kennedy 2016, p. 846).
 Determination: This trait helps in motivating activities of entrepreneurs and leads
towards management of challenges (Carsrud et al. 2017, p. 185). The determination
traits of the founder/entrepreneur Bas Van Abel can be reflected through the example
of one of the activities, which involved crowd funding for the required investments of
the business.
 Consideration towards value network- Understanding the importance of a value
chain network is vital for entrepreneurial or any business activities. The company is
deigned based on the importance of ‘ethical supply chain’, which comprises of fair
trade practices and ethical business operations.
Challenges and boundaries- Social entrepreneurship:
The utilization of entrepreneurial skills for developing, sourcing and implementing
solutions in response of cultural, environmental or social issue is known as social

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entrepreneurship (Zahra & Wright 2016, p. 610). Unlike usual entrepreneurship, social
entrepreneurs aim at establishing a positive change without the commercialization motive or
for-profit goals by constructing a positive outcome (Chell et al. 2016, p. 619). The social
entrepreneurs are known for accepting risks and for mitigating challenges in order to benefit
the society or environment. The main objective for social entrepreneurs is to direct the focus
on the aspects, which will bring positive change in the society rather than commercialization
motive (Phillips et al. 2015, p. 428). Social entrepreneurs experience various challenges and
boundaries from the internal and external environment.
1. Right manufacturer and/or supplier: One of the major challenges of social
entrepreneurship is comprised of sourcing and aligning company values with the
assigned/available supplier or manufacturer (Goyal, Sergi & Jaiswal 2016, p. 418).
The social enterprise Fairphone is based upon the awareness campaign about ethical
manufacturing and sourcing of smartphones. The company’s objective is to appoint an
ethical supply chain by including fair trade practices. The challenge faced by
Fairphone is sourcing cobalt from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for the
purpose of manufacturing batteries; DRC encourages the functioning of child labour
practices.
2. Capital- Sourcing financial resources is a major challenge experienced by social
entrepreneurs like Bas Van Abel. For responding to the increasing demand for
ethically produced smartphones marked the need for investment in raw material
sourcing and production cost. The funding was challenging for Bas Van Abel as well,
for which he conducted a crowd funding campaign along with six staff (Akemu,
Whiteman & Kennedy 2016, p. 846).
3. Lack of financial resources for the promotion purposes- Being a start-up company
Fairphone experienced challenges in building a strong customer base. The funding

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collected from crowd funding approach and other sources were directed towards raw
material purchase and production cost.
4. Mission Drift- It can be considered as a major challenge as social enterprises are also
operating in a business scenario, which may lead to a certain level of pressure for
planning the product line and strategies based upon commercialization. For the case
of Fairphone, the increasing awareness and demand for the product range can divert
the motive of the company in offering an ethically manufactured and long lasting
smartphone. At present the company have cancelled the production of Fairphone 3, as
they want to concentrate on the improvement of Fairphone 2, which will align the
objectives and growth strategies (Akemu, Whiteman & Kennedy 2016, p. 846).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded by stating that entrepreneurs portrays various skills
which is required for establishing changes and for mitigating external challenges of the
environment. Traits and characteristics like risk taking ability, ethical consciousness,
versatility and innovation are crucial for establishing and maintaining entrepreneurial
activities. Although, social entrepreneurs reflects the urge of bringing change in the society
and/or environment but they faces challenges like capital sourcing, promotional fund,
alignment of company values with supplier and manufacturers as well as the lack of resources
for building a strong base of consumers.

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References:
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movement activism: The Fairphone case. Journal of Management Studies, vol. 53, no. 1, pp.
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