Entrepreneurship: Traits and Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

The main purpose of the paper is to identify and assess entrepreneurial traits with a connection linking Fairphone operations. The paper stresses on the concept of social entrepreneurship and the boundaries linked with the facilitation of entrepreneurial process. Summary of the entrepreneurial characteristics, values and traits along with the associated challenges concluded the paper.

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Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Executive Summary:
The main purpose of the paper is to identify and assess entrepreneurial traits with a
connection linking Fairphone operations. In the paper, the entrepreneurial traits and
characterises is highlighted by presenting a connection in the behaviour of the entrepreneur of
Fairphone. The paper stresses on the concept of social entrepreneurship and the boundaries
linked with the facilitation of entrepreneurial process. Summary of the entrepreneurial
characteristics, values and traits along with the associated challenges concluded the paper.

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

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Introduction
The individual who develops skills and competencies for the purpose of establishing a
change or innovative idea in response of the market needs, reflects the sign of an entrepreneur
(Barringer 2015). Entrepreneurs are considered to be a means of innovative and creative
ideas, services as well as manufacturing innovative products. Procedure involved in strategic
preparation, resource allocation, establishment and maintenance of operational activities of a
new business venture is referred to as entrepreneurship. Among the various kind of
entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs are considered as individuals involved in the process of
introducing positive changes for societal, environmental and community benefits. The main
purpose of the paper is to discuss the traits, characteristics and roles of entrepreneurs with
reference of Bas Van Abel, the founder of Fairphone. In the paper, the theory of social
entrepreneurship will be presented with the associated boundaries and challenges.
Summarizing the entrepreneurial characteristics, behaviour and traits will conclude the report.
Discussion
Traits and Characteristics of entrepreneurs- Example of Fairphone:
o Open- minded- Entrepreneurs needs to be open minded for adapting in a changing
demographics of business and societal environment. In the example of Fairphone, it
can be depicted that Bas Van Abel portrays open-minded behaviour as the
founder/entrepreneur established the company just as a response to the market needs.
Bas Van Abel as a social entrepreneur works towards creating an ethical supply chain,
for which he reflects open-minded characteristics as he and his team is in continual
hunt for improving the gap between the objectives and operational activities of
smartphone production (Akemu and Whiteman 2015).

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o Creativity- Creativity is one of the important characteristics of an entrepreneurial
process. Creativity allows an entrepreneur to different its presence from numerous
other start-ups in the market (Beattie 2016, pp.13). Especially in the case of social
entrepreneurship, creative approach can enable the process of successful
establishment of positive change. The idea of an ‘ethical supply chain’ is a new and
innovative concept introduced Fairphone campaign (Phillips et al. 2015, pp.428). The
increasing awareness of the campaign demanded the production of ethically produced
smartphone, for which Bas Van Abel (even without prior experience) facilitated the
sourcing and allocation of resources for manufacturing creative products
(smartphones).
o Flexibility and Adaptability- Bas Van Abel reflects the core characteristic of being
flexible and adaptable as he adopted versatile responsibilities after the decision of
transforming Fairphone from a social campaign to a social enterprise. Bas Van Abel
reflected flexibility skills by reacting as per the requirement of forming an enterprise
like by conducting crowd funding activities for sourcing financial resources.
o Vision- Even though, Fairphone started as a source of creating awareness about the
unethical production process of smartphone brands but with the growing demand for
ethically produced smartphone, Fairphone became a social enterprise. The
entrepreneur or founder of Fairphone Bas Van Abel always portrayed a long-term
vision with the motive of creating positive change (Reuter, van Schaik and Ballester
2018).
o Integrity and ethics- Entrepreneurial actions should be based upon the foundation of
ethics and morality as well as should be transparent for its intension of operational
functionality (Reuter, van Schaik and Ballester 2018).

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o Risk-taker- Risk tolerance is a mandatory characteristic for all kinds of entrepreneurs.
In the case of Fairphone, risk tolerance is primarily depicted through the decision of
starting an enterprise without any prior experience. The social enterprise was started
for bringing a positive change in the area of supply chain with the presence of major
risks regarding sourcing and allocation of resources. Risks comprised of the challenge
of aligning Fairphone’s ethical values with the available suppliers and manufacturers.
Moreover, Fairphone did not have financial capabilities to initiate investment without
the sources of fund (Haucke 2018, pp.1719).
o Business strategy- social awareness integration- Bas Van Abel depicted the traits of
merging social awareness objectives with the entrepreneurial strategies, which is a
positive sign of a social entrepreneur (Haucke 2018, pp.1719).
o Determination- Bas Van Abel was determined for creating and establishing a change
within ethical grounds and it enabled Bas Van Abel to mitigate all the challenges and
risks in the process. For instance, Bas Van Abel facilitated a crowd funding activity
for sourcing financial aids for investing in the process of raw material purchase and
for production cost.
o Knowledge about value network- The understanding of the importance of a value
network is another important characteristic reflected by an entrepreneur. The
foundation of the Fairphone enterprise was based on the concept of ‘ethical supply
chain’ (Haucke 2018, pp.1719). The business involved fair trade practices and
facilitated coordination of company values with supplier sourcing.
o Change maker- Change is the primary objective for any social entrepreneur. Bas Van
Abel proceeded towards establishing change with the development of operational
activities and entrepreneurial competencies.

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Challenges in Social entrepreneurship:
The main objective of social entrepreneurship is to identify and recognize existing
problems in the society and environment and to introduce positive change as a means of
solution with the utilization of entrepreneurial skills. The role of a social entrepreneur
involves defining the identified social or environmental problem followed by the process of
organizing and managing the new business venture for the attainment of effective change
(Carraher, Welsh and Svilokos 2016, pp.386). The quality of a social entrepreneur includes
novel implementations of strategic solutions. Social entrepreneurs experiences various
challenges and boundaries in the process of implementing business or change strategies
(Haugh and Talwar 2016, pp.643).
 Financial resources: This is one of the main challenges faced by social entrepreneurs.
Bas Van Abel started the social enterprise as a response for the growing demand of
ethically produced smartphone but he did not have financial backing for setting up the
procedure. The entrepreneur had to conduct crowd funding activities with the help of
six team members for incurring the cost of production and raw material sourcing
(Rawhouser, Cummings and Newbert 2019, pp.82).
 Alignment of supplier’s/manufacturer’s value with company objectives:
Synchronising core values of a social venture with the practices of supplier is
challenging (Goyal, Sergi and Jaiswal 2016, pp.418). Fairphone social enterprise is
completely based on the ethical operation of manufacturing smartphone, which was
challenging for Bas Van Abel as sourcing raw materials from areas or institutions
which is completely ethical is difficult. Fairphone sources its raw materials for
batteries from DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), which is believed for adopting
unfair child labour practices (Haucke 2018, pp.1719). Although, Fairphone can be
accounted for one of the most ethical value chain company but at the same it needs to

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engage in intensive search for checking the availability of ideal suppliers (Rawhouser,
Cummings and Newbert 2019, pp.82).
 Mission Drift- The social enterprise merged as a response to the demand for ethical
smartphone as well as the core objectives of Fairphone includes ethical production,
fair trade practices and production of quality, durable smartphone. Fairphone’s
decision of cancelling the production of a new version Fairphone 3 was cancelled
because of their avoidance of strategic mission drift but it is very challenging for
social enterprises to have a strong gravitation pull towards its core values and
objectives because of the increasing demand of commercialization.
 Lack of promotional resources due to the dependence on funding for financial
capabilities. It portrayed challenges in the process of building a strong base of
consumers.
 Another challenge can be the effectiveness of communicating values and objectives of
the social enterprise to the investors and/or donors.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded from the paper that the traits and qualities reflects by
entrepreneurs are risk-taking traits, characteristics of flexibility, adaptability and a transparent
long-term vision. Entrepreneurs needs to be open minded and should plan the functions based
on ethical and moral grounds. Social entrepreneurs utilizes the competencies of
entrepreneurship for establishing positive change in the society and environment. Social
entrepreneurs face various challenges, such as funding issues, alignment of values with
supplier and the major risk of mission drift. A social entrepreneur will have to be flexible and
adaptable for ensuring sustainability of the venture under changing environmental dynamics.

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References:
Akemu, O. and Whiteman, G., 2015. Fairphone: Organising for Sustained Social Impact.
Barringer, B.R., 2015. Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures. Pearson
Education India.
Beattie, S., 2016. Which entrepreneurial traits are the most critical in determining success.
Otago Management Graduate Review, 14(1), pp.13-20.
Carraher, S.M., Welsh, D.H. and Svilokos, A., 2016. Validation of a measure of social
entrepreneurship. European Journal of International Management, 10(4), pp.386-402.
Goyal, S., Sergi, B.S. and Jaiswal, M.P., 2016. Understanding the challenges and strategic
actions of social entrepreneurship at base of the pyramid. Management Decision, 54(2),
pp.418-440.
Haucke, F.V., 2018. Smartphone-enabled social change: Evidence from the Fairphone case?.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 197, pp.1719-1730.
Haugh, H.M. and Talwar, A., 2016. Linking social entrepreneurship and social change: The
mediating role of empowerment. Journal of Business Ethics, 133(4), pp.643-658.
Phillips, W., Lee, H., Ghobadian, A., O’Regan, N. and James, P., 2015. Social innovation and
social entrepreneurship: A systematic review. Group & Organization Management, 40(3),
pp.428-461.

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Rawhouser, H., Cummings, M. and Newbert, S.L., 2019. Social impact measurement:
Current approaches and future directions for social entrepreneurship research.
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 43(1), pp.82-115.
Reuter, M.A., van Schaik, A. and Ballester, M., 2018. Limits of the circular economy:
Fairphone modular design pushing the limits. Metallurgy–ERZMETALL, 71(2).