Entrepreneurship Assignment: Inventions, Franchises, and Strategy

This entrepreneurship assignment delves into several key areas, including the impact of inventions like the light bulb, shoes, and electricity, highlighting their transformative effects on work processes. It then examines the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in franchise ventures, attributing potential failure to factors such as lack of passion and support. The assignment emphasizes the importance of a well-defined business plan, particularly for strategic planning, competitor analysis, and the significance of a strong management team and financial projections for securing venture capital. Furthermore, it discusses the role of patents in providing a competitive edge, licensing opportunities, and creating value. Finally, the assignment includes a comparative analysis of e-commerce websites like Alibaba, Shopify, and BigCommerce for office supply purchases, followed by suggestions for creating a user-friendly and attractive website.

Entrepreneurship assignment 1
Q.1 According to Davidsson (2015) invention refers to coming up with new ideas or products which did
not exist before and would help to create value in the market. Many inventions have been made since
the 16th century up to present time .I would have to examine the three major inventions that have
transformed the operations of the people in the world by making work more easier. One of the greatest
inventions was the invention of light bulb. This was invented by Edison in 1879 where he saw a need for
lighting after electricity had been invented by connecting voltaic piles to charcoal electrodes to produce
light. This was made possible through different trials of the invention by different people up to the end
product. I believe he was the first to invent the product because it was successful and lasting different
from other inventors who were not able to come up with the final product in the market.
The second invention was the invention of shoes by Matzeliger in 1883 when he found out an automatic
method for lasting shoes. He started with making designs for the shoe making machine and after
different experiments he finally came up with a lasting solution which was a reliable shoe making
machine .Lastly the invention of electricity by Michael Faraday. He came up with creating electricity
through the process of electromagnetism where electric charge can produce electric fields which can be
positive or negative which produces electric current. All these inventors were the first to invent because
they came up with new ideas and they were able to patent their products which are used up to today
(Drucker,2014).
Q.2 Many of the entrepreneurs who venture into franchises have a higher rate of failure compared
to those who start their own businesses from scratch based on their ideas. This can be attributed by lack
of passion of the type of enterprise since it was not someone’s innovation and it will lack commitment
by the person and the founders. Also the franchisers do not understand the challenges that the
enterprise faces hence lack of support. Lastly there are disputes between the parties since they have
different expectations and goals about the franchise.
Q.3 It is not a waste of time to put a strategy on the business plan because a business plan is a
blue print of the business. It shows the procedure of how the business would be operating from the
time of formation to growth. The business will have to strategize to know their competitors, customers,
producers and other stakeholders who will affect the operation of the business. It is also important to
consider the quality and competence of the management team to help manage the business well. As a
venture capitalist I will major on the experiences of the management team on how they run businesses
and also focus on the financial plan of the business by focusing on the sales projections of the products
offered (Shepherd,2015).

Entrepreneurship assignment 2
Q.4 According to Mehta (2010) patent is a technology which is very important for a business in
invention of a new product. The importance of the patent involves; it gives a company or business
competitive edge over other business, provides licensing opportunities with companies in the market
and lastly it creates value for the corporate world because it is one of the assets of company.
Q.5.I examined three websites which involves alibaba.com, bigcommerce.com and shopify.com
where I wanted to purchase a computer, printer and a scanner for my office work. Based on the
websites the best was alibaba.com then shopify.com.Alibaba was the based because the website was
easy to navigate through, their products were affordable and would offer great discounts. Their
feedback was very efficient compared to other two websites. If I were to create the perfect website it
would have different types of products which are available and affordable. The website should be easy
to navigate through and the customers should be able to pay conveniently. It would be attractive to be
able to create more traffic.

Entrepreneurship assignment 3
References
Davidsson, P., 2015. Entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurship nexus: A re-
conceptualization. Journal of Business Venturing, 30(5), pp.674-695.
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Mehta, A., Rysman, M. and Simcoe, T., 2010. Identifying the age profile of patent citations: New
estimates of knowledge diffusion. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 25(7), pp.1179-1204.
Shepherd, D.A., Williams, T.A. and Patzelt, H., 2015. Thinking about entrepreneurial decision making:
Review and research agenda. Journal of management, 41(1), pp.11-46.
See-To, E.W. and Ho, K.K., 2014. Value co-creation and purchase intention in social network sites: The
role of electronic Word-of-Mouth and trust–A theoretical analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 31,
pp.182-189.
Ward, A.C. and Sobek II, D.K., 2014. Lean product and process development. Lean Enterprise Institute.