Entrepreneurship: A Critical Evaluation of its Teachability

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"ENTREPRENEUR
SHIP CAN NOT
BE TAUGHT"
A CRITICAL EVALUATION

TABLE OF CONTENT
 Introduction
 Entrepreneurs Are Born! – It’s All In The
Genes.
 The Entrepreneurial Personality Traits Of
Successful Entrepreneur
 Entrepreneurs Are Made, Not Born!
 Entrepreneurs Are Made – The Researches.
 Entrepreneurship Is Teachable And Learnable
 Entrepreneurship Can Be Taught And Learned
 Conclusion
 Reference List

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship is the process of generating a
business idea and creating, operating and
establishing a business around it. The people that go
through the above-mentioned process to establish a
business are known as Entrepreneurs. The subject of
teachability and learnability of Entrepreneurship has
been a matter of contention among the scholars.
There have been numerous views both for and
against the above-stated subject. Many scholars are
of the view that entrepreneurs are born while many
scholars contest it by arguing that entrepreneurs are
made through lifelong learning. The teachability and
learnability of Entrepreneurship is another level of
this contention (Kuratko, 2016).

ENTREPRENEURS ARE BORN!
(SHANE AND NICOLAOU, 2015)
IT’S ALL IN THE GENES.
The genetic influence to become
an Entrepreneur is 37% to 40%.
This genetic influence dictates
 The ability for identifying
business opportunities.
 The ability to successfully
perform Entrepreneurship
activities.
 The level of Entrepreneurial
income
 The presence of Entrepreneurial
personality traits.
Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL
PERSONALITY TRAITS OF
SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS
The successful Entrepreneurs are
 Confident in their ability and
passionate about their endeavour.
 Self-disciplined
 Risk takers that analyse the potential
risks and determine the risks that
need to be taken
 Visionaries and creative thinkers that
often seek new ways of doing things
and determine the pathway to make
their ideas into a business.
 Persistent in their endeavours and
able to overcome odds while
continuously pursuing their goals
especially after a setback or failure
(Baum et al., 2014).

ENTREPRENEURS ARE
MADE, NOT BORN!
The scholars favouring the adage that the
"Entrepreneurs are made, not born" argue
that the experiences and learning of
entrepreneurs define their entrepreneurial
success. They argue that
 Early life or childhood experiences and
upbringing are responsible for the
development of entrepreneurial traits.
 Experience plays a key role in
Entrepreneurial success
 Traits like creativity, innovation, vision,
and problem-solving are acquired through
personal and professional experiences
and are not inherited (Koe et al., 2012).
Colonel Harland Sanders - KFC

ENTREPRENEURS ARE MADE – THE
RESEARCHES (MORRIS, 2012)
 47% of successful entrepreneurs start
their ventures after 30 years of age.
 60% of successful entrepreneurs have
transitioned that gained experience
from the corporate environment before
starting their venture.
 Over 30% of Entrepreneurs attribute
their professional experience as the
basis of their success while 30%
attribute their education and 26% their
mentors.
 Entrepreneurs consider passion, vision,
and drive/persistence to be key drivers
of entrepreneurial success that are not
hereditary attributes.
Elon Musk - Tesla

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS
TEACHABLE AND LEARNABLE
 Many of the modern day experts of entrepreneurship
suggest that entrepreneurial aspects and the basic
knowledge and skills necessary for the
entrepreneurial venture can be taught in a controlled
environment.
 The aspects like managing a business, functions of a
business etc. can be learned
 Basic knowledge required for starting a business like
types of organisations, legal aspects, human
resources management can be taught and learned.
 Certain skills like out of box thinking, an innovative
approach can be learned and taught.
 Various personality traits of successful entrepreneurs
can be learnt through expert guidance and
continuous practice (Vanevenhoven, 2013)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP CAN
BE TAUGHT AND LEARNED
 The benefits gained by having a mentor that's endorsed
by many successful entrepreneurs validate the concept
that Entrepreneurship is learnable and teachable.
 The background knowledge required for establishing an
entrepreneurial venture can be learnt through
professional experience and theoretical aspects can be
gained through classroom learning.
 Effective communication, interpersonal skills,
managerial techniques are some of the necessary
aspects of entrepreneurship that can be taught and
learnt (Vanevenhoven, 2013).

CONCLUSION
It can be surmised that most often the inherent
makeup and family atmosphere are the factors
that determine the entrepreneurial inclination but
it in no way defines entrepreneurial success.
Some fundamental skills that can be of significant
help in establishing an entrepreneurial venture
can be taught but the experience gained by the
entrepreneur is the decisive factor of their
entrepreneurial success. The primary factor that
defines a successful entrepreneur seems to be
their willingness to learn, apply their learning and
persistently drive towards their goal. It goes
without saying creativity and innovation lies at
the heart of every entrepreneurial venture.

REFERENCE LIST
 Baum, J.R., Frese, M. and Baron, R.A., 2014. Born to be an entrepreneur?
Revisiting the personality approach to entrepreneurship. In The
psychology of entrepreneurship (pp. 73-98). Psychology Press.
 Hnátek, M., 2015. Entrepreneurial thinking as a key factor of family
business success. Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences, 181,
pp.342-348.
 Koe, W.L., Sa’ari, J.R., Majid, I.A. and Ismail, K., 2012. Determinants of
entrepreneurial intention among millennial generation. Procedia-Social
and Behavioural Sciences, 40, pp.197-208.
 Kuratko, D.F., 2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice.
Cengage Learning.
 Morris, R., 2012. 2011 High-Impact Entrepreneurship Global Report.
Endeavour & GEM, http://www. gemconsortium. org/docs/download/295.
 Shane, S. and Nicolaou, N., 2015. The biological basis of
entrepreneurship. The biological foundations of organizational behaviour,
71.
 Shaw, K.L. and Sørensen, A., 2017. The productivity advantage of serial
entrepreneurs (No. w23320). National Bureau of Economic Research.
 Vanevenhoven, J., 2013. Advances and challenges in entrepreneurship
education. Journal of small business management, 51(3), pp.466-470.