Hardy Aqua: Assessing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practices

This report analyzes the innovative and entrepreneurial activities of Hardy Aqua, a new business in the Australian bottled water industry. The paper explores how innovation, defined as implementing new ideas and enhancing existing services, and entrepreneurship, the act of running a small business and taking risks, can enhance Hardy Aqua's business practices. The report examines the importance of functional organizational structures, the role of entrepreneurs in driving innovation, and the impact of internal and external contextual factors on business strategies. It also discusses how innovation and entrepreneurship influence decision-making processes, competitive advantage, and overall business success. The report references various theories and models, including Schumpeter's innovation theory and the neoclassical theory, to support its arguments, concluding that Hardy Aqua should embrace innovation and entrepreneurship to achieve its goals and maintain a sustainable business practice.

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS CONTEXT 1
Management and Business Context
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Management and Business Context 2
The main aim of this paper is to uncover the innovative and the entrepreneurial activities
based on the Hardy Aqua Company which is a new business entry in Australia. Innovation
entails the process of implementing new thoughts, enhancing the existing products or services,
and developing dynamic products. Innovation speeds up the growth and success of the business
and helps entrepreneurs grow and adapt to the market (Carland & Carland, 2015).
Entrepreneurship is a business term used to describe a person who chooses to run a small
business rather than work for someone. Entrepreneurs are business leaders and engineers of new
business processes and ideas. They assume all the rewards and risks that may come along with a
particular business idea or venture. The term innovation means more than just inventing. It
entails changing the model of the business to adopt the new changes and deliver better services
and products (Drucker, 2014). Successful innovation forms the basic part of business strategy,
where innovative thinking solves the major business problems and creates a culture of
innovation. Innovation increases the chances of business success. Entrepreneurs who have
adopted innovation to their businesses have more efficient processes, and the eventual result is
improved performance, productivity, and profits. Before implementing innovations to business,
key steps should be followed (Chatterji, Glaeser & Kerr, 2014). They include conducting an
analysis, consulting with customers, seeking advice, being open to new ideas, developing a
response plan and training employees. Therefore, this paper aims to assess how innovation and
entrepreneurship may be used to enhance the business practice of Hardy Aqua Company which
will be operating in the bottled water industry of Australia.
Key words will be used in this paper based on innovation and entrepreneurship are an
overview, assess, enhance, and practice. Overview is defined as a short outline that provides the
main information without getting into details of a contextual factor (Phillips, Lee, Ghobadian,

Management and Business Context 3
O’Regan & James, 2015). Assess is viewed as judging the contextual factor. Enhance is defined
as improving the effectiveness of an organization using the contextual factor. Finally, practice
refers to the initial application. Therefore, when assessing the entrepreneurship and innovation in
the practices employed in Hardy Aqua, the words will be considered. Innovation and
entrepreneurship are significant factors in which the Hardy Aqua Company should consider
within the functional organizational structure which will be adopted. This is because the
functional organizational structures can promote the performance of the company through
innovation and entrepreneurship (Turró, Urbano & Peris-Ortiz, 2014). In an entrepreneurial
functional organizational structure, the Hardy Aqua will embrace the flat arrangement which
allows flexibility in management. In this case, entrepreneurs have the risk to achieve the
significant goals hence it would not be easy to replace them. On the other hand, an innovative,
functional organizational structure within the company allows the organization to adjust easily to
meet the market demands (Autio, Kenney, Mustar, Siegel & Wright, 2014). For this reason, the
Hardy Aqua company will maintain the employees as well as hire others to develop the
organization. Innovation and entrepreneurship will help the organization to venture into the new
markets creating better institutional forms to enhance the economic activities (Huggins &
Thompson, 2015). Based on the entrepreneurship innovation theory developed by Joseph
Schumpeter, it is clear that an entrepreneur facilitates the process of innovation through various
ways. This is because innovation is identified if the entrepreneur develops new products,
employs new methods of production, sets up new businesses like the Hardy Aqua, and looks for
new sources of raw materials.
Innovation and entrepreneurship play a great role on the internal and the external
contextual factors which may affect the business structures and strategies within the Hardy Aqua

Management and Business Context 4
company. To begin with the internal factors, they include the mission and the goals and
objectives of the organization (Sahut & Peris-Ortiz, 2014). Others are the availability of
resources, support which is provided by the stakeholders, finances, human labor, and knowledge.
Therefore, innovation will help the institution to manage the internal factors hence it will achieve
its goals in the long-term. Also, innovation will help the organization to implement new
technologies that will enhance efficiency in the enterprise operations. Hardy Aqua will delegate
tasks to the employees easily. Through entrepreneurship, the organization’s culture will be
enhanced. This is because good entrepreneurial skills maintain the policies and values which
guide the employees (Acs, Szerb & Autio, 2016). On the other hand, the external factors are the
competitors, suppliers, advances in technology, the government policies, cultural and economic
conditions. Hardy Aqua will gain a competitive advantage through the innovation and
entrepreneurship. In the current world, there are rapid global changes, and the environments are
very competitive hence the companies need to engage in the entrepreneurial activities to succeed.
Therefore, Hardy Aqua should be ready to embrace innovation as well as take risks to establish
entrepreneurship within the company. The vision of Hardy Aqua will encourage as well as
promote risk-taking and innovation to help the organization cope with the changing economy.
Naldi et al 2007 argue that companies should embrace the entrepreneurial orientation to be
successful. In simple words, the entrepreneurial orientation offers the organization with a mental
structure and a dimension which reflects the processes of the company (Bessant & Tidd, 2007).
Many opportunities will emerge since the orientation outlines the activities and intentions of the
organization. Innovation will create a pathway for the company to embrace new ideas as well as
the processes which will enhance the operations. Also, innovation will separate the company
from the outdated technologies hence it will move forward. Moreover, Leonidou et al 2015

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point out that innovation and entrepreneurship facilitate independence and job variety within the
organizations.
Innovation and entrepreneurship impact the internal and the external factors and outlines
how they impact decision making within the organization. During decision making, the Hardy
Aqua can employ innovation and entrepreneurship to determine choices which will satisfy the
customers, overcome the challenges within the company, and also delegate tasks to the required
specialists hence errors will be minimized. The neoclassical theory outlines that every individual
or company can assess the information which regard various decisions freely. Peter Drucker
2014 claims that the entrepreneurs reappear when the human factors and the advantages in
technology are outlined within the companies. Based on the economic theory, the entrepreneur’s
reappearance helps the business define its economic position. The economic theory is based on
entrepreneurial rational decision making. The decision-making model contains three elements
which are an entrepreneur, the environment, and the characteristic of the decisions being made.
Phillips, Lee, Ghobadian, O’Regan & James, (2015) argues indicates that the factors in the
internal environment, managers’ traits, and the environment elements are bound to impact the
strategic process which is considered in decision-making. Carland & Carland, (2015) confirms
that the environment, entrepreneur, and the strategic process of decision-making are the relevant
elements which should be considered. The relationship underlying between the process of
decision-making and the entrepreneur is that the entrepreneur will impact the decisions if they
think rationally. On the other hand, the decisions made in the organization may bring profits or
losses hence the entrepreneurial experiences and knowledge is reshaped (Szirmai, Naudé &
Goedhuys, 2011). An entrepreneur relates to the environment since the entrepreneur has to
engage in a venture which does not harm the environment. For that reason, Hardy Aqua needs to

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select the most effective elements to be successful in the business venture. Innovation and
entrepreneurship matters to Hardy Aqua since it has to grab the opportunities in the market,
manage the business, embrace a relative autonomy, as well as take risks in the venture
(Naldi,Nordqvist, Sjöberg & Wiklund, 2007). Also, the theory of high achievement confirms that
entrepreneurship and innovation facilitate better ways of doing things and decision-making can
be done under uncertainty (Szczepańska-Woszczyna, 2014). Through the theory, Hardy Aqua
will realize that profit acquired is viewed as a measure of performance. The organization needs
to achieve affiliation, power, and attain success in the future (Leonidou, Fotiadis,
Christodoulides, Spyropoulou & Katsikeas, 2015). Therefore, the organization will as well need
to maintain healthy relationships to borrow tactics from other organizations which are well-
established.
In conclusion, for any organization to be successful sustainable business practices like
innovation and entrepreneurship should be employed. This paper provides an outline regarding
innovation and entrepreneurship, showing how they impact the business strategies and cultures.
Therefore, the overall discussion is relevant since the business will acquire new services and
innovation. Hardy Aqua should employ the innovative and entrepreneurial practices to market
the name of the brand. The leaders should also do things that bring value to the company.
Innovation and entrepreneurship are important to every organization to earn the profit
(Crumpton, 2012). Entrepreneurship involves taking the risk and making use of the resources. It
also helps to create a mind-set regarding the organizational approach. Innovation impacts several
stakeholders within the business. Therefore, every organization needs innovation and
entrepreneurship to address the new opportunities (Onetti, Zucchella, Jones & McDougall-
Covin, 2012). Finally, innovation and entrepreneurship also have an impact on the decision-

Management and Business Context 7
making process in the organization. There are various theories and models which explain the
significance of innovation and entrepreneurship. Therefore, this paper outlines a broad research
using various articles to explain the innovation and entrepreneurship practices. Therefore, Hardy
Aqua requires innovation and entrepreneurship to achieve its goals and objectives.

Management and Business Context 8
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