Liege 2011 Aleksandra Gawel

Entrepreneurship and sustainability: do they have anything in common?
Aleksandra GAWEL
Poznan University of Economics
Poland
aleksandra.gawel@ue.poznan.pl

Content of presentation
Keywords
Aims of thepresentation
Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation
Sustainable development
Implications of EO dimensionsfor sustainable development
Conclusions

1. Key words
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial orientation
Sustainability

2. Aims of thepresentation
Entrepreneurship and sustainability are perceived from different perspectives
Entrepreneurship can be perceived as a way of thinking and acting through the personal interest of a given person,
Sustainability is connected with the interest of the whole society and overlapping generations.
Does this mean that they are completely opposite or do they have anything in common?

3. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation
Entrepreneurshipisoutside the mainstream of economics; therefore a comprehensive, homogeneous theory of entrepreneurship or even its definition do not exist
Three main traditions of contenporaryresearch on entrepreneurship:
Risktaking - entrepreneur’s ability to bear risk, an entrepreneur is identified with a person who accepts the risk of failure
Innovation - the ability of entrepreneurs to create innovation, an entrepreneur is an innovator introducing new business solutions
Exploring market opportunities- an entrepreneur is perceived as an outsider who recognizes the opportunities of making a profit on the market and takes advantage of them

Entrepreneurial orientation
Entrepreneurial orientation (one of a research area within entrepreneurship):
The organization’s predisposition to accept entrepreneurial processes, practices and decision making
the degree to which the identification and exploitation of market opportunities influence a company’s growth
a strategic construct, a process of startegy-making, and one of the constructs in strategic management whose aim is to achieve company growth.

Five dimensions to EO
Innovativeness - a company’s openness to new ideas, novelty and experimentation,
Risk-taking- making decisions and taking actions without any knowledge of the possible outcomes ,
Proactiveness- a forward-looking perspective as a result of which first-mover or market-leader advantages , searching for market opportunities
Autonomy- the independent action of people, as the ability to be self-directed
Competitive aggressiveness - the level of effort needed to outperform industry rivals
each of the features of entrepreneurial orientation can have a different intensity, from relatively low to very high

4. Sustainable development
Sustainable development - a broad concept that it can be linked with every aspect of human life
Three pillars:
Sociological perspective- development supports society by fostering close social ties
Ecological perspective - the diversification of the biosphere, the basic ecosystems and ecological processes
Economic perspective- the kind of development which ensures that the future generations' income per capita will not be lower than that of the current generation.

5. Implications of EO dimensionsfor sustainable development
Proactiveness

Innovativeness

The propensity for risk-taking

Autonomy

Competitive aggressiveness

The intensity of dimensions of EO which support the sustainablility
Source: author’s own concept

6. Conclusions
a favourable relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and sustainabilityispossible
entrepreneurial orientation is rather a way of acting while sustainability is rather a set of postulates and aims.
2 conditions of positiverelation:
implementing the pro-social and pro-ecological postulates of sustainabilitymust provide measurable benefits for a company
implementing must be incorporated in a company's strategy.

Thankyou for yourattention

Liege 2011 Aleksandra Gawel

by Territorial Intelligence

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