Marketing & Entrepreneurship What makes entrepreneurs successful Is it Essay

Marketing & Entrepreneurship What makes entrepreneurs successful Is it skill or luck - Essay Example In this paper, the researcher will use example of Sir Alan Sugar who is not only the founder of consumer electronics giant Amstrad but also the example for entrepreneurs across the world. Sir Alan Sugar established the company at the age of 21 when majority of his classmates were learning in the colleges in order to get job. Before retiring from the organization, Sir Alan Sugar transformed Amstrad from start up venture into electronics giant which is synonymous with innovation, value for money offering and customer loyalty. Was Sir Alan Sugar a magician who is blessed with sheer amount of luck or Sir Alan Sugar was a hardworking individual who used skill and intuition to build the Amstrad Empire? At this point, the essay is not mature enough to answer the question but it is expected that at the end of this essay, the answer will be revealed. One has to understand theoretical underpinning of entrepreneurship before answering the above question whether luck is important or not in makin g an entrepreneur successful. Hence, in the next section, the researcher will try to figure out pertinent variables that affect the success of an entrepreneur. Modern research scholars such as Coulter (2001) and Kirby (2004) defined entrepreneurship as the process with which a particular individual or set of individuals try to fulfil their objectives by creating value for people in the society. Nixon (2004) and Van Praag and Cramer (2001) argued that it is not necessary for entrepreneurs to create value for society rather it is more important for an individual to fulfil existing needs through innovation and unique offer in order to classify as entrepreneur. It is understandable, why management scholars tried to identify the role of luck for an entrepreneur, because giving importance on luck factor will probably disregard the importance of management skill in developing a successful enterprise. Research scholars such as Kaplan and Schoar (2005) and Hochberg, Ljungqvist, and Lu (2006) nullified the importance of luck in helping an entrepreneur to become successful. These research scholars have given examples of successful enterprises that are funded by more experienced venture capitalists in comparison to enterprises that failed due to inexperience of venture capitalists. Hochberg, Ljungqvist, and Lu (2006) strongly argued that a more experienced and skilled entrepreneur has more probability to succeed in comparison to a novice entrepreneur. Eesley and Roberts (2006) raised question over role of luck in helping an entrepreneur to succeed in a competitive environment. According to them, people often mistakenly identify the skill, experience and strategic intelligence of the entrepreneurs as the sheer amount of luck. Eesley and Roberts (2006a and 2006b) amusingly pointed out that there is no such thing as luck for an entrepreneur because an entrepreneur can move ahead in business by understanding the market need and fulfilling the need of customers by offering them value. Research scholars such as Eesley and Roberts (2006a) and Kaplan and Stromberg (2003) found that successful entrepreneurs are those who do not stop estab lishing new enterprises after failure in the previous start-ups. It is evident from the research works of previous research scholars that luck plays very little role in helping an entrepreneur to establish successful enterprises. In such context, Chatterji (2005) showed that experience in working in a particular