Definition of Entrepreneurship The concept of entrepreneurship has a wide range of meanings. On the one extreme an entrepreneur is a person of very high aptitude who pioneers change, possessing characteristics found in only a very small fraction of the population. On the other extreme of definitions, anyone who wants to work for him/herself is considered to be an entrepreneur. The word entrepreneur originates from the French word, entreprendre, which means "to undertake." In a business context, it means to start a business. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary presents the definition of an entrepreneur as one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. According to Wikipedia – Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which is a French word meaning one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity. The most obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of starting new businesses; however, in recent years, the term has been extended to include social and political forms of entrepreneurial activity. When entrepreneurship is describing activities within a firm or large organization it is referred to as entrepreneurship and may include corporate venturing, when large entities spin-off organizations Schumpeter's View of Entrepreneurship: Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter's definition of entrepreneurship placed an emphasis on innovation, such as: • • • •
new products new production methods new markets new forms of organization
Wealth is created when such innovation results in new demand. From this viewpoint, one can define the function of the entrepreneur as one of combining various input factors in an innovative manner to generate value to the customer with the hope that this value will exceed the cost of the input factors, thus generating superior returns that result in the creation of wealth.
The Prospects of Entrepreneurship Development in Bangladesh: We are living in the age of Entrepreneur with Entrepreneurship endorsed by educational institutions, government units, society and corporations. Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world with the seventh large population of the world. Half of the GDP comes from service sector although two-thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers. More than three quarters of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from the garment industry. Cheap labor and low conversion cost attracted huge foreign investment in this sector. The huge population and frequent natural calamity are two severe obstacle in economic countries economic growth. Also poor governance and weak public institutions, inefficient use of energy
resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms, political infighting and corruption are significant obstacles too. Even though According to world bank despite of all these obstacles Bangladesh has shown steady economic growth of 5-6% annually (7.5% in 2008-2009), relatively low inflation, and fairly stable domestic debt, interest, and exchange rates. Increased remittances by the Bangladeshis working abroad and expanding exports of apparels contributed to the growth performance. This is one of the major sources of foreign currency in Bangladesh (8.8% of GDP) Recently Bangladesh has seen a dramatic increase in foreign direct investment. Telecommunications have shown remarkable improvements after the sector was opened for private investment. A number of multinational corporations, including Unocal Corporation and Tata, have made major investments, with the natural gas sector being a priority. Goldman Sachs referred Bangladesh as one of the next eleven emerging country and emphasis on the potential of future economical growth. Bureaucracy and red tape is still part of the investment problem but huge local market cheap labor and more export focused government policies encouraging more pro business environment. So, the prospect of Bangladesh appears to be very bright. Because: Education and Entrepreneurship: Education is very densely related with entrepreneurship. Educational institutions have taken proper attention in this point and the future; entrepreneurs will be much better organized. Economic Growth: Economical stability is the first condition of be self dependent. Entrepreneurship helps to get economical stability. Economy is the backbone of a country. As country can be advance without economic development. Entrepreneurship helps to make a new sector of business and it helps to get economic development. Entrepreneurial Awareness: Entrepreneurial cautiousness is excited in the general people of Bangladesh where small & cottage industry are more than 0.4 million which has been established by self attempt of Entrepreneurs. If it is possible to provide those proper facilities and favorable environment this sector will be very intelligent prospect. Public consciousness: Recently public are showing more consciousness. Now most of the enterprises are bringing formed by individual initiatives. In future these are expected to grow higher. Efficient Manpower and Material Resources: The government is trying to increase the efficiency of manpower and sources o resources to facilitate the individual entrepreneurship. Professional dynamism: By establishing opportunities of replacement work power from agricultural sector to industrial sector, it will help the build up and develop of industries.
Self dependent: Our Government’s youth and sports ministry and different NGO give the young educated people various training like fish farmyard, paltry firm, dairy firm, horticulture etc. and financially help them. Open industrial policy: In recent years, the government of Bangladesh has opened a window of increased facilities towards the entrepreneurs. Availability of Assets: Besides large number of population Bangladesh has plenty of natural and agricultural resources. Utilizing the utilized manpower, natural and agricultural resources many agro-based factory and industry can be established. Honorable Profession: Presently the Entrepreneurship is related as an honorable profession and having good scope in future entrepreneurship. Wide Response of Public: The people of Bangladesh are playing a increasing attention and interest in the formation of new business. Free Life Style: The life style and the freedom of mind have increasingly encouraging people to establish own initiative and business. So as I presented the points say that for the above reason the prospects of Entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh are bright in future. The Barriers of Entrepreneurship Development in Bangladesh: As a developing country the prospect of entrepreneurship development is bright in Bangladesh but it is not out of barriers. Some the main barriers and challenges in this respect are: Lack of Viable Concept: Maximum people in our country, they have no idea about Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship. Even maximum Entrepreneur in our country their concept about Entrepreneurship is not clear. For this reason they do not know what is the right or wrong way. Lack of Technical Skills: A technical person is different from others. He can easily reduce his production cost. But in our country Entrepreneur has no idea about technical knowledge. For this reason they cannot solve their many problems. Lack of Market Knowledge: Marketing is very high competitive and major factor. Our Entrepreneurs have fulfilled their target for the lacking of knowledge on marketing. Lack of Primary Capital: Capital is the heart of an organization. But our Entrepreneur has not enough capital in their hand. For the lack of enough capital they cannot invest to the profitable project.
Lack of Business knowledge: Business knowledge of Entrepreneur runs the organization towards his goal or profit. But in our country maximum Entrepreneur has not idea about business knowledge. For this reason, organization cannot achieve its goal. Lack of Education: Education is very important in respect of entrepreneurship. But in our country maximum entrepreneur are not highly educated. For this reason they face a lot o problems and they cannot solve their problem. Public Awareness: Maximum people in our country they are not aware of Entrepreneurship. For this reason Entrepreneur are not interested set up a new business in our country. Monopoly market: In or country we will know organization try to create a monopoly market. For this reason new Entrepreneur cannot enter the market and cannot achieve his goal properly. Lack of Decision Making: In our country maximum Entrepreneur doesn’t know how to take a correct decision because they have no idea about management accounting method and techniques. For this reason their organization faces a lot of or huge losses. Lack of Training Facilities: For the development of Entrepreneurship the scope of training is must. But in Bangladesh the suitable course for Entrepreneurship development is rare. Legal Constraints: In our country for formation of a new business, a lot of rules and regulation to be strictly maintained. For this reason many Entrepreneur don’t agree to set up a new business in our country. Non-Institutional Barrier of Micro-entrepreneurship Development in Bangladesh: The magnitude of micro-entrepreneurial activities plays a decisive role in the economic development of the rural livelihoods, especially in third world countries. Micro-entrepreneurship has always been considered as a proven instrument to fight poverty in an effective manner. As a consequence, poverty alleviation through rural centric micro-entrepreneurship development has been focused for more than the last thirty five years in Bangladesh. However, despite such initiatives, the state of micro-entrepreneurship in Bangladesh has not yet reached to a satisfactory level. There are a number of prevailing factors that thwart the development of micro-entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. Among all the factors, non-institutions encompassing various political, economic, social, cultural, technological, environmental and personal factors are affecting the scopes of operating these economic activities to a significant extent. This paper attempts to identify the key non-institutional barriers that hinder the development of micro-entrepreneurship in Bangladesh, and suggests a composite policy measure to overcome such encumbrances. These are the barriers of Entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh.
Comments: In the above discussion on the prospect s and barriers of entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh we can say we have to do a lot for our country. So that nobody remains unemployed. If we can overcome the barriers of Entrepreneurship then Bangladesh can take place in advance country through Entrepreneurship. [Published in the Proceedings of the international conference of "Annual Asian Business Research Conference", Bangladesh, Jan 1-2. Coauthor- Mohammad Muntasir Hossain and Farhana Zaman]