Hard to argue with the assertion that one of the first steps any aspiring businessman to starting a business should be to understand the social and psychological essence of entrepreneurship and its function and role in modern society. The realization that the activity is not limited to the entrepreneur economy and the profit-and manifests itself in various areas of social life, beginning businessman will not only succeed, but also to take their rightful place in society.
History of the emergence of an individual entrepreneur
The term entrepreneur appeared in the Middle Ages in Western Europe. Originally it belonged to the parade organizers, various music and entertainment events. In addition, the project organizers called entrepreneurs in construction and manufacturing. The cost of these projects and ideas are always negotiated in advance, so the entrepreneur not only independently dispose of income from the project, but bear full responsibility for the resulting losses. Later, from the seventeenth century, entrepreneurs began to call citizens who entered into contracts with the state to perform any work, supply of a specified list of products or acted as intermediaries between customers and performers. Since that time, along with the organizational functions and management functions now the main hallmarks of becoming an entrepreneur activity in conditions of risk and liability for the results of the company. Another milestone in the development of entrepreneurial activity was the division of functions and provide capital directly to the implementation of the enterprise. First detailed socio-psychological portraits of different types of entrepreneurs were given at the beginning of the twentieth century, the German sociologist Max Weber and Werner Sombart.
Significant role in the development of ideas about the psychology of business was made by Russian scientists SN Bulgakov and PB Struve. A distinctive feature of the work of Russian scientists can call attention to the problems of communication and relationships between business participants. Is of paramount importance not only economic-economic but also spiritual and economic component. According to the authors, a thrifty attitude should include a par with the desire to obtain the highest income, the desire to expand and maintain satisfaction working in the company of people.
The current status of IP
Modern ideas about entrepreneurship, although conditionally allocated functional, or as it is called, functional role and structural approaches. Functional-role approach considers the modern business as the socio-economic activities aimed at implementing the functions of social and economic development. Moreover, some scholars tend to limit function of the entrepreneur purely economic sphere. Other thinkers associated with the phenomenon of entrepreneurship all human activities.
Modern economic analysis of business functions, on the one hand, emphasizes the role of a businessman as an exclusively economic entity which performs the functions of the best combination of existing financial, organizational, information and human resources in order to satisfy the demand and profit. On the other hand, emphasizes the role of the entrepreneur in finding and creating innovative possibilities and combinations in the economy.
Thus, the functional approach considers entrepreneurship impersonally, without reference to the specific characteristics of a particular subject. In fact: in the current literature on management of essential characteristics of entrepreneurship are not considered issues such as property ownership and personal responsibility for risks. This approach almost blurs the distinction between different levels of managers and entrepreneurs.
Structural approach, by contrast, identifies the modern entrepreneurs as a special social group. From a legal point of view, the entrepreneur is defined as an independent entity, which carries some risk to your business. Moreover, this activity aims to profit from regular use of property, sale of goods, works or services. Entrepreneurial activity can be carried out by a person registered as an entrepreneur in the established order of state authorities. Such a definition of business actually includes, except wage labor, all kinds of business activity. TI Zaslavsky empirically isolate and identify representatives of the business layer in a modern society in Russia. As part of the business layer Zaslavska highlights subgroups that differ in terms of content and business.
The first group consists of the actual owners, who are both the owners and managers of the enterprise . The second group includes the so-called “of semi” – people who combine business with hired labor. In this group, you can select managers and employees. The third group consists of managers who exercise functions of leadership and management of resources, but not the owners of the enterprise.