The theory of entrepreneurship as stated above highlights a “Two-Stage Value Creation Framework”. The two stages are “Venture Formulation” and “Venture Monetization”. At the venture formulation stage, an entrepreneur gets filled with desires to utilize the available resources to leverage the entrepreneurial opportunities. The entrepreneur at this stage possess a sufficient understanding of the business opportunities. However, there are several ventures, which fail at this stage.
At the venture monetization stage, the entrepreneur needs investors to show their interest in the project. This is why entrepreneurs look to going for a strategic alliance with the others. However, investors at this point in time face the challenge of selecting the potential entrepreneurs from the list of entrepreneurs. It is because the venture quality and entrepreneurial ability becomes difficult to ascertain. Form the entrepreneurs part, they may use incentive signals to secure the deal and ensure a higher valuation offer from the selected investors. It is, therefore, recommended for entrepreneurs to design and follow a business model with embedded dynamic capabilities. This will help to reconfigure the entrepreneurial competence, which is necessary to produce sustained value.
The Capital Theory of Effective Innovation says that individuals within a firm may or may not have the sufficient knowledge resources. It is very common with smaller firms. Such firms may not be able to innovate or sustain the innovation as they are easily vulnerable to external threats like increased market competition, and growing technological advancement. However, the theory identifies a way out to knowledge management issues in organizations, which is in particular with smaller firms. The theory thus says that “Social Capital” can help to repair the existence of insufficient knowledge in organizations. It recommends a co-operative network, particularly to smaller firms. A co-operative network can be formed and attained through collaborations, and exchange of knowledge by opting to R&D activities, strategic alliances, and joint ventures.
The Theory of Economic Development as stated by Schumpeter describes the economic development in four features.
Circular Flow: Schumpeter states that economic activity follows a cyclical path as that of blood circulation in a human body. It means this will continue to happen and the concerned business will need to be adaptable with it to attain a sustainable business. However, the circular flow is static in nature, which can be made dynamic by using the innovations.
Role of the Entrepreneur: In an economic system as identified by Schumpeter, there exists a high degree of risk. The fear of risk becomes a factor of motivation to entrepreneurs. They utilize this motivation to attain and retain the competitive advantage and to become the leading name in the industry in and across the world.
Business Cycle or Cyclical Process: A business cycle as stated by Schumpeter is analytical, statistical, and historical. Schumpeter further says that both economic and non-economic factors are responsible for a crisis or a business cycle. It means entrepreneurs have motivation into non-economic factors as well. In a business cycle, the business is bound to adapt to the new economic conditions. If it does not this will become vulnerable to external threats such as increased competition, changing consumer behavior, trending shopping behavior, technological advancements etc.
The Decay of Capitalism: A capitalist society as according to Schumpeter will not sustain longer. It is because this will be opposed from many social institutions. There are possibilities for conflicts between the capitalist agents, and the social institutions for a fact that a capitalist society produces inequalities in the distribution of income, and wealth.
Preparing a report on three entrepreneurs in relation to their effort and impacts on socio-cultural and economic development locally or globally, and their similarities and differences as entrepreneurs. With examples.
Socio-cultural: Jeff Bezos who is the founder of Amazon.com has both positive and negative socio-cultural impacts on customers. It has contributed strongly to the changing shopping behavior of customers. However, the person can also be called as being responsible for providing reasons to obesity. With the advent of e-commerce, people have developed and been habituated of non-active lifestyles. It resulted in the obesity pandemic. Now, there is no need to go out and buy the groceries, and other goods to people who rely largely on internet shopping. In doing so, these particular people have lost their opportunities to go out and have some physical exercise in the form of walking. On contrary to this, walking is an important exercise to fight with obesity (Rolls, 2014). In addition, Jeff Bezos is not also an ideal person to many employees as Amazon.com offers nothing apart from a technological environment. It scores low in terms of addressing to socio-cultural needs of jobs.
Economic: The work of Jeff Bezos is being criticized for its decision to go for artificial intelligence as the move will result in a huge job loss. However, the company generates more jobs than it is cutting. Amazon has created new facilities in the USA and UK, which has resulted in additional jobs (Amazon, 2018). The stock market is known for its uncertainty, which is also one of the characteristics of the globalized world. Now, Amazon’s expansion into the grocery sector may bring more criticism to Mr. Jeff. It looks more pronounced on looking at what has happened to Walmart. The company has already faced the dropping share prices. Jeff Bezos has the reputation to regenerate the idea of capitalism in the UK. The UK was known to have been following the traditional model of capitalism. However, the concept of capitalism being introduced by Jeff will probably be the model of capitalism of the future in the UK (Business Insider, 2018).
Socio-cultural: Bill Gates is one of the most famous entrepreneurs of all time. He is the founder of Microsoft Corporation. The company is widely popular for its products and services specially designed for computers. The different versions of the operating system, which helps the computer to operate, is created and produced by Microsoft. Its impact can be observed in the way education and job practices have changed ever since the use of computers becomes popular globally. Schools and universities across the globe started to accommodate computers in their campus facilities. Universities used it to reduce the time being spent on doing the data management. On the other hand, schools have used computers to let the students be acquainted with it at their early ages. They are being trained in MS-Office applications, which is an essential activity in higher classes. Bill Gates is indeed responsible for such a dramatic change. It has almost replaced the traditional paper works from schools, colleges, and universities in the world (Seas.gwu.edu, 2018). However, it has not been able to drive similar success with its range of smartphones as compared to top smartphone companies like Apple, Samsung, and others.
Economic: Gates’ Microsoft is the second largest private organization in the state of Washington. It has created millions of jobs across its different business locations. Microsoft certification courses such as for the networking specialist is taught across many colleges and affiliated institutions globally.
Socio-cultural: Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook. He holds the reputation of being the youngest entrepreneur. It has affected the way people used to have the interactions. Now, it is no longer necessary to travel miles to meet with near and dear ones. They can rather be searched on the internet as well. They just need to have a Facebook account to become engaged and involved in a two-way communication with their friends, relatives, and dear ones. Interestingly, it is a platform that also helps to search people whom others such as their friends have lost contact with. However, these benefits can be associated with privacy and security issues. Messages and other posts being uploaded to Facebook can be accessed illegally. Moreover, there is less security to data being shared on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg is still working on to address these issues.
Economic: Mark Zuckerberg has its impact on the local and global economy. Its company is known to have created thousands of jobs across Europe. The feat is remarkable considering that Amazon.com is an American-based company. Competition between the telecom companies has increased ever since the inception of Facebook. The competition resulted in an increasingly growing participation from several new telecom companies. These telecom companies constantly strive to fulfill the needs of consumers. On the other hand, these telecom companies are also responsible for creating employment opportunities. Hence, this can be said that Mark Zuckerberg has a direct and indirect impact on employability across the globe.
Based on the above studies, similarities and differences between entrepreneurs could be figured out as depicted below in the table.
All three entrepreneurs have been found to have utmost desires to experiment with innovative ideas. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com will soon be deploying artificial intelligence to enhance the service efficiency and reduce the cost of operation (Forbes, 2018). Bill Gates of Microsoft has also entered the smartphone sector. It did so in joint venturing with Nokia to produce the Lumia series of phones. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook did collaborate with Whatsapp to enhance its service and increase its customer base. All three entrepreneurs can be called an agent of change who are passionate for innovation (Stam, Arzlanian & Elfring, 2014). Apart from all these, they have in common the following similarities (Armanios et al., 2017):
Bill Gates could not be able to create a lasting impression with the Lumia series phones (Forums.windowscentral, 2018). Similarly, Facebook was also being criticized for its collaboration with Whatsapp (BBC News, 2018). Jeff Bezos is a bit different in this regard and has the success stories in innovation. They probably represent three different generations in one era with Zuckerberg being the youngest of them. The leadership style of Jeff Bezos is both transactional and transformational (Linkedin, 2018). Mark Zuckerberg differs from Jeff Bezos in regards to the leadership style. Zuckerberg is more a transformational leader. He also uses other leadership styles like democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire (Inc.com, 2018). Bill Gates’ leadership style comprises of autocratic, delegate, and participating. He can use all these leadership styles appropriately in suitable time (Theyouthimpact.org, 2018).
Safaricom is a public limited company and is one of the largest and most reputed mobile network service providers in Kenya. The company was formed in 1997, which after three years became the wholly owned subsidiary of Telkom Kenya (Safaricom.co.ke, 2018). In May 2000, Vodafone Group PLC of the UK acquired a close to 40% stake in the company (Safaricom.co.ke, 2018). The list of products and services include GSM related products and Mobile Money Transfer. The Mobile Money Transfer is conducted and managed with different brands like M-Pesa, Songa, Masoko, M-PESA 1 Tap, and M-shwari. It provides services such as mobile telephony, Mobile Money Transfer, consumer electronics, data, cloud computing, music streaming, and Fibre Optic (Safaricom.co.ke, 2018).
The telecommunication sector in Kenya constantly witnesses incrementing competition between leading telecom service providers. A lot of changes is certain due to the increasingly growing competition between telecom service providers, rapid and continuous developments in the mobile market, and improved international connectivity. The landing of four Fibre-Optic international submarine cables in Kenya in recent times has improved the infrastructural competency of telecom companies. Call rates and data charges are a lot cheaper now as compared to plans in the past. The regulating body has played an important role in lowering down the interconnection tariffs. A number of regulations have been implemented to further the level of competition. In addition, a simplified licensing scheme being implemented in 2008 did further improve the infrastructure. The ease of availing the licenses have attracted significant number of local and international telecom players towards the country. As a result of which the competition has increased to the next level. Expansion of broadband and mobile networks is in continuous progress. Customers will have an improved calling and data usage experience in near future (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). The enlarged competition, the ease to avail the license of operation, an access to advanced Fibre Optic, and the international connectivity have all encouraged leading players to constantly look for innovative ideas. It is, therefore, important for Safaricom to keep producing new products and services and to be able to dominate the telecom market.
The table shows the number of subscribers in Kenya at the end of each respective years. The data is captured between the period of (2006-2017, in Million).
The penetration rate is approximately close to 80% (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). All these facts suggest that the mobile market in Kenya is constantly growing. Hence, these are growing opportunities for mobile network providers. Therefore, innovation in products and services will be a key factor to succeed and take the advantage of opportunities. Companies with better infrastructure such as competency in R&D activities, ability to attract the investors, effective leadership in managers, and skilled and creative employees will have the advantage. Hence, Safaricom will need to make improvements along its various business domains such as Human Resource Practice, marketing & sales, strategic management etc. to be able to retain its dominance of the market and to attain a sustained business. In addition, the company will also need its employees and managers to remain engaged in brainstorming sessions to generate innovative ideas. These ideas must be used in offering new products and services. The company should also have leaders who are experienced and well versed in change management.
Kenya’s biggest telecom service provider Safaricom loses its subscribers’ market shares in the quarter that ended in June. It lost 1.6% of market shares as its rival company Airtel was able to add more users to its network, reported by the industry regulator (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). The fall has marked the third straight quarterly drop for Safaricom. As confirmed by the regulator “Communications Authority (CA)”, the provider had 29.7 million subscribers during the same period (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). While Safaricom was able to add more subscribers during the same period, the growth was not that high as compared to rival Airtel. Subscribers’ base for Safaricom rose by 0.7% whereas Airtel was able to add more users (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). Subscribers’ base for Airtel rose by 11.9% from 8.7 million to 9.7 million (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). Now, Airtel has 21.4% market shares (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). On the other hand, market shares for Safaricom did fall from 72.6% to 65.4% (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). It shows that during the quarter under reviews, Safaricom experiences a negative growth in market shares. On the other hand, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya were the gainers. Finserve Africa did also lose market shares by 0.1% (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018). Market shares for Mobile Pay Ltd and Sema Mobile remain unchanged (Africantelecomsnews.com, 2018).
Hence, Safaricom faces major threats from the rising recognition of Airtel in Kenya and the established giant Telkom Kenya.
In this section, legal structure will be discussed and managed. Since Safaricom is a big company, legal actions will be longer as well. There will be information for investors. Investors will be updated on everything from AGM voting to acquisition news, annual results and financial results. The legal structure will also have confirmatory sentences for gender equality in the company. The legal information will also include information as such the license details.
Internal Management Team
Internal management team will consist of managers at different levels of organization such as in-line managers, middle-managers, and top managers. They are very crucial to the success of this business plan. The in-line managers will need to effectively communicate the proposed technological upgrade in the mobile network. Some of those managers will be selected for the team specially dedicated to develop the upgrade version of mobile network technology.
Middle-managers will mainly monitor the progress, keep a check of the available resources, address to needs, and communicate the process related message with the in-line managers. They should also conduct occasional feedback session as this will let them know the potential challenges that their employees face.
Top managers will have responsibilities like approving the proposal, communicating during a crisis management, and so on. Their approval is required on project budget.
External Management resources
External management resources for Safaricom will be their suppliers. It is very critical for the company to manage external resources to avoid the resource shortage. For example, Fibre Optic holds the key to cheaper calling and data plans. They need to have a regular access to Fibre Optic to avoid losing the growing market opportunities. New and existing investors must be attracted and retained. This is possible only when investors are satisfied with the firms’ competency and its internal resources. However, this should not be a challenge for Safaricom considering that the company still has dominating market shares in mobile sector.
Human resources Needs
This business plan will need skilled professionals those who are well versed in mobile network technology. Safaricom already has such professionals. The human resource managers will be responsible to design and manage policies related with management and operations.
The chosen service is an upgrade of the existing mobile network technology of Safaricom. This is about a transition from “4G” to “5G”. “5G” will soon be the technology of mobile in near future. This will be even faster than the “4G” and reliable as well. This service is being selected because consumers especially the millennials are very passionate for a fast and reliable internet service (Rost et al., 2016). An upgrade to this service could be a first of this kind for the mobile market in Kenya. Hence, Safaricom will have more opportunities as compared to its rivals for conducting its network expansion (Clarke, 2014).
To achieve the success with an upgrade to “5G” it is important to fulfill the customer value, societal value, and employee value. For the employee value, there must be a high satisfaction level in employees. For the societal, CSR holds the key. For customers, it is important to offer best service at the most competitive price (Bellou et al., 2015).
Marketing communication will be an essential part of this business plan. The new technology can be promoted on significant occasions such as during festive holidays to attract customers in bulk. Promotional offers can of varied kinds such as (Oke et al., 2016):
Service launch can be made attractive to customers by offering data services at free. Consumers can be given the unlimited data usage during its initial three months of launch. Focusing on boosting the consumer base with attractive plans and excellent customer care. Recover the investments by accumulating a large consumer base. In addition, Safaricom will need to keep a close watch on the market and its competitors’ actions to the upgrade. This will help to be ahead of rival companies in service quality and attractive offers (Pappas, 2016).
In addition, advertisement will also be required such as through paper and electronic media. Popular daily newspapers in Kenya and its radio and TV services will be utilized to advertise the product. The product will also be promoted on social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and its official website.
Selling places will be as usual the affiliated retail stores and its official website from where customers can purchase their choice of the product.
|
Contents |
Requirement |
|
Current Funding Requirement |
|
|
Future Funding Requirements for next 3 to 5 years |
|
|
Intention of using the funds such as for working capital and capital expenditures |
|
|
A strategic financial plan for future such as debt repayment plan. This is important because it impacts the ability to repay the loans. |
Table 3: Funding Request for next 3 to 5 years
(Source: Brinckmann & Kim, 2015)
References
Africantelecomsnews.com. (2018). Kenya: Major African Mobile Markets: Future Growth Prospects. Retrieved from https://www.africantelecomsnews.com/resources/AfricaOpp_Kenya.html
Bellou, V., Chaniotakis, I., Kehagias, I., & Rigopoulou, I. (2015). Employer Brand of Choice: an employee perspective. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 16(6), 1201-1215.
Brinckmann, J., & Kim, S. M. (2015). Why we plan: The impact of nascent entrepreneurs’ cognitive characteristics and human capital on business planning. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(2), 153-166.
Clarke, R. N. (2014). Expanding mobile wireless capacity: The challenges presented by technology and economics. Telecommunications Policy, 38(8-9), 693-708.
Eisenberg, M. A. (2017). Legal models of management structure in the modern corporation: Officers, directors, and accountants. In Corporate Governance (pp. 103-167). Gower.
Marketscreener. (2018). Safaricom Plc : Financials, earnings estimates and forecasts for Safaricom Plc | SCOM | MarketScreener. Retrieved from https://www.marketscreener.com/SAFARICOM-PLC-6500172/financials/
Oke, A. O., Kamolshotiros, P., Popoola, O. Y., Ajagbe, A. M., & Olujobi, J. O. (2016). Consumer behavior towards decision making and loyalty to particular brands. International Review of Management and Marketing, 6, 43-52.
Pappas, N. (2016). Marketing strategies, perceived risks, and consumer trust in online buying behaviour. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, 92-103.
Rost, P., Banchs, A., Berberana, I., Breitbach, M., Doll, M., Droste, H., … & Sayadi, B. (2016). Mobile network architecture evolution toward 5G. IEEE Communications Magazine, 54(5), 84-91.
Safaricom.co.ke. (2018). Mobile Phones, Tablets, Mobile Money Solutions & Telecommunication Services – Safaricom. Retrieved from https://www.safaricom.co.ke/
Amazon. (2018). Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/
Armanios, D. E., Eesley, C. E., Li, J., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (2017). How entrepreneurs leverage institutional intermediaries in emerging economies to acquire public resources. Strategic Management Journal, 38(7), 1373-1390.
BBC News. (2018). Facebook’s WhatsApp purchase opposed. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26481654
Business Insider. (2018). Here’s how Amazon makes its money. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-amazon-makes-money-2017-12?IR=T
Croitoru, A. (2012). Schumpeter, JA, 1934 (2008), The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest and the Business Cycle, translated from the German by Redvers Opie, New Brunswick (USA) and London (UK): Transaction Publishers. Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, 3(2), 1-13.
Forbes. (2018). How Amazon Has Reorganized Around Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2018/07/16/how-amazon-has-re-organized-around-artificial-intelligence-and-machine-learning/#6296cd987361
Forbes. (2018). Why Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg & Richard Branson Are Investing In These 2 Startups. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/06/14/bill-gates-jeff-bezos-mark-zuckerberg-branson-startups/#659f3f3112c0
Forums.windowscentral. (2018). Microsoft Lumia 650 Bugs & Defects – Windows Central Forums. Retrieved from https://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-lumia-650/414496-microsoft-lumia-650-bugs-defects.html
Glover, J., Champion, D., Daniels, K., & Boocock, G. (2016). Using capital theory to explore problem solving and innovation in small firms. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 23(1), 25-43.
Inc.com. (2018). 5 Leadership Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/ekaterina-walter/as-zuckerberg-turns-30-leadership-lessons.html
Linkedin. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jeff-bezos-best-living-transformational-leader-f%C3%A9lix-de-andr%C3%A9s
Mishra, C. S., & Zachary, R. K. (2015). The theory of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship research journal, 5(4), 251-268.
Rolls, B. J. (2014). What is the role of portion control in weight management?. International Journal of Obesity, 38(S1), S1.
Seas.gwu.edu. (2018). 1. Retrieved from https://www2.seas.gwu.edu/~shmuel/WORK/Differences/The%20Difference%20between%20Electronic%20and%20Paper%20Documents.html
Stam, W., Arzlanian, S., & Elfring, T. (2014). Social capital of entrepreneurs and small firm performance: A meta-analysis of contextual and methodological moderators. Journal of Business Venturing, 29(1), 152-173.
Theyouthimpact.org. (2018). WHAT MAKES BILL GATES A GREAT LEADER | Youth Impact. Retrieved from https://theyouthimpact.org/what-makes-bill-gates-a-great-leader/
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download