Chapter 12 Emerging Trends in Entrepreneurship

1. Chapter 12 Emerging Trends in Entrepreneurship

2. Why it is Important for Prospective Entrepreneurs to Keep up with Trends • Effective new venture development rarely occurs as the result of a singular moment of insight that takes place in isolation. Instead, it most often requires recognition of, and adaptation to, a wide range of unpredicted changes taking place in the external environment. • To ensure that you are steering your new venture along the most promising path(s), it is crucial to make sufficient effort to identify, understand, and leverage emerging trends to your advantage. Importantly, such trends may not only include shifts in the tastes and preferences of consumers, they can also involve changes to the very nature of new venture development, as well as the emergence of breakthrough technologies.

3. Wanting More than Income from a Career: Entrepreneurship as a Calling • As life has become less harsh, and more prosperous, for many people around the world, the average level of happiness has remained relatively flat and depression has been on a slow upward trajectory. • Entrepreneurs who focus chiefly on economic goals experience lower levels of life satisfaction than those who work toward the achievement of predominantly non-economic goals (Cooper & Artz, 1995). • As Generation Z has come of age in a post-9/11 world that has suffered from a number of grand challenges (e.g., terrorism, global warming, growing income inequality), they are keenly aware of the need for change and understand that they must exhibit hard work and creativity in order to solve the many problems that were created by prior generations.

4. The Rise of Women’s Entrepreneurship • According to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Women’s Report (Kelley et al., 2017), the worldwide rate of women’s entrepreneurship has increased by 10 percent over the most recent two-year period and the gender gap (i.e., number of women involved in entrepreneurship as compared to men) has closed by 5 percent. • Women now account for 40 percent of startup activity in the United States. • As perhaps never before, women have a broad range of role models with whom they can self-identify and develop the confidence that they, too, can achieve their dreams—no matter what direction their passion leads them, including toward entrepreneurship. • A number of networking organizations have emerged with a focus on assisting women entrepreneurs. Examples include Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Savor the Success, The Boss Network, and Astia.

5. Shared Workspaces

6. Makerspaces • Makerspaces are places that provide a wide range of tools that can be used in a shared environment to tinker along with other like-minded individuals on projects that may range from developing new inventions to completing do-it-yourself (DIY) projects designed for the home. The types of tools provided tend to vary based on the needs of the community, and can range from expensive industrial equipment (e.g., cutting and tooling machines, 3-D printers, computers, and sewing machines) to relatively inexpensive prototyping materials (e.g., Playdoh and Legos). • In some cases members must pay a monthly fee in order to join, whereas in other instances—such as on university campuses or at public libraries—the service may be offered free of cost. Individuals using makerspaces can include a wide variety of persons.

7. Collaborative Coworking Office Spaces • Shared workplaces that are used by a wide variety of professionals, e.g. freelancers, independent contractors, telecommuters, and solo entrepreneurs. • Fee is usually paid on a daily or monthly basis in order to use the space. • Amenities typically include Wi-Fi, shared and private work tables, meeting rooms, storage areas such as secured file cabinets or lockers, and a café or bar area. • Some coworking offices can only be joined by invitation, some are focused on having members from specific industries. • Individuals using coworking spaces appear to be particularly happy with their experience. For example, recent survey results find that 70 percent feel healthier than they do working in a traditional office space, 68 percent are better able to focus on their work, 60 percent are happier in their home lives since coworking, 50 percent report earning higher income, and 92 percent are satisfied with their coworking space (Shriar, 2017).

8. The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems • Entrepreneurial ecosystems are broad and dynamic networks of resources, groups, and institutions that jointly enable the emergence, development, and growth of new ventures within local communities or geographic regions • Common elements of an entrepreneurial ecosystem include government agencies that shape local policy, area markets for goods and services, funding groups such as venture capitalists and angel investors, pools of skilled labor, universities and other research organizations that generate intellectual property, a culture that is supportive of creativity and risk-taking, infrastructure such as airports and high speed internet availability that facilitate commerce, and networking organizations that link together members of the ecosystem. • Entrepreneurial ecosystems are different from regional clusters or innovation hubs in that the primary focus is on supporting individuals, as opposed to attracting and developing specific types of firms.

9. The Untethering of Technology

10. Artificial Intelligence • Artificial intelligence (AI) is a general term used to describe intelligence that is programmed into the behavior of machines as opposed to the natural intelligence of humans. In many instances, AI can already outperform human intelligence. • Many companies are leveraging the benefits of AI to improve the efficiency of their work processes and enhance customer service experiences. • Given the economic implications of AI, the United States Executive Office of the President issued two reports on the topic in 2016. In response to the many ways in which AI is changing the nature of work, three strategies for policy responses were recommended: invest in and develop AI so as to further gain from its advantages, educate and train Americans for jobs that will be enhanced by the use of AI, and help workers who will need to transition jobs due to the elimination of work that will be replaced by AI.

11. Virtual Reality • Virtual reality (VR) is a form of technology that uses headsets to project surroundings that look, feel, and sound like real or imagined environments. An individual using a VR headset is able to look around the virtual environment and in some cases interact with people or objects. • Some areas in which it is beginning to be used include distance education, physical and psychological therapy treatments, retail and sales, and vacation planning to name just a few. • Entrepreneurs who leverage VR technologies may generate a competitive advantage for themselves in certain industries (e.g., retail, education) that allow them to unseat incumbent firms that are slower to adopt such radical changes to their offerings.

12. Augmented Reality • Augmented reality (AR) is technology that overlays virtual reality onto the natural world. Examples include Google Glass and Microsoft's HoloLens. • Most frequently, AR has been used—in an untethered fashion—to enhance a person’s natural experience of the world with data from the Internet. For instance, walking down a street using Google Glass, an individual might be able to see (projected on the inside of the glasses) the ratings of a restaurant that they pass by or view a warning about a fire that has started in an apartment building two blocks away from his location. • Unlike VR, AR doesn’t necessarily require the use of a headset. In some cases, a cell phone camera can be used as a means to use AR technology. One example is the various apps that can now be used to hold a cellphone camera in front of an image to read translated text (e.g., Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, and Waygo).

13. Open Innovation

14. Crowdsourcing • Crowdsourcing is the processes of sourcing information, knowledge, and/or work from a given crowd toward the use of solving of a specific problem. • It often involves an open call or challenge to a group of individuals that may involve providing rewards for the best ideas or solutions. • Crowdsourcing can be a potential low cost means to enhance the speed and quality of their innovation processes. As such, it can act as a means to help level the playing field between new ventures and large incumbent firms.

15. Co-Creation • Co-creation is the process of bringing together various parties to work together to jointly solve a common challenge and gain mutually valued benefits. For instance, Microsoft is famous for using co-creation by incorporating customer feedback and insights into its product and service development processes—resulting in a win-win situation for both the company and its customers. • Co-creation can be particularly effective when it involves partnerships between large corporations and entrepreneurs. On such example is Coca-Cola partnering with entrepreneurs AJ Brustein and Yong Kim to co-create the startup firm Wonolo. The partnership formed in response to Coca-Cola’s need to reduce its incidence of out-of-stock products on the shelves of retailers. The solution was to build a staffing platform that provides retailers with an on-demand option to quickly replenish out-of-stock products.

16. The Gig Economy • The gig economy is characterized by a group of individual workers who are hired—often through a digital platform—to provide a service, perform a task, or complete a project. • Approximately eight percent of adults performed gig work in the United States within the last year, with about one-half doing so for primary income and the other half doing so more casually for fun or to earn some extra money (Rosenblat, 2016). • An estimated 44 percent of American adults have used services provided through the gig economy (Lorenzetti, 2016). • Part of the demand for such labor is driven by large corporations increasingly using contingent workers through such freelance platforms as Upwork and PeoplePerHour to complete specific projects (Fry, 2017).

17. Entrepreneurial Trends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPbKyD2bAR4