How Is Entrepreneurship Good for Economic Development?

-- Anand Bansal

Entrepreneurship is recognized as a prerequisite for sound and sustained economic development of a country. The issue of entrepreneurship does not merely contribute to further enhancement of academic knowledge as regards its relationship with economic development, but also provides impetus to policy makers for designing policy initiatives meant for the development of the country. Many studies on entrepreneurship have substantiated the fact that entrepreneurship has a vital economic perspective in terms of productivity, growth, employment generation and innovation. It refers to one who starts a new business, undertakes risk, bears the uncertainties and performs the managerial function of decision making and coordination. British economists like Adam Smith, D Ricardo and John Stuart Mill advocated the broad English word ‘business management’ in place of entrepreneurship. In this volatile era of global economy, business leaders are reshaping the business environment by introducing new products and services, opening up foreign markets and pushing the technological frontiers. The question how the process of entrepreneurship contributes to economic development can be answered by the simple fact that entrepreneurship creates new ventures, which in turn, produce jobs, and may even translate into more productivity through technological change with intensified competition.

© 2012 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Problems and Prospects of Women Employees in BPO Sector: A Study of Some Select BPOs in Delhi and NCR

-- S S Sarangdevot, Rajender Kumar Yadav and Rakesh Kumar Sharma

The Indian BPO industry accounts for a revenue of US$39.6 bn and has emerged as one of the largest private industries providing direct employment to 1.6 million professionals. The participation of women in BPO industry has been seen as a critical enabling factor for the continued growth of the industry. Today, BPO companies are taking women on board at all levels as this helps the organizations to make good business sense. Therefore, BPO companies are trying to develop and involve women in higher roles and functions. The present study discusses the major problems faced by women employees in the BPO sector, viz., health problems, lack of safety, sexual harassment, more working hours, lack of social security, etc. It also reveals the various reasons for the high attrition rate of the women employees of the Indian BPOs, and identifies the various factors which encourage women employees to opt for a career in the BPO sector.

© 2012 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Need and Prospects of New Service Business for Elderly Population in India

-- Sumanta Bhattacharyya, Soumya Saha and Munmun Dey

Inversion of population pyramid in the developing countries has been one of the prime concerns of these countries that exert many challenges as well as newer opportunities. Increasing population in the higher age groups and gradual fall in the population in the lower age group will call for products, services and amenities and customization thereof, especially to suit elderly peoples’ typical needs. On the other hand, to meet these challenges, many new business opportunities will also come up with immense market potentiality (subject to validation by research). This is expected to generate new challenging dimensions to the existing businesses and their reorientation. For that matter, there is a need for understanding specific requirements of this considerably large and consistently rising elderly population in the developing countries. This paper intends to identify the socioeconomic status and considerations of the elderly people to locate the specific service requirements in the changing situation, amount and nature of customization required in those services by this population, potential business opportunities, and market potentiality of those businesses. The business opportunity covering the service aspects to the elderly population seems to be bright as large business houses nowadays are found to have been running after acquiring a tag of ‘good corporate citizen’ for themselves, and the concept of ‘socially responsible investment’ is gaining momentum. On the resource side, there are unorganized service providers—skilled professionals, unskilled job hunters. On the other hand, rampant growth of unemployment in the organized sector following global economic shock, stable growth rate, controlled inflation and low equity markets are quite conducive for exploring newer and potentially sustainable

© 2012 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Traits of Entrepreneurs of Small-Scale Sector

-- G H Barhate and Madhavi S Patgaonkar

The paper endeavors to examine the traits of entrepreneurs of small-scale sector. A sample of 250 entrepreneurs was collected from the State of Haryana for the analysis. Data was classified on the basis of age and education of entrepreneurs. Factor analytical model and one-way and two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) techniques were used to analyze the data. 24 statements were administered to entrepreneurs of small-scale sector. Through factor analytical model, the 24 statements were reduced to seven factors, namely, general management capabilities, proactive approach in problem solving, persistence, professionalism, confidence, self-responsibility and risk takers. A large number of factors that emerged from the factor model vary significantly with education of entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs must develop these traits in order to improve their effectiveness in the new economic order. The entrepreneurs must be professional in their approach keeping in view the changing market conditions. More emphasis should be given to develop these traits among entrepreneurs during the training programs. It will help the entrepreneurs to deal with various challenges faced during their business processes.

© 2012 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Case Study:- ADmire: The Boutique Advertising Firm

-- Rajnandan Patnaik

If I were starting life over again, I am inclined to think that I would go into the advertising business in preference to almost any other. The general raising of the standards of modern civilization among all groups of people during the past half century would have been impossible without the spreading of the knowledge of higher standards by means of advertising.

– Franklin D Roosevelt, 32nd President of United States
Creative without strategy is called ‘art’. Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising’.

– Jeff Richards, Advertising Professor, The University of Texas at Austin