Annotated Bibliography

Anastasi, Thomas E. The Successful Entrepreneur: American Dream Done Right. Glenbridge Publishing Ltd, 2010.

In “The Successful Entrepreneur: American Dream Done Right”, Thomas E. Anastasi lays out the essentials of who is an entrepreneur. Anastasi describes the entrepreneur as “a risk taker but not a fool”, who “minimizes risk and maximizes opportunity”, and is willing to “risk it all but with one foot on the break”. Also, Anastasi explains that entrepreneur have higher tolerance of uncertainty than the average person. For example, Anastasi cites statistics from the Small Business Bureau, that new business created by entrepreneurs that survive more than 5 years have higher chance growth, while most startups fail before the 2 years mark. Put in perspective, this indicates that entrepreneurs are willing to start a business in an uphill battle with the odd against them. This is very telling of the type of person who, knowing the risks is still determine to embark on it because he has the “I have to do this mindset” .

Hougaard, Soren. The Business Idea: The Early Stages of Entrepreneurship. Springer, 2005.

According to Soren Hougaard, in “The Business Idea: The Early Stages of Entrepreneurship”, the entrepreneur must certain competencies in order to become successful such as analysis, creativity, and communication. In the text, Hougaard conveys that the entrepreneur has the “ability to see what others had overlooked, and focuses on understanding problems and the real reason for them”. In addition, Hougaard explicates that the entrepreneur first explains why there is a problem and then offers a solution. In Hougaard opinion the entrepreneur is a social construction and not a biological phenomenon and that entrepreneurship can be learnt through individual’s business initiative. This is a good source of material that focuses on the practical side of entrepreneurship and offers a view of the big picture of were the entrepreneurs can get if they execute theirs business ideas properly.

Parkinson, Mark. “Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?” The Guardian, 2 Aug 2017, www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2017/aug/02/are-entrepreneurs-born-or-made. Accessed 2 Feb. 2019.

According to Dr. Mark Parkinson article “Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made”, the personality of the entrepreneur are as diverse as the types of business the intent to start. In the text, Parkinson references a study made using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a famous personality test, which “suggest that entrepreneurs see themselves as creative, impulsive and prepare to take risks”. But at the same time, Parkinson explains that there are other traits that this study did not capture about entrepreneur such as resilience and optimism. In conclusion, this article can help explain the characteristics that make an entrepreneur.

Walker, Donald A. “Walras’s Theory of the Entrepreneur” De Economist, 1986.

In “Walras’s Theory of the Entrepreneur”, Donald A. Walker identifies Walras’s definition of an entrepreneur as a person who identifies an opportunity in the market to turn a product into a service or a service into a product. According to Walker, Walras’s Theory made an effort to distinguish between a capitalist and an entrepreneur by explaining that the former may earn a living regardless of his efforts. For example a capitalist uses his capital to generate interests, while the entrepreneur generate his profit from turning the money from a loan into a business. I believe will help me to explain the theoretical difference between a capitalist and an entrepreneur in my essay by citing concrete examples of each case.