Types of Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs are the persons who venture into new enterprises for the reward of profit. They are innovators, organizers, and risk bearers. There are different types of entrepreneurs. They may be categorized in a number of ways as discussed below.
Innovation is creating something new. Entrepreneurs are classified into the following types on the basis of innovation.
1. On the basis of Innovation
a. Innovative entrepreneurs:
Innovative entrepreneurs are those who give high priority to innovation. They always look forward to introducing new products and new ways of doing business. They take change as an opportunity and lead their businesses accordingly. They are proactive in nature and always challenge the status quo. Innovative entrepreneurs are creative and believe in experimentation. They always have a close look at the environmental dynamism.
b. Imitative entrepreneurs:
Imitative entrepreneurs, as the name suggests, are the imitators of successful innovative entrepreneurs. They have not involved in innovation themselves. They simply imitate the techniques, processes, and systems of others. Imitative entrepreneurs are reactive in nature. They are mostly found in developing nations. They imitate the developed nations. They are also called adoptive entrepreneurs.
c. Fabian entrepreneurs:
Fabian entrepreneurs are cautious and skeptical in experimenting with a change in their enterprises. They are very cautious in taking decisions and take calculative steps. They believe in gradual reform in their business. They avoid direct confrontation. They are risk avoiders. They imitate others only when they believe failing to do so might seriously damage the existence of their business.
d. Drone entrepreneurs:
Drone entrepreneurs are conservative in nature. They are always comfortable with their old technology of production even though new technologies have emerged. They do not change their traditional business even at the cost of reduced returns. They refuse to change in the production ways even if strong opportunities exist. They entirely refuse Innovation.
2. On the basis of Behaviour
Entrepreneurs show different behavior. On the basis of behavior, entrepreneurs may be classified into different groups as mentioned below.
a. Solo operators:
They work alone. They employ a small number of employees if needed. Most of the other entrepreneurs are solo operators at the beginning phase of their enterprise.
b. Active partners:
They operate their enterprise as joint ventures, All the partners actively participate in business activities. They believe in mutuality and cooperation.
c. Inventors:
Such entrepreneurs are always interested in inventing products. They are highly interested in research and innovations. They always seek new ways of doing business.
d. Challengers:
They accept and enjoy challenges. They remain in the industry due to the challenges it. When the challenges are met, they constantly search for new challenges to be pursued.
e. Buyers:
They are risk averter. Hence, they do not accept risk. Instead of initiating a new enterprise, they prefer buying the existing enterprise hoping to be less risky.
f. Life timers:
They take their businesses as an integral part of their life, Family enterprises based on specific skills fall under this category.
3. On the basis of Focus
On the basis of the focus of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs may be classified as under.
a. Women entrepreneur:
Women entrepreneurs are women, who innovate, imitate, or adopt a business activity. Modern women are not limited to the four walls of their houses. They have started to come up as entrepreneurs. As entrepreneurs, their contribution is very important for economic and social development.
b. Minority entrepreneur:
They are the entrepreneurs representing the minority group. Discrimination with them in society is their main driver towards entrepreneurship. Their level of
success depends on the education, training, resource availability, attitude of the society, and government support.
success depends on the education, training, resource availability, attitude of the society, and government support.
c. Immigrant entrepreneur:
They go to different countries for business. They mainly do this for seeking business opportunities. They normally represent the affluent class and are educated, trained, and experienced.
d. Part-time entrepreneur:
They are engaged in some other works besides entrepreneurship. They do not take entrepreneurship as their main profession.
e. Home-based entrepreneur:
They run their business from home. The rural women are examples of this, E-commerce has facilitated this.
f. Intrapreneur:
They are employees who implement the essential principles of entrepreneurship for the benefit of the organizations for whom they work, They are self-motivated, proactive, and action-oriented people.
g. Rural entrepreneurs:
Entrepreneurs focusing their entrepreneurial activities in rural areas are called rural entrepreneurs. They mostly attempt to serve rural markets by using local resources.
4. On the basis of the Scale of Enterprise
On the basis of the scale of the enterprise, there are two types of entrepreneurs.
a. Small scale entrepreneurs;
They carry out their business on a small scale as they do not possess the necessary talents and resources to initiate large-scale production. They cannot afford to introduce revolutionary technological changes.
b. Large scale entrepreneurs:
They possess the necessary financial and other resources to initiate large-scale production. They are adept to introduce technological changes. They possess talent as well as research and development facilities.
5. On the basis of Nature of Output
On the basis of the nature of the output, there are four types of entrepreneurs.
a. Industrial entrepreneurs:
Such entrepreneurs engage in manufacturing and selling products.
b. Service entrepreneurs:
They are engaged in service activities like repair, consultancy, beauty parlor, etc where entrepreneurs provide service to people.
c. Business entrepreneurs:
They are also called trading entrepreneurs. They buy and sell goods.
d. Agricultural entrepreneurs:
They are engaged in agricultural activities like horticulture, floriculture, animal husbandry, poultry, etc.
