What would you see, regard, and define as the most lucrative, promising and rewarding entrepreneurship opportunities?
Would it be a) science-based, b) (emerging) technology based, c) radical innovation or mega-projects based, d) existing markets (restructuring and improving efficiency) based, or e) social entrepreneurship based?
Of these options, which would you deem as most promising and which would you deem as least promising?
Which types of kinds of entrepreneurs are therefore best positioned?
Entrepreneurship could be more promising and rewarding based on emerging technology or radical innovation, but it also will be more risky. It will be higher potential to develop comparative advantage, but will be more difficult to build it because will be more unknown factors.
So, there is a direct dependence between innovational business and risk and ordinary business is less risky but, at the same time, it is less profitable.
I believe that the answer is dependent on what your goal and overall objective is. Are you posing the question from the position of an aspiring entrepreneur, an economic developer, or an educator? For example, I am seeing an upward trend in government and economic developers supporting scaleup, or existing markets, given the reduced risk and increased promise of job creation. I also believe that we need to see social entrepreneurship run through the first four options, much the same as technology runs through all industries.
Rafael Ciloci points out the conventional risk-reward premise.
Ivan Steenkamp and particularly Jenn MacDonald point out increased diversity in options, goals and objectives.
social entrepreneurship seems still developing.
it would be important to ensure balance - that all options and objectives are fully exploited and some not neglected.
The answer to the question is completely dependent upon your own perspective and interest, but also on the context where those businesses and their opportunities may be located. Context matters, this in terms of very different meanings (time, space, political regulations, technological framework, people being involved, customers and so on) ....
@Dieter, i think you rightly point out that it is both about/ a mix of own interest, context, and the simple fact that certain areas or fields are simply more lucrative and rewarding than others
Brian, yes you are right. The opportunity structures in societies are segmented as well as the landscape of businesses is so. More than 70 percent of all self-employed people in Europe are working in form of solo-self-employment, own account workers who don't employ further employees in their companies. Even this large group is rather heterogeneous but most of them are definitely far away from all this textbook knowledge designed for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. The lesson is, we have to define what entrepreneurship is and we have to start talking what we mean when talking about entrepreneurship. Otherwise we fall into traps and operate with stereotypes.
Dr Barnard,
Without appearing to be pedantic I have to say that what appears to be promising can be both rewarding and can also be far from rewarding. What appears to be lucrative can be negatively influenced by factors not under the control of the entrepreneur and could eventually be unprofitable.
Science-based opportunities can appear promising but may not, or what appears to be non-promising can with the passage of time become very promising in the face of factors not envisaged by the entrepreneur. Emerging technology can be lucrative to the first few entrepreneurs or it may not be. Legions of examples show that. Radical innovation can be promising, again depending upon the environment or it may not. I used to work on AI/ML( artificial intelligence/machine learning) more than 20 years ago. THe ML part could learn things by itself.They were very radical and thought to be a fantasy then. I had also earlier toyed with robotic vacuum-cleaners and robotic chefs and electronic home ( now known today as “smart home”). Today, all of them have become or are becoming commonplace. In my view, time and circumstances are important determinants of entrepreneurial /business success/failure, etc . That said, the discussion can evoke all kinds of views. I look forward to them
Phil Barbonis , agreed. i also think the question can be approached from a statistical perspective.
Incremental change can provide results with higher chance, though they will be less valuable.
Radical innovation is less possible to provide results in short period of time, but they will more valuable. To implement a radical innovation is needed a lot of requirements , that could be possible in a long run.
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