Solved: Covid-19 and entrepreneurship: cultural, lifestyle and societal changes
- Note:
All questions are based on the article: ‘Coronavirus (Covid-19) and entrepreneurship: cultural, lifestyle and societal changes’,
- According to Frank Knight (1921), an entrepreneur is ‘a manager of uncertainty’ and according to Eric Ries (2011), an entrepreneur should be ‘dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty!’ Doern (2016) as quoted in the article says: ‘A crisis (such as the pandemic) represents both an opportunity and threat depending on how it is perceived. As an opportunity, it can lead to new knowledge being created that results in learning effects. This can lead to the identification of new markets and innovation’.
By basing your reasoning on the current Covid-19 pandemic and by referring to a business of your choice, detail in point form what this business could perceive as opportunities, innovate, take moderate risk in order to survive and grow.
- Although Joseph Schumpeter (1961) described the entrepreneur is one who upsets perfectly competitive markets with a ‘perennial gale of creative destruction’, when it is a pandemic that creates the destruction of markets, modern writers like Conz and Magnini (2020) as quoted in the article say that it is ‘resilient individuals’ who are ‘able to thrive with difficulties and uncertainties’.
Based on the description of ‘resilience’ given in the article, and with suitable examples, present your argument that resilience is a competency essential for entrepreneurial strategy to successfully adapt and survive in a turbulent environment.
- The article argues that the new emerging work norm creates a technology-based diversity between those who could work from home and those who cannot. As such they propose that: ‘The new work environment requires an entrepreneurial mindset to cope with change and uncertainty resulting from the health pandemic’ in the workplace.
Comment on this proposition in the context of your own work situation, or a suitable situation familiar to you regarding this particular ‘entrepreneurial mindset.’
- The nature of disasters such as the Covid-19 has a major negative impact on persons and society. As a result, both a social entrepreneur as well as the community being served are disrupted. However, the article proposes that: ‘Social entrepreneurship is needed more in times of a crisis because of the emphasis on societal well-being.’
Taking a social entrepreneurship program of your choice, clarify this proposition based on supportive arguments shown in the article.