Week 2 Reading Reflection

During the course of reading Chapter 1 of our textbook (by Donald F. Kuratko) I was most surprised by the number of new firms that are created every year. According to the reading, "one new firm with employees is established every year for every 300 adults". Furthermore, 14 to 16 new firms are created for every 100 existing businesses. To me those numbers definitely speak for themselves. While every new business may not become an instant success, new businesses lead to a large amount of economic growth and continue to emphasize the importance of entrepreneurs.

While I enjoyed reading Chapter 1, there was one section that proved to be confusing to me. Dr. Kuratko goes into detail on different process approaches for entrepreneurs. One of these, the integrative approach, outlined in a general manner some of the key elements to being a successful entrepreneur. While I understood what each key element meant, I had difficulty understanding how they worked together, especially in affecting the entrepreneurial intensity of the business venture.

If I had the opportunity to get in contact with Dr. Kuratko, I would ask him which school of entrepreneurial thought is considered to be the most effective and what environments have been studied the most with regards to promoting entrepreneurial growth in individuals. The first question has to do with narrowing down the different schools of entrepreneurial thought that are presented in the chapter. While it is good to know what options have been considered and developed up to the present, I believe it is more useful to know which schools of thought lead to the most success overall in newly created businesses. The second question has a more personal reasoning behind it. I agree that environments can have a large impact on entrepreneurs, but I would prefer to find those environments in my own community in order to grow as an individual as well.

Overall I believe that Dr. Kuratko performed an excellent job in outlining the place that entrepreneurs have in our economy. His use of supporting texts from other authors was especially good as it allowed his points to be substantiated with academic research done by others.