BMG936 International Entrepreneurship Assignment Sample 2023
Part A: Analysis of the Case Entrepreneur
Introduction of Jeff Bezos, the international entrepreneur
The term international entrepreneur may include a high level of alertness in order to identify hidden opportunities in the market. According to Kirzner (2020), the entrepreneurs who are alert in the market may exploit certain situations or unnoticed opportunities to sell at high prices while buying at low prices which ultimately increase the profit of the entrepreneur. However, according to Hisrich (2021), international ventures and entrepreneurships are highly dependent on the psychology of the international entrepreneur, devoting necessary time and taking social and financial risks and the ultimate reward is a valuable thing or business. On the other hand, as per Oviatt and McDougall (2018), the success of any international venture is dependent on organisational formation through the process of internationalisation, alternate governing structures and advantages of the foreign geographic locations along with controlling the required resources.
One of the most reputed billionaire names is Jeff Bezos who happens to be the founder of Amazon, a multi-faceted digital retail platform. A diversified profile of career expansion is noted in his professional journey which begins at Fitel. The telecommunications agency positioned him to build an international trade network from where he headed the entire customer service department. Transitioning to the banking sector, Bezos was the product manager at Bankers Trust till 1990 (Betz, 2018). The focus on technological start-up turned highly profitable along with expansion in other industries such as aerospace manufacturing. Currently, the entrepreneur has founded Blue Origin which is focused on spaceflight production and Bezos Expeditions which is an investment institution. The feature of passion and dedication with mindful planning of investment activities proved utilitarian for his expected returns. Not only has that, his social awareness and participation also generated good impressions.
Amazon happens to be the first start-up venture of Jeff Bezos in the late 90s. The company emerged as an Online bookstore in 1994 in Seattle. However, the idea was always targeted in product inclusion and diversification. Consequently, by 1998, Amazon diversified to music and video sales along with other consumer goods later (Aversa et al., 2021). Equities from 1997 were tactfully invested in earning financial acquisitions from smaller competitors. The company gradually extended to Web Services considering the growing data traffic. Things were not financially sustainable during the early 2000s however, Bezos used his investment experiences to sell shares and stock new flows in this platform.Another company founded by Jeff is Blue Origin, a human spaceflight manufacturer. The passion for space travel made the entrepreneur invest in this start-up for resource preservation. Apart from these, Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013, thereby expanding to the media industry (Callahan, 2018). His awareness on social concerns and philanthropic interests led to the foundation of Bezos Expedition, an investment institution funding non-profit project. Technological advances have always generated huge investment interests of Bezos within the US.
Factors influencing International Entrepreneurs’ motivation
Major motivational theories
According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it has to be stated that there were psychological needs of Jeff Bezos such as prestige and feeling accomplished along with basic needs of food, economic security and proper rest which motivated him to start the Amazon venture. However, the belongingness and love needs of Jeff Bezos have helped in achieving the ultimate need of self-actualisation including creative potentials. On the other hand, Herzberg motivation theory states that there has been huge psychological pressure on Jeff Bezos due to financial insecurity, decreased job satisfaction while motivating factors such as recognition, achievement and growth (AlAmrani, 2020).
Familial influences
In the case of Jeff Bezos, the familial influences are significant as his parents have contributed a substantial amount around $300,000 in Amazon while all the family members have supported the international entrepreneur in the journey.
Education
Jeff Bezos graduated in electrical engineering and computer science which have helped him in his ventures. Jeff Bezos’s graduation degree has been specifically helpful in his businesses such as Amazon and Blue Origin.
Prior experience
Jeff Bezos worked in a fintech telecommunication organisation in which his main responsibility was to manage international trade and customer service which significantly helped him in creating the international network of Amazon.
Push pull factors
Moreover, the push factors are racism, lack of opportunities in the online market, lack of attention by international entrepreneurs have been minimised by Jeff Bezos. Contradictorily, the need for more profits, economic stability and need for market dominance are the pull factors which have motivated Jeff Bezos (Molina, 2020).
Burns trait theory of Leadership
According to Burns trait theory of leadership, Jeff Bezos, a made entrepreneur, has supervising abilities, intelligence and initiatives along with personal traits such as resilience, maturity, decisiveness and self-assurance. Jeff Bezos is a made entrepreneur as he has acquired new skills and leadership qualities in real life from his own experiences. Furthermore, self-actualisation and need for achievement is high in Jeff Bezos which facilitates the resilient mindset of the made entrepreneur. Job security and power and authority over others play a significant role in trait theory of leadership (Burns and Mooney, 2018).
Effectuation theories
The effectuation theory is defined as the decision making process in entrepreneurial environments in proper allocation of available resources are made to achieve best possible results. The effectuation theory has 5 principles which are Bird in hand, Affordable loss, Lemonade, Pilot in the plane and Patchwork-Quit principles. One international entrepreneur such as Jeff Bezos started with 2 principles such as Bird in Hand and Affordable loss principle as he started with means and focused on downside risks. Jeff Bezos also is controlling the future of online retail with online transaction security, thus he has applied Pilot in the plane principle (Prashantham et al., 2019).
Lessons learnt
Resilience and commitment are two most important aspects of international entrepreneurship that may be learnt from Jeff Bezos along with teamwork and positive psychology. The trait of commitment of providing excellent online customer service globally is one of the key traits of Jeff Bezos that may be learnt from Jeff Bezos. Apart from this, risk taking abilities and transformational leadership styles has been significant identifiers of Jeff Bezos’s resilience for successful international ventures which needs to be learnt.
Part B: Themes
Theme 1: Technological Diversification and Expansion enables diversification of employment and marketing opportunities
Jeff Bezos is clearly inclined to technological progressions and research. This qualifies his investment in Google projects and other biotechnological fields apart from spaceflight manufacturing. This enhances the conception and definition of technological start-up where the entrepreneur intends to merge the physical and virtual worlds and make earnings flexible. However, it must be acknowledged here that developing diversities in employment and marketing cannot sustain without job satisfaction. At the ground level, Amazon has complaints on poor work benefits for the localised stakeholders which need to be attended to at the earliest (Rogelberg, 2018). Critics also highlight the importance of workforce diversification to enhance technological access. The entrepreneur has invested 44 dollars in the Solutions Project under Philanthropy Women (Fan, 2018). Jeff has targeted the goal to generate an inclusive workforce where a diverse range of technologically experienced members can incorporate ideas. Inclusion of technical elements like Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Augmentations could enhance the standards of Bezos’s entrepreneurial management. Jeff has been considered quite serious about technological developments in the services. For example, the Google Projects have been able to augment IoT enhancements to maixmise the user interface. This is strongly guided by Bezos’s technological background and learnings enhancing the overall quality of deliveries and profits.
Theme 2: Seriality of Habits is fundamental to develop a consistent personality
The most effective tool to gain work efficiency is to possess smaller teams that attend and test their skills constantly which may be termed as habitual entrepreneurship. Jeff Bezos motivates and believes in the individual prowess of stubborn and agile workers (McGrath, 2019). Seriality of these habits ensures that employees are open to experimentation and risks. The founder opines that larger teams generate less efficiency and more distractions. Therefore, team members must be less in respective units to ensure workloads. It is also observed that the entrepreneur supports innovative technologies which are why the lab conception is cultured.It is expected to be a two-way response to brand recognition and appreciation. Bezos has attempted to focus on addressing the problems of larger populations at the origin and host economies (Woodcock and Graham, 2019).Bezos is able to identify the merits of addressing employee’s emotional constraints. It enables him to invest in interpersonal relations that are of high value in today’s market. The seriality of this habit has been inculcated among teams.
Theme 5: Financial resourcing and investment planning are milestones for profiting
Efficiency of proper investments lies in centring the funds for projects timely and efficient management of financial resoiurces in international ventures are defined as financing. Bezos, being the leader for several global services, is not only aware of this concept. The history of potential bankruptcies and debts in Amazon’s commercial unit clearly indicate the founder’s knowledge on financial opportunities (DeAngelo, 2021). The resolutions to include new flows in the markets respectively reflect on the efficiency of the investments planned. It is because Bezos’s operations and entrepreneurial initiatives have always involved huge financial inputs. The planning results in proper management of the investments in technologies which can maximise net returns for the ideas.
References
AlAmrani, K.A., 2020. Applicability Of The Motivation Theories Of Maslow, Herzberg And Vroom To Contemporary Business Organizations In Oman. International Journal of Economics, Business and Management Studies, 7(2), pp.202-213.
Aversa, P., Haefliger, S., Hueller, F. and Reza, D.G., 2021. Customer complementarity in the digital space: Exploring Amazon’s business model diversification. Long Range Planning, 54(5), p.101985.
Betz, F., 2018. Strategic Business Models: Idealism and Realism in Strategy. Emerald Group Publishing.
Burns, D.J. and Mooney, D., 2018. Transcollegial leadership: a new paradigm for leadership. International Journal of Educational Management.
Callahan, J., 2018. Towards a Plural History of ‘Impact Investing’ (Master’s thesis, University of Waterloo).
DeAngelo, H., 2021. Corporate financial policy: What really matters? Journal of Corporate Finance, 68, p.101925.
Emami, A., Klein, P.G., Ramadani, V. and Hisrich, R.D., 2021.The interplay between empathy, learning, and opportunity in the process of entrepreneurial value co-creation. European Journal of International Management, 16(3), pp.408-426.
Fan, J.S., 2018.Innovating Inclusion: The Impact of Women on Private Company Boards. Fla. St. UL Rev., 46, p.345.
Lyalkov, S., Carmona, M., Congregado, E., Millán, A. and Millán, J.M., 2020.Trademarks and their association with Kirznerian entrepreneurs. Industry and Innovation, 27(1-2), pp.155-183.
McGrath, R., 2019. Seeing around corners: How to spot inflection points in business before they happen.Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Molina, J.A., 2020. Family and entrepreneurship: New empirical and theoretical results.
Oviatt, B.M. and McDougall, P.P., 2018. Toward a theory of international new ventures.In International Entrepreneurship (pp. 31-57). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Prashantham, S., Kumar, K., Bhagavatula, S. and Sarasvathy, S.D., 2019. Effectuation, network-building and internationalisation speed. International Small Business Journal, 37(1), pp.3-21.
Rogelberg, S.G., 2018. The surprising science of meetings: How you can lead your team to peak performance. Oxford University Press, USA.
Tur-Porcar, A., Roig-Tierno, N. and LlorcaMestre, A., 2018.Factors affecting entrepreneurship and business sustainability.Sustainability, 10(2), p.452.
Woodcock, J. and Graham, M., 2019.The gig economy.A critical introduction. Cambridge: Polity.
COURSEWORK II: LITERATURE REVIEW
INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES
The topic of international entrepreneurial opportunities has been selected which has clearly stated the identification of international opportunities in the international business opportunities. However, it has been observed that in order to succeed in international entrepreneurship, one has to maintain resilience and risk taking abilities for sustainability in the business models. On the other hand, there are various factors impacting the behaviour of the international entrepreneurs such as legal aspects, political aspects, financial market and labour markets. It may be easier for international entrepreneurs to find and identify any opportunities in the booming economies of the world rather than a declining economy as more and more people in developed economies will try to enhance their lifestyles. Technological innovations also play a crucial role in the international entrepreneurial opportunities identification to reduce many hidden costs.
Introduction
The goal of every entrepreneurial initiative is to ensure a stable market demand along with growth prospects. This also includes the profitability and productivity of the workforce for the longest timespan which is why businesses keep expanding. However, not all companies are born to globalise work facilities or expand markets internationally. The aim of this study would be to identify the factors influencing entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos. It would theoretically assume the economic development obtained from internationalising start-ups and the risks associated. Possible themes would help to critically assess the importance of economic stability for an entrepreneur to develop new mitigatory options.
Concepts of Born Global and New International Entrepreneurships
The goal of every business is initiated at their respective levels which depend on their internal infrastructure and finances. Authorities tend to define goals according to these factors and target products or services. The idea of a born global Jeff Bezos’s entrepreneurship is quite different from traditional firm culture. According to Paul and Rosado-Serrano (2019), such organisations aim to develop competitive advantages in resources and sales in multiple nations from their initiation. Overall, Bezos’s companies have the global scenario in focus from the very beginning. As a result, their target market is wide and boundary less. The most relied approach that marks the sales or supply initiations is exports and imports. Global delivery facilitators like FedEx come to the aid of such agencies for distribution and supply generation.
The conception of international Jeff Bezoship is a result of this approach. Organisations aiming to globalise their sales and supplies have to develop a global marketing and engagement platform with local centres for contacts. Interactive methodologies are often applied to collect local agents in host countries. For example, Jeff Bezos has been globalising employment at Amazon to generate new affiliates and service agents in host markets (Alassaf et al., 2020).Such companies solely depend on international performance which includes greater risks of local competition.
Theoretical Assumptions
Behavioural Theory
Proposed by John Kunkel, this theory affirms the value of existing and previous socio-economic interactions in generating strong growth. Four distinct areas are considered, namely: response of buyers due to demand composition approaches, manipulation of the demand composition factors in a specific region (Fellnhofer, 2017). The other two include labour market and training scopes associated with production processes. Therefore, Jeff Bezos has explored demand elements of the host economies in relation to products and services. However, hurrying or aggressive behaviour cannot generate expected outcomes, especially for deadline-oriented actions. Steadiness of actions along with behavioural poise are regarded as important.
Factors affecting Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Behaviours
A range of internal and external factors combine with psychological attributes to define the behaviour and conduct of Jeff Bezos. These include the following criteria:
Legal Aspects
The laws including employee and employer interests have to be regarded to communicate daily. Jeff Bezos has to abide by workplace regulations dictated in regional systems. This includes work hours, scheduled holidays, leaves, employee rights and several trade elements which must be thoroughly researched to conduct services.
Political Conditions
The influence of politics is noteworthy from the grassroots level. Companies under Bezos like Amazon might be digitally present but have to face the effects of capitalist and communist propaganda. Bezos had to negotiate changes in political relations among collaborating countries.
Labour Market
Availability of resources like capital and infrastructure also depend on labour and skills. Bezos could never expand to the lesser developed nations if technological growth would not have occurred.Therefore, they must sustain positive interactions for long-term supply stocking.
Financial Conditions
Jeff Bezos tend to be highly influenced by financial trajectories. The aspects of exchange currencies, inflation, demand and income rates play vital roles in determining the future of businesses. Amazon, for instance, is based in both developed and developing countries where financial differences are quite high (Sadowski, 2020). This implies that start-up owners would have to set investments according to people’s disposable incomes which has always been fluctuating.
Business Conditions
This includes the extent of competition or demand hike existing in a target market. Jeff Bezos tend to soar well if the demand and supply cycle is consistent with less competition at regional levels. Amazon did not have larger or global competitors in the initial years which led to severe expansion.
Motivational and Stakeholder Expectancies
Psychological attributes happen to influence internal performances and daily interactions between start-up owners and their teams. Members working under Jeff Bezos expect influential and ideological inspirations for constant delivery of services which is an opportunity.This also includes the tangible and intangible benefits associated with employment (incentives, appraisals, participation and work ambience) (Dhir and Chakraborty, 2021). Jeff Bezos tend to work flexibly if team members resonate with their personal psyche. However, that is often a rarity which is why negotiations are struck.
International Entrepreneurs and Economy
When it comes to growth, the first thing Jeff Bezos focuses on is the economy. Therefore, economic development can be defined as an upscaling of the company’s finances which is measured in terms of per capita income growth in a given timespan. It is not difficult to relate that Jeff Bezosreached economic development as start-up ventures happen to generate maximum revenues fromhost nations eventually. The first step is employment as Jeff Bezos creates a pool of job opportunities at local and international levels while expanding businesses. Bezos has generated jobs for around 1.3 billion people around the globe while hiring nearly 5 lakh employees within 2020 (Dumaine, 2020). Therefore, it is clearly indicated that a diverse employment generates sources of new markets where companies like Amazon keep growing. Considering the user-friendly interface, Amazon has been the most recommended platform for digital sales. This justifies the 30.8 percent of average international sales generated by Amazon by the third quarter of 2021.
Significance of Economic Development
The connection between economic development and Jeff Bezos’s entrepreneurship is a two-way process as it governs financial stability along with social and community betterment. As opined by Boissay et al., (2021), platforms like Amazon offer a diverse range of sellers the opportunity to showcase their products and services to a worldwide audience which is due to Bezos’s intellectual planning. Therefore, such commodities often tend to enhance people’s lifestyles by omitting dependence on regular technologies and systems that are formulated by Jeff. However, financial stability is very important at both small and large scales to sustain the interaction. Bezos has identified this requirement to offer assistance to localised sellers who can directly sell without being hindered by meddlers and distributing channels in regular retailing. Lack of experience on local market conditions happens to limit Jeff Bezos from expanding to several communities. This has also been broken down by leading Jeff Bezos like Bezos who approach local communities to analyse their demands and find new seller chains besides issuing new contacts regionally.
Relevance to the Case Study
Based on the previous discussions, it is quite clear that Bezos and his initiatives have had distinct impacts on the US economy. Reports highlight that the US revenue incorporates nearly 30 percent of the returns generated by Amazon’s retail (Gauri et al., 2021). Not only that, Bezos has used the opportunities in leading his ownership expenses. The company’s overhead expenses are much lower than that of other retailers in the local and global markets. This is enhanced by the job opportunity delivered in the locality by Bezos through technological paradigms. Around 4 lakh jobs have been locally generated even in 2020 during the pandemic. These cumulatively suggest the impact Bezos has generated on the local and global economic conditions.
Critical Analysis of the Topic
Understanding the contribution of Jeff Bezoship in economic growth, it can be assessed that entrepreneurial efforts and economy go hand-in-hand. As perceived by Lehdonvirta et al., (2019), the small and medium businesses happen to generate maximum employment and revenue opportunities using the conventional or advanced methods of local and global transactions. Be it digital or physical transaction, the origin country is always benefitted by small to large start-up activities which is why government policies always support entrepreneurial growth as is marked in Bezos’s entrepreneurial implementations.However, it must also be addressed here that like other profit-oriented activities, Jeff Bezos are privately running their companies. Therefore, attending every aspect of the business from employee needs to market requisites can be challenging at a global level from the very beginning. As per Wamsler (2017), lack of knowledge on external market conditions and financial support from the respective countries happen to limit the growth stakes which is why Bezos has focused on hiring diverse workforces. One of the most acknowledged limitations is the lack of consistency in execution of internal policies that employees and professional executives have complained about. Therefore, retention of stable socio-political statistics tends to ease daily interactions which is being attempted through better diplomatic engagement by Bezos. Companies under Bezos like Amazon and Blue Origin would face less economic and technological deficiencies and differences with collaborating nations.
Key issues
Language barrier happens to be the first challenge that global businesses have to encounter even in this age. Jeff Bezos like Jeff Bezos face immense problems in finding efficient interpreters and translators for communicating physically. The virtual world is far more different owing to the lack of one-to-one interaction. Ideas often get lost in translations which lead to miscommunications.
Another problem is in managing global teams virtually. Even expert Jeff Bezos like Bezos face issues in handling global staff in virtual conference platforms. Tracking work progress in remote working facilities is also difficult as such techniques are yet to develop. This is followed by the perceptive differences between diverse workforces. Cultural and ethnic backgrounds generate individual prejudices which are best tackled at physical workspaces, through regular training. The digital space for Amazon’s workers is not ideal to conduct such sessions.
Technological limitations add to these concerns. Bezos has attempted to involve the most effective software and work platforms but regional networks cannot be predicted.Respecting the emotional intelligence of individuals in a real-time global workspace can be challenging under constraining situations. Companies under Bezos also face problems in constantly keeping track of changing inflation and taxation.Currency differences besides diverse workforce expectations are other problems affecting net performances.
Theoretical Justifications
The Interactive Model of Jeff Bezoship
The concept is mostly used by social enterprises to handle communication and interpersonal gaps. It is also used to explore unaddressed technical and financial limitations among regional centres. However, this model is regarded as a convenient tool to map the impact of different policies issued by owners. Start-up agencies have to always adjust and alter their work practices according to changing needs and demands. For instance, the Covid-19 generated a strong need to develop the cashless payment options for Amazon regionally (Arner et al., 2020). Similar needs might or might not be predicted. Consequently, Bezos must ensure daily interactions with the centres to commute changes and take feedback from the workers. Ensuring a two-way communication is noted to help in clarifying misconceptions. This also makes it easier for globalised workers to report changes in local markets or rising issues. As a result, companies can prepare for upcoming adversities to negate considerably.
Feasible Suggestions
The first thing that Jeff Bezos must supervise is investigation. Prior knowledge on regional targets, their preferences, perceptions and tendencies are mandatory. Expert analysts must be hired separately to conduct these expeditions in a given timeframe. However, Jeff Bezos must also foresee the expenses involved and check draft reports timely.
Another recommendation would be to utilise a strategic marketing framework for initial sales. Collaborations and merging often help to generate brand acquisition and customer interests before independent launching. Born global Jeff Bezos rely on this mechanism owing to the limited brand review within the origin countries. Amazon unlike other small competitors expanded itself within the US economy and the neighbouring countries before globalising. The company has even diversified their product flows to accommodate new demands within localities.
The last suggestion would be to collaborate with the host federations. Government support is of utmost significance to sustain global enterprising that political relations can ensure.
Conclusion
A clear indication can be derived that Jeff Bezos need to individually handle not only internal but also external stakes simultaneously. The factors discussed reflect upon the psychological and perceptive aspects of the population concerned for marketing or employment. Therefore, the study is a distinct imprint of the elements of globalisation without which companies cannot sustain longer. For example, diplomatic interrelations can directly develop or deteriorate trade growth. Also, similar factors like taxation, inflation and legal amendments are not in the hands of the Jeff Bezos. Therefore, it is essential for brands to justify proposals theoretically as have been attempted here.
References
Alassaf, D., Vrushabhendra, L., Alswine, N., Chokshi, V., Daim, T.U. and Meissner, D., 2020. Amazon: Industrial/International Corporation and Dynamics. In Innovation Management in the Intelligent World (pp. 67-80).Springer, Cham.
Arner, D.W., Barberis, J.N., Walker, J., Buckley, R.P., Dahdal, A.M. and Zetzsche, D.A., 2020.Digital finance & the COVID-19 crisis.University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Research Paper, (2020/017).
Boissay, F., Ehlers, T., Gambacorta, L. and Shin, H.S., 2021. Big techs in finance: on the new nexus between data privacy and competition. In the Palgrave Handbook of Technological Finance (pp. 855-875). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Dhir, S. and Chakraborty, T., 2021. Does the perceived efficiency of the HR department matter in influencing satisfaction and employee performance? International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management.
Dumaine, B., 2020. Bezonomics: How Amazon is Changing Our Lives and what the World’s Best Companies are Learning from it. Scribner.
Fellnhofer, K., 2017. Entrepreneurship education revisited: perceived entrepreneurial role models increase perceived behavioural control. International journal of learning and change, 9(3), pp.260-283.
Gauri, D.K., Jindal, R.P., Ratchford, B., Fox, E., Bhatnagar, A., Pandey, A., Navallo, J.R., Fogarty, J., Carr, S. and Howerton, E., 2021. Evolution of retail formats: Past, present, and future. Journal of Retailing, 97(1), pp.42-61.
Lehdonvirta, V., Kässi, O., Hjorth, I., Barnard, H. and Graham, M., 2019. The global platform economy: A new offshoring institution enabling emerging-economy microproviders. Journal of Management, 45(2), pp.567-599.
Paul, J. and Rosado-Serrano, A., 2019. Gradual internationalization vs born-global/international new venture models: A review and research agenda. International Marketing Review.
Sadowski, J., 2020. Too smart: How digital capitalism is extracting data, controlling our lives, and taking over the world. MIT Press.
Wamsler, C., 2017. Stakeholder involvement in strategic adaptation planning: Transdisciplinarity and co-production at stake? Environmental Science & Policy, 75, pp.148-157.
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