The relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation

Entrepreneurship and innovation complement business naturally. Each requires creative thinking and a desire to take some risks. Proven research indicates the intensity of said risks, making it possible to forge new paths for corporate success and technological advancement. Comparing entrepreneurship and innovation, one can’t help but recognize the similar characteristics of each, and how when joined together, they expand business prospects.

Entrepreneurship characteristics

Entrepreneurs are natural-born leaders with innate characteristics that generate ideas and challenge the status quo. They are philosophical by nature, often contemplating unique relationships, cause and effect scenarios and extended capabilities of their projects and endeavors. Common characteristics of entrepreneurs include:

• Willingness to learn: Entrepreneurs have an insatiable appetite for learning new things. They read, study, experiment and test new ideas regularly. As they do so, they determine what works, learning from failure as it happens.
• Engaging personality: Entrepreneurs are exciting individuals who engage in the world around them. They are leaders with the ability to build teams of people who can fulfill a task, while setting and achieving goals in the process. Their ability to sell others on their innovative ideas allows them to pursue dreams, often turning them into realities.
• Strong moral compass: Entrepreneurs value their reputation. They understand the importance of networking and work hard to preserve their integrity. Entrepreneurs are honest people willing to do whatever it takes in business, providing their reputation doesn’t get tarnished in the process.
• Resource-oriented abilities: Entrepreneurs are resourceful. Finding answers and solutions is like second nature to them. They are organized, detail-oriented people willing to do research and ask for help when necessary.

Innovation characteristics

Innovation necessarily invents and expands on new and existing ideas. Innovators promote growth in communities by responding to their needs and desires. In their quest to solve community dilemmas, develop economically sound environments and create culturally responsible enterprises, innovators often work with entrepreneurs to achieve prevailing community goals. Common innovation characteristics are:

• Uninhibited intellectual freedom: Innovation solves problems in unique and varied ways. Innovators often think abstractly, recognizing the implications of their inventions and trouble-shooting before long-term problems result.
• Ability to overcome obstacles: Change, while often necessary, isn't always embraced readily by communities. Innovation introduces ideas, communicating them effectively so that they are accepted by the majority. Innovators are well versed in the psychology of human feelings, emotions and personalities. Their ability to work with others enables the development of new ideas.
• Strong sense of integrity: Innovators slowly become trusted members of communities. Their innovations must stand the test of time. The integrity of innovators is constantly being tested in the interim. Obstacles and hurdles are faced and overcome in this dynamic phase of integrating new inventions into established communities.
• Goal-oriented productivity: Innovation relies on ideas for its development. Then it creates the process that transforms viable ideas into realistic goals for production. Gradually, innovators introduce progressive advancements into communities, meeting and exceeding the needs of citizens on a grand scale.

Entrepreneurship's willingness to learn and innovation's uninhibited intellectual freedom are characteristics that naturally complement each other. One is open to possibilities, while the other explores them readily. The engaging personality of entrepreneurs combines easily with innovation's ability to overcome obstacles. Entrepreneurs and innovators both engage the community and are required to communicate effectively to achieve desired results.

Irreproachable reputations make the work of entrepreneurs and innovators easier to accomplish. They work together promoting the greater good and serving communities responsibly and with integrity. Simultaneously, entrepreneurs use resources (including innovators) to turn their ideas into realistic and achievable goals.