Entreprenuership and small firms. How useful are the concepts of Essay

Entreprenuership and small firms. How useful are the concepts of enterprise 'push' and 'pull' in explaining the factors - Essay Example In developing countries particularly, the economic conditions drive many individuals to become entrepreneurs so as to redefine their economic conditions. The research field of entrepreneurship has been considered to be the major target of the most diverse area of study as presented by the enlarged range of theories and approaches and the trend is developing at a faster rate which is grounded on innovation, risk taking and proactiveness. The field of entrepreneurship has continually experienced attention from scholars leading to various theoretical frameworks being developed; however, new theories that are in line with the contemporary issues in the globe need to be developed (Islam, 2012, p.67). The growth of the business is influenced by the pull and push factors of starting a business. Entrepreneurs who start up a business out of the pull factors, such as desire to expand, will see their businesses growing successfully. On the other hand, entrepreneurs who are compelled into busine ss by, say, unemployment, the situation will not experience much growth. It is important to determine the major factors that influence entrepreneurs and make them start businesses since every business calls for different strategies and drive (Deakins and Freel, 2012, p.32). The growth and success of a business establishment will depend on the commitment made by the entrepreneur which usually differs in accordance to the motivating factors. Individuals with expertise, creative ideas, innovation, and demographic characteristics, including age and education of an entrepreneur, will influence establishment and growth of an enterprise. Young, energetic and highly educated entrepreneurs are served with advanced high-tech and knowledge required in running a business. The study endeavored to identify the concepts of enterprise ‘push’ and ‘pull’ that play a significant role in explaining the factors that influence the decisions of individuals to become self-employed and/or start up a business. This will help in understanding the reasons that motivate to become entrepreneurs and establish business enterprises. The findings from case studies indicates that the need for higher social status, profitability nature of the business, self-employment, need to make money, business tradition of the family and knowledge as well as personal experience are considered to be the pull factors (European Commission, 2012, p.1). Whereas, lack of formal education, dissatisfaction in previous occupation, family pressure and unemployment issues are considered to be the major push factors. Research Questions This paper intends to answer a number of questions including: 1. What motivates individuals to be entrepreneurs or enter into self-employment amongst the gender? 2. Is there a positive correlation between pull and factors and entrepreneurship? 3. Is the decision of starting up a business affected by gender, age, education, risk, finance, information availability and complexities of the entrepreneurship process? 4. Are women and the minority group predisposed to a unique pursuit of self-employment? Main Body The forces that propel individuals to set-up businesses despite the personal, financial and social risks that are associated with new venture are diverse. Individuals will decide to engage in businesses out of several motivations, some of which are positive and others negative. The positive factor â€Å"pull† and the negative factors ‘

The National Health Service and How it Provides Service to the Public Literature review

The National Health Service and How it Provides Service to the Public - Literature review Example This paper analyses the performance of the National Health Service and makes recommendations on how it can improve on service delivery. It reviews literature on the quality of service offered by the National Health Service and proposes new ways of service delivery. With regards to this, the paper will define performance management, how it is measured and then proceeds to the current health status of Britons before delving into the challenges being faced and how best to fix them. Introduction The British National Health Service before the internal market reforms of the 1990s was a snarl-up of vicious incentives which made it very inefficient. Increased efficiency was achieved through the introduction of market incentives which in turn stimulated innovation in primary practice care. The improvement in service delivery followed because the medical practitioners had devised better ways of delivering quality service to the patients (Enthoven, 2000). This paper will review literature on al l the attempts made by the government to ensure that the citizens get quality healthcare and enumerate the reasons why some of them flopped as others succeeded. The current performance level of the British National Health Service will also be carefully analysed. ... This restricted the free flow of performance of the system because the government retained most of the control powers. The other reason for the dismal performance was because the experiment itself was based on an inadequate comprehension of both professional and managerial motivations. The importance of decentralisation in large corporations in terms international development cannot be overemphasised at this level. This is not limited to the private sector as the public sector has equally benefitted from this. The self governing trusts were introduced in the British National Health Service in the 1990s to serve as a paradigm case for the decentralisation of the public sector (Arrowsmith & Sisson, 2002). The progressive introduction of activity based funding in the National Health Service has been done progressively since the year 2003 under the name payment by results. This is representative of a major shift from the previous funding arrangements that were based on annual block payme nts for large bundles of services to what is being practiced at the moment (Sussex, & Farrar, 2009). The results from an interview done by Sussex and Farra (2009) indicated that there is a high degree of solidarity among the employees of National Health Service and the competition among the NHS hospitals was greatly curtailed. The problem however is that the payment by results initiative was introduced against a background of many other efficiency incentives. The managers did not detect any further specific boost effect of the initiative which was a major cause of concern for the policy makers. The fact that no impact on care quality was reported raises concerns on the appropriateness of the initiative itself. Perverse Bureaucratic