The Innovative Spirit Of Entrepreneurs And The Development Of Enterprises

The dissertation mainly studies how the innovative spirit of entrepreneurs promotesthe development of enterprises and the ways of nurturing entrepreneurship. Based on thestudy of the composition of entrepreneurship, the innovative spirit of entrepreneurs,innovation and development of enterprises, etc, the thesis analyses the composition ofentrepreneurship, with the focus on the innovative spirit of entrepreneurs and therelationship between innovation and development of enterprises, and thus reaches theconclusion that the innovative spirit of entrepreneurs is a key factor that promotes thedevelopment of enterprises.The dissertation systematically studies the relationship between the development ofenterprises and technological, institutional and value innovation, with a focus on therelationship between the development of enterprises and institutional innovation.Institutional arrangements, information and cultural institution all affect the behavior ofinnovators and how they bring their innovative power into play.The dissertation argues that innovation of enterprises is a system and this powersystem is divided into two parts, the external system and internal system. The externalsystem mainly consists of market demand, market competition, technological advancesand government policy support; internal system includes interest-driven mechanism,corporate culture and incentives. Only when the factors in both the external and internalsystems are available and ready will the innovation system operate well. Domesticenterprises encounter a lot of problems related to innovation in the process of development,for example, the clearly insufficient driving force for development; low-speed andlow-level development with poor efficiency; the focus on ‘quantity’ rather than ‘quality’,lack of study and practice on the regular pattern of business growth of their own, and lackof feasible, scientific and systematic planning for the process of development. Theproblems are caused by internal factors as well as external factors and are fundamentallycaused by the fact that the innovation system of enterprises is not sound enough.The dissertation discusses the experience and theory by using such methods ascomparative analysis, specification analysis and empirical analysis, and reaches thefollowing conclusions:(1) Entrepreneurship contains the innovative spirit, risk-taking spirit and a strong sense of mission and a sense of responsibility. If entrepreneurship is to achieve thepurpose of innovation, it needs to be market-oriented, affected by the driving force ofinnovation and the endowments of enterprises, go through the process of exploring andidentifying innovative opportunities and resource integration and finally completeinstitutional innovation, technological innovation and value innovation.(2) The innovation of enterprises is a system and this power system is divided intotwo parts, the external system and internal system. The external system mainly consists ofmarket demand, market competition, technological advances and government policysupport; internal system includes interest-driven mechanism, corporate culture andincentives. Only when the factors in both the external and internal systems are availableand ready will the innovation system operate well.(3) During the process of innovation, there are institutional, human resource andfinancing constraints. Institutional arrangements, information and cultural institution allaffect the behavior of innovators and how they bring their innovative power into play. Thekey resource for innovation is the human resource, as innovation comes mainly from thekey human resource which possesses the key resources for innovation. The existinghuman resource endowments of enterprises determine the scope of their innovativeactivities, and thus constrain their innovative activities. In order to break this constraint,the innovators have to resort to human resource market. However, if the flow of humanresource has low quality, level and efficiency, the entrepreneurs will be much less likely toseek the necessary talents from the market. This kind of institutional obstacle belongs tothe external obstacle for the innovative behavior of entrepreneurs and it is also a problemthat cannot be solved by entrepreneurs alone. Financing is also of great significance forthe innovation of entrepreneurs. Financing is a key link for entrepreneurs to implementtheir innovation plans, a prerequisite for them to grasp the innovation opportunities, aguarantee for the success of technological innovation and a basic guarantee forentrepreneurs to keep making innovations.(4) In mature markets and economies where institutional environment and otherfactors tend to stabilize, the growth of enterprises will further inspire entrepreneurs tocreate ‘their own kingdom’, take new expansion strategies, and actively introduce neworganization structure to support continued growth of enterprises, and a virtuous circle isformed among institutions, the will of entrepreneurs and business growth. In economies intransition, the uncertainty of the institutional environment restrains entrepreneurs’ willingness to make innovations and it is difficult for enterprises to achieve sustainableand high-level growth. In a general sense, growth of enterprises is the inevitable result ofmarket and technological development, but uncertain institutional environment bringsuncertainty and discontinuity to the growth process of enterprises in economies intransition.(5) During the process of innovation, it is necessary to focus on the coordination ofinnovation, the synergy between institutional innovation and technological innovation,synergy between institutional innovation and value innovation, and synergy betweentechnological innovation and value innovation. These collaborative innovations have animportant influence on business growth.(6) Domestic enterprises encounter a lot of problems related to innovation in theprocess of development, for example, the clearly insufficient driving force fordevelopment; low-speed and low-level development with poor efficiency; the focus on‘quantity’ rather than ‘quality’, lack of study and practice on the regular pattern ofbusiness growth of their own, and lack of feasible, scientific and systematic planning forthe process of development. The problems are caused by internal factors as well asexternal factors. To address these problems and factors, the thesis provides the followingsolutions: to establish a value system and cultural environment where the innovative spiritof entrepreneurs is embraced; clear property rights is an institutional guarantee for thecultivation of the innovative spirit of entrepreneurs; to establish innovative corporateculture, and to set up an incentive system that integrates cash, equity and option.The innovations of the dissertation are:(1) It makes a comprehensive and systematic study of the three aspects of innovation.The technological innovation strategy of enterprises is divided into three categories,namely independent innovation, imitation innovation and collaborative innovation, and thethesis analyses the advantages and disadvantages of the three categories. The institutionsof enterprises restrict the space for innovative behavior. The size of such space is ofdecisive significance for social innovation. The reason for the lack of innovation in aneconomy is mainly that the space for innovative behavior is narrow apart from insufficientincentives for innovation. The cause for such a narrow space is that the power allocationof a society fundamentally limits the free choice of economic players rather than the lackof existing technologies. Institutional innovation is aimed at providing entrepreneurs withenough space for innovation through institutional arrangements; value is also known as strategic innovation, which means the process where innovative approaches are used forthe strategic reform of enterprises. Other concepts with the same meaning include strategicinnovation, and other similar concepts include nonlinear innovation, discontinuousinnovation, and competitive innovation, etc.(2) It sets up the innovation system of enterprises and makes an in-depth analysis ofthe system. It makes detailed analysis of the internal and external systems of innovation ofenterprises. The external system mainly consists of market demand, market competition,technological advances and government policy support; internal system includesinterest-driven mechanism, corporate culture and incentives. A comprehensive study ofcorporate innovation system provides the theoretical support for the solutions of problemsrelated to innovation encountered by Chinese enterprises.(3) It makes a comprehensive study of the three aspects of innovation, with a focuson the synergy between institutional innovation and technological innovation, synergybetween institutional innovation and value innovation, and synergy between technologicalinnovation and value innovation. The study on such synergy provides theoretical basis forentrepreneurs when they try to organize innovation and try to focus on synergy and avoidbeing one-sided.(4) It sets up a model and makes an empirical study on the innovative spirit ofentrepreneurs and the development of enterprises.