Week 2 Reading Reflection

Chapter 1- Entrepreneurship: Evolutionary Development - Revolutionary Impact by Donald F. Kuratko in Entrepreneurship - Theory, Process, Practice

The biggest surprise to me after reading chapter one was in “The Hot Trends to Watch” page where business opportunities are said to be strong in the upcoming years. Under the miscellaneous section, “Executive Recruiting” was said to be a major trend with finding and hiring top executives. I had no idea that recruiting was “trending” right now or that it will be trending in the future. My uncle has been an executive recruiter for years and there has not been any notable spike in business in the past few months.

I found the schools of entrepreneurial thought to be somewhat confusing. After reading the "summary of the schools of entrepreneurial thought" I realized that they are simply a foundation for theory of entrepreneurship. The difference between the macro and micro views were confusing at first, but after rereading them a couple times it made more sense. The macro and micro views are two ways of looking at a more complex model - one from the more global perspective as compared to the micro approach of more individualistic. Another part of the micro view and the macro view that I found confusing was the internal locus of control versus the external locus point of view.

The first question that I have to the author is: Since new business start-ups numbered nearly 600,000 per year in the past 10 years, when is the best time to start a company? I ask this because with the plentitude of businesses being born, is the only option creating a blue ocean, where there is uncontested market space? Another question I have for the author is: Why are so many people trying to gain market share of the already existing red oceans when “85 percent of all small start-up firms fail in the first year?” Would it not be in the best interest of the entrepreneur to not compete with other giants, but rather to create a blue ocean where he or she controls the whole market?

I did not happen to come across anything that I disagreed with the author about. He backed up his claims with statistics, evidence, and sources that proved his points. For instance, he cited U.S. News & World Report, Fortune, Entrepreneurship by Ronstadt, “2008 Hot List,” and many more. As I was reading the text, I kept telling myself to think of something that I disagreed with Kuratko about, but after reading I could not find myself to disagree with anything that he said.