Notes From the Far East

Management Education “The Key is not giving more money, more market access…. There is nothing more important than giving future manager a good education.” Philip Yeo, chairman of Spring Singapore. In general there was wide acceptance that education, in the longer term provides results and behaviors in reinforcing innovation, creativity, flexibility, capacity to respond to widely different situations. It also provides autonomy, self-direction and self-expression. Often statistical information from institutions suggests a causal effect between education and profitability (Spring Singapore, Mar 2007) Studies suggest a correlation between education, survivability and entrepreneurial qualities (van der Sluis et. al., 2004). Laura Galloway and Wendy Brown (2002) in their paper wrote that the key to improving perceptions and attitudes within society lies in education. In addition to developing skills for business start-up and ownership, entrepreneurship education in universities can represent

Culture Norms and Personality Traits Influence on Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurs are considered a rare breed in that they would take risk more than the returns they earn, accept lower than median earnings when compared to similarly skilled wage-earners and hold poorly diversified portfolio (Puri & Robinson, 2005) During the start up stages, founding members are usually more passionate as they were the ones who nurtured the firm to its present status and would remain so on all activities concerning the firm. They tend to worry about future prospects and have a high locus of control believing that their life’s event could be controlled (Ang and Hong, 2000). Thus, when failures occur it would attribute it to their own actions. In studies comparing Hong Kong and Singapore Chinese entrepreneurs and SMEs, Singapore Chinese were found to be more risk adverse. It is a given that a Singapore Chinese entrepreneur and a Chinese from elsewhere display many similar traits. The idea that entrepr

Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Decisions The common disposition of entrepreneurs is towards undertaking opportunities for wealth-creating and value-adding activities. Entrepreneurial qualities are thought to be innate and inborn rather than acquired through formal training. Can this be so? McClellan (1987) comparison of characteristics of entrepreneurs in developing countries of average and larger sized firms found that proactive qualities such as initiative and assertiveness, achievement orientation, and commitment are equally important complementary characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. Other expected qualities (self-confidence, persistence, persuasion, expertise) were not more characteristic of the successful. Hornaday (1982, cited in Ang and Hong 2000) documented that entrepreneurs have 42 characteristics that distinguish them from non-entrepreneurs. These include perseverance, resourcefulness, ability to take calculated risks, dynamism, and achievement orientation. To t