IJED- Editorial Focus

Can any one function or skill be called the most important for entrepreneurs? Is there any business aspect that can be singled out for special attention, which when mastered could ensure higher success rates for entrepreneurs? Things are not so simple for entrepreneurs for whom every resource is limited and critical to their fledgling venture. They have to juggle different competencies and resource to get the best out the situation. For them finance is just as important as getting a new idea or innovating a process or a market or marketing itself.

Having said that, it is useful to have a ready market. This is self-evident, and effective marketing gives the entrepreneurs the initial push to carry them over the critical phase. This is easier said than done because marketing activity, like all other activities requires resources, which are scarce for entrepreneurs. The trick lies in leveraging the 80-20 principle, that is, to get 80% results from 20% effort and moving on.

The second issue of ICFAI Journal of Entrepreneurship Development focuses on a few articles that present an insight into entrepreneurial marketing.

The first article, "Entrepreneurial Marketing: A Construct for Integrating Emerging Entrepreneurship and Marketing Perspectives" identifies seven core dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing, viz., Opportunity Driven, Proactiveness, Innovation Focused, Customer Intensity, Risk Management, Resource Leveraging and Value Creation. It then conceptualizes a theoretical foundation based on resource advantage theory.

In the second article, "Entrepreneurs and the Formations of Industrial Clusters", the authors see the entrepreneurs as the main catalyst in formation of hi-tech. clusters, rather than the established system of providing the support services, venture funding, presence of a local research university and networks etc. The latter support systems develop as and when their presence becomes necessary.

In the article, "What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?" Sarasvathy differentiates between "effectual" and "causal" reasoning and argues that though the two are complementary, most entrepreneurs use effectual reasoning to start on their entrepreneurial career. That is to say, they look at the resources available with them and think how best they can be used, rather than come up with an idea, develop a plan, look for finances, build up the core team and implement the plan.

The last article, "Marketing Driven Innovation: A Systematic Method To Focus And Encourage Innovation" is a practical, hands-on article that recognizes the role of innovation in organizations and describes an approach for encouraging innovations in organizations.

Other regular features, including a book summary, research summary and entrepreneurial tidings etc. are also present which are expected to widen the appeal of the journal.

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