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Introduction - The Rise of Entrepreneurship Through Technological Innovation and Low-Cost Manufacturing
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The constant and rapid evolution of technology has given rise to entrepreneurship all over the world. In the late 1970s, the erstwhile turmoil of the USA has shown the world rapid entrepreneurial embracement through various endeavors. The versatility of the modern world has offered vast scope of innovation which is driven by numerous solutions of issues (Kim, ElTarabishy & Bae, 2018). In the current context, entrepreneurship is very significant as it helps to enhance the standard of living, create wealth and help the economy grow in many ways. Entrepreneurs drive change with innovation and offer improved products and services that can benefit the world with more advance and value.
Apple is an American multinational company that is globally known for providing series of computers, iPods and for its innovative marketing strategies for attracting consumers. This prominent hardware and software company is the most valuable and the largest technological company with a revenue of $274 billion US dollars in 2020 (Lakso, 2018). One of the significant and new ventures of Apple was their introduction of the newly launched Apple smartwatch. This innovative initiative helped people to solve various issues all over the world.
The report has mainly thrown light upon the innovative entrepreneurial approach brought up by Apple. Firstly, the report will discuss various opportunities that brought up a call for entrepreneurship. The following section has discussed the key actors associated with the critical decision of the venture of Apple. In the fourth section, the writer has described the salient factors that have a major environmental impact on the decision. Lastly, the writing has continued with the description of the entrepreneurial solution and theoretical implication on the entrepreneurial venture of Apple. The concluding part has critically discussed the various real-world issues and the role of the entrepreneur in building the world a better place.
Figure 1: Apple Smart Watch
(Source: Lakso, 2018)
Assessment of The Key Issues and Opportunities for Entrepreneurial Solution
Entrepreneurs are the individual who takes risks and creates a unique and innovative business and enjoys most of the rewards. This process of creating the idea and making the system is called entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur plays a vital role in the economy of a country as the development and change are bought up by them (Hatthakijphong & Ting, 2019). It is very crucial for the advancement of the generation. Problems are very crucial for any entrepreneur as they offer opportunities to solve issues and make fortune. All the global leaders who have taken forward are the ones who have identified and understood the pain point of the people and solved their problems by various innovative initiatives. The famous saying “Every problem is an opportunity” is the motivation for every employee.
Problem-solving is one of the most crucial aspects of an entrepreneur, without this attitude it is impossible to begin an entrepreneurial journey (Salimi, 2021). Entrepreneurs identify the issue and visualize the opportunity gap and the gap is resolved by innovative and creative solutions. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg understood the problem of communicating with the world and developed an online social networking service where people can easily meet and talk through the page. Facebook has made the communication process easier and people can communicate with any individual sitting on their couch. Now Facebook has become the world's largest social networking site with one billion active users.
Discussion on Key Actors Indulged in Critical Decisions and Steps Undertaken to Bring Out the Entrepreneurial Idea
Stakeholders are the people who are directly associated with the interest, claim of the organization. Though stakeholders do not have a role in organizational management they have a huge influence upon the management of an organization. They play a significant role in the decision-making process and ensures that the organizational environment must remain rewarding, dynamic and in a balanced working environment for maintaining continuous improvement of an organization (Nikolova & Arsi?, 2017). The participation of stakeholders in the decision-making process increases the potentiality of the plan and lead to a joint decision. It promotes transparency, develops trust and increases the chance of sustainability.
All stakeholders leave a huge impact upon the decision making of a business. Apple considers and gives very much importance to the stakeholders of their company. The key stakeholders of Apple are Government, management, employees, consumers, owners etc. Owners and stakeholders of Apple have a huge impact upon any entrepreneurial decision of the company as they provide funding for the initiative and help the venture to grow. After owners, the management of Apple provides recommendations and decisions that impact the activities of the business. They are responsible for making business and operational decisions in regard to achieving the aim and objective of the organization (Pedrini & Ferri, 2019). Employees are responsible for all the operations of the initiative and the government laws are impactful in bringing out the entrepreneurial idea.
Analysis of The Salient Factors That Impacted the Organizational Environment
Various factors have encouraged the recent smartwatch venture of Apple. In recent years, globally people are massively opting for wearable devices. The smartwatch segment has become a hot consumer product all over the world. The current global market size of the smartwatch is $20.64 billion in 2019 and the market is expected to grow by $96.31 billion in 2027. Along with these considerations, there are various factors that have influenced the launch of the Apple smartwatch, such as,
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Economic Factors: The rise of smartwatch users over the globe has astounded the world. By the year 2026, the researcher expects that the total number of smartwatch users will reach 776.23 million. Even during the pandemic, in 2020 when businesses were evidencing loss but the smartwatch sale has seen a boom with 266.5 million shipped products (Tlegen et al., 2018). One of the most important factors that have encouraged Apple to take this initiative is their expansion in developed countries with rapid economic growth. As apple products are mainly made for high-end consumers, it will be difficult to sell these products in a place where economic growth is slow.
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Societal Factors: The business of Apple is basically driven by societal trends as it is considered to be the dominant force in their business. In this modern world, it is unimaginable for people to be without gadgets, smartphones, tablets, mobile devices etc. Technological innovation has led the economic growth massively all over the world. Consequently, the purchasing power of people has risen and consequently, the sales of Apple products have also risen. Along with this, the rising concern of health has led people to become more health-conscious. The main reason behind the introduction and gaining a massive amount of popularity is their addition of various health-related notifications (Gardere, Sharir & Maman, 2018). In addition to this, as people have been more inclined to gadgets, the Apple smartwatch has also added the feature of making calls, text and deliver notifications to the user.
Figure 2: Rate of Global shipment of Apple Smart Watches
(Source: Gardere, Sharir & Maman, 2018)
Description of Entrepreneurial Solution
The Apple smartwatch has become the most demanding smartwatch in the world with a market share of 55% which has kept behind the dwarf competitor Google and Fitbit (Hsiao, 2017). The rising health concern has given an opportunity to the company and Apple has started focusing on fitness instead of making the item more fashionable and attractive. Along with this the water-resistance feature and GPS has given people the opportunity to use their mobile without carrying their iPhone. The addition of tracking menstrual cycle and abnormal heartbeat has raised clamor among people.
Figure 3: Global Smartwatch Market Share of Different Companies
(Source: Hsiao, 2017)
After the introduction of the smartwatch in 2016, Apple was not able to get enough responses from the people. Later the addition of numerous features has set the product apart from the rest. The main challenge faced by the company is various strong competition in the market. Samsung, Google’s Android Wear OS is giving a huge competition to the company. Apart from this, their high price and low battery performance is also a challenge faced by the company.
Implication of Theories and Concepts to Examine Various Characteristics of The Organization and Detail Idea of The Process from Creating a Business Idea to Adoption, Implementation and Resourcing
Various entrepreneurship theories enable an organization to systemically meet its organization aim and objectives. World's most valued company Apple is following the Schumpeterian theory which is basically driven by innovation. The main motto that sets apple apart from the rest of its companies is its innovative approach. The company is highly focused on developing a different and innovative product that has better features and can give better value to the world.
The Innovation theory:
The theory relates to the gained profit that is acquired through innovation. Here the entrepreneur makes innovation and gains profit through it or the entrepreneur will reduce the production cost and create a demand for the product. Through the application of this theory, Apple has gained a large amount of profit.
The theory was proposed by Joseph. A. Schumpeter. The main foundation of theory was that any entrepreneur can make a profit through successful innovation (Ahmed, 2019). Therefore, as per the theory, the main function of an entrepreneur is to initiate an innovative approach and offer a reward for their effort. The giant company Apple follows the same rule. In terms of smartwatches, Apple has focused on innovation and made a product with diverse features from health notification to providing service of mobile activities without carrying mobile device (Ahmed, 2019).
The theory is classified into two steps, in the first step, that includes all the activities to reduce production cost through introducing a new method, new machinery and initiating innovative methods inside the organization. In terms of Apple smartwatches, the most expensive part of this product is the Ion-X cover glass and OLED display (Tilley, 2015). The second costliest product used in the Apple watch is the Ai processor. To reduce the cost of these products Apple is trying to cut their own internal cost through buying hardware components from multiple manufacturers offering multiyear deals.
In the second stage of the theory, innovative methods are commenced to increase the demand for the product. Apple is mostly regarded for their innovative marketing strategies where they focus on 'Why' rather than 'what' which attract the consumer most. In their marketing campaign, Apple describes why people should use their products rather than telling them what features Apple can offer them.
Conclusion
The report has thrown a light upon the multiple aspects related to the entrepreneurial activities of Apple. The discussion has begun by describing the issue that gives opportunity to the entrepreneurs. In the following section, the report has described the impact of stakeholders on organizational entrepreneurial decisions. Following this, impacting factors and a detailed description of the entrepreneurial solution has been briefed. The concluding part has noted theoretical implications and real-world issues faced by entrepreneurs.
References
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