Annotated Bibliography

Birley, Sue. Oct. 1985. “Encouraging Entrepreneurship: Britain’s New Enterprise Program.” Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?index=2&did=66089305&SrchMode=2&sid=4&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226449726&clientId=31663

While reading through this article I learned about the certain characteristics and skills needed in order to be a successful business owner. This article not only gave me a list of skills I would need to develop, it also explained that attending a business program would benefit me. In the article it states that “Of the 252 people who attended the first 19 programs, 96 percent started a business following graduation. (Birley, Encouraging Entrepreneurship.) Seeing almost all of the people in the programs started a business after they finished the program is what really got me thinking about taking some type of business program sometime in the near future. You need “energy and knowledge, commitment, a viable business idea, openness to learning and the ability to gather the necessary resources. (Birley Encouraging Entrepreneurship.) I have the energy, commitment and a somewhat viable business idea; however at the present time I do not have the knowledge, openness to learn or the ability to gather resources. Luckily, these are skills that I can develop overtime. Even though this article was very helpful to me, there still some flaws. The author could have gone into more depth about starting you own business. Instead of taking so much about the success of the business programs the author could have described the steps it takes to make it through the program successfully. Other than this I found no other major flaws. After reading this article I now realize that this will be a long, hard journey and that before I jump into this I need to be sure that this is what I want to do. However, as of this moment, I still would like to open my own business, preferably a restaurant. This article has gotten me prepared for the tough challenges that lay ahead. In order to stress the importance of going through a business program, the author should have written about the percent of people who didn’t go through a business program and were still able to start a business. Also, putting in comments from people who started a business after completing a business program and comments from people who immediately tried to start a business. Just by inserting these suggestions I believe more people would be inclined to go through a business.



Brereton, Philip R. Oct. 1974. “The Qualifications for Entrepreneurship.” Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?index=3&did=66089309&SrchMode=2&sid=6&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226451122&clientId=31663


This article is all about entrepreneurs; it discusses what an entrepreneur is, how they behave, and the characteristics that make a good entrepreneur. I learned a lot about entrepreneur’s that I didn’t know before. First, I didn’t know that the actual definition of an entrepreneur was “the ability to create an on-going business activity where none existed before.” (Brereton, The Qualifications of Entrepreneurship.) Although this article was very informative there were a few flaws as with all pieces of writing. Even though the whole point of this article to inform, I felt that the author might have been scaring away potential entrepreneurs. All that talk about how entrepreneurs behave a certain way and how they usually come from a certain family background might discourage someone who doesn’t fit the “qualifications” of an entrepreneur. This article made me have serious doubt about being an entrepreneur. I have an intense fear of my idea failing which is exactly the opposite of how entrepreneurs feel. I look at people like Bill Gates, Donald Trump and Russell Simmons and wonder if it would be possible to be like them when I get older. Another reason why I am doubtful about my career as an entrepreneur is because I am not a creative person or imaginative thinker. In my mind I can sometimes come up with interesting ideas that aren’t original; they are just ideas that I have taken from someone else and added a few things to it. Overall I’m not a very creative person which could be a problem in the long run. At the end of this article the atuthor states that “If this country is to achieve the new business growth required to maintain a healthy, vigorous business community, we need to learn more about entrepreneurship and how to encourage and nurture it.” (Brereton, The Qualifications of Entrepreneurship.) If he wants more entrepreneurs in the nation he should have written more about how anyone can do it as long as they have the commitment.



Clark, Bryan W.; Davis, Charles H.; Harnish, Verne C. Apr. 1984. “Do Courses in Entrepreneurship Aid in New Venture Creation?” Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?index=3&did=66089309&SrchMode=2&sid=6&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226451122&clientId=31663


This article was about whether or not entrepreneurship courses aided the creation of new businesses. It also talks about how much entrepreneurship and small business management has grown over the years. “Over two hundred colleges and universities now offer courses in entrepreneurship and small business management.” (Clark, Davis and Harnish, Do Courses in Entrepreneurship Aid in New Venture Creation?) This article was mostly about conducting a study on people who already started a business. Although the authors do mention the students who weren’t business owners at the time of their class enrollment. As with all works of writing there were flaws in this article. One flaw was that the article gave no information about entrepreneurship or small business management. Granted, this was an article about if courses in entrepreneurship could help people create new businesses, but I believe that the authors should have given more background on the subject. This article hasn’t really helped me decide if I want to pursue my profession. Perhaps if they had given more information about it I could make a better decision. Overall, this article was very informative, but didn’t give me the information I needed to better educate myself on my chosen profession. In order to get more people thinking about going into the field of business, the authors should have put in more information about businesspeople. This would have worked better than just throwing out numbers and hoping someone gets an interest in opening their own business. All they had to do was to insert some information about entrepreneurship and small business management and left everything the same and that would have satisfied some of the questions going through my head right now. The article overall, was put together very well aside from those things.
Dandridge, Thomas C. Jul. 1978. “Book Reviews.” Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?index=8&did=66095338&SrchMode=2&sid=9&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226451491&clientId=31663

This article is reviewing a book that is for aspiring businesspeople and people who already have a business, but they need to be guided in the right direction now. This article basically gives an overview of the book it is reviewing. I believe that the author of the review does a good job of explaining everything except what was in the book apart from the first paragraph. I understand that it is a review, but you should still tell me more about what the book was about, not how it was written. If someone needed to know about what the book is about, but didn’t have time to read it they would only get a small taste of what it was about if they read this article. With this article I can’t really decide whether or not I would like to continue to pursue this profession or not because it doesn’t really give me any information about it. However, the review did make me want to read more about the book. Therefore, I guess the review can help me make a decision about my career. Given the information the review has provided about the book, I have concluded that in order to learn more about the career I have chosen I should probably read the book so that I can be better educated about the subject. I believe that by writing more about what the book is about is probably the best thing the author can do. It would make more people interested in the topic of entrepreneurship, more people might want to actually read the book and everything would be better.

DeCarlo, James F.; Lyons, Paul R. Jul. 1980. “Toward a Contingency Theory of Entrepreneurship.” Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?index=15&did=66095149&SrchMode=2&sid=11&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226452010&clientId=31663

This article is mainly about how entrepreneurs feel after they have achieved their dream of opening their own business. However, the introduction was kind of depressing. Seeing that most small firms either fail or go out of business doesn’t make me want to start my own business. Writing about how most businesses either fail or go out of business is definitely not the way to go. I believe the section about “Previous Research” could be edited out, seeing as how it’s not as important to the article as something like the introduction. Also, writing about how the majority of entrepreneurs aren’t personally satisfied with their business involvement also isn’t a good way to get people interested in starting their business. This article as a whole has really made me think about if I really want to do this, and I have decided that even though in the article it is saying that most of the people they interviewed were unhappy and most businesses failed, it makes me want to do this even more. I want to be able to think back on this moment and say that I proved them wrong; that I have a successful business and that I am very happy with the way events unfolded. To be able to say that one day would be one of the proudest days in my life. In order to not discourage people from starting their own businesses I suggest that the authors reword some of their sentences. For example, the sentence about how most businesses fail or go out of business and the one about how most entrepreneurs aren’t satisfied with the way things are going. I also suggest that the authors not use information that has nothing to do with business owners or aspiring business owners. Overall, I felt that the article did achieve something. It gave you the problems you will have to face while in the process of starting your business. Now that I know what to watch out for, I can be better prepared for what my career choice has in store for me.

Gross, Edwin J. Oct. 1970. Entrepreneurship and the Negro.” Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?index=21&did=66176491&SrchMode=2&sid=13&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226452355&clientId=31663

This article is about black entrepreneurs. It talks about the change black’s have overcome over the years. Basically the whole message is about how much society is changing. Back when this was written blacks were still not treated fairly, but they were able to own their own businesses. In fact it was estimated that around 50, 000 black businesses existed in the United States. I don’t really have any complaints about this article. Though one thing did bug me about it. The author repeatedly used the word “negro” in this article. Understandably that was the word used by a majority of people, white and black alike. It still might be considered offensive to some African Americans. Other than that I have no real objections to the article. This article has made me believe that anything can happen. The blacks during this time period probably were the Russell Simmons’, Oprah Winfrey’s, Beyonce’s, and Jay-Z’s of their day. Reading this article has opened my eyes to all the things I can do if I put my mind to it. If the author had inserted little quotes from African Americans and even Caucasians it would have given the article a more powerful affect. I applaud the author for his excellent work in insuring that people know that African Americans are important to society too.

Longenecker, Justin G.; Schoen, John E. Jul. 1975. “The Essence of Entrepreneurship.” Retrieved from
http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?index=29&did=66182811&SrchMode=2&sid=17&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226452664&clientId=31663

Powell, James Donald; Bimmerle, Charles F. Jan. 1980. “A model of Entrepreneurship: Moving Toward Precision and Complexity.” Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?index=33&did=66182741&SrchMode=1&sid=18&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226452745&clientId=31663

Shapero, Albert. Oct. 1985. “Why Entrepreneurship? A Worldwide Perspective.” Retrieved from
http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/pqdweb?
index=34&did=66182727&SrchMode=1&sid=18&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1226453231&clientId=31663