Abstract
The entrepreneurs need to create a good impression in order to act in the business environment. A bad impression affects the communication and implicitly the collaboration that can turn into unintended results. Thus, they access information on how to make a good impression by using several sources: specialty literature, training guides, and courses and online shows promoted by business sites. The main objectives of this chapter are to clarify the notions and the relations between communication and entrepreneurship in the Romanian context and also to present the main results of a research that aimed to identify if the first impression of a person in the Romanian business context is dissimulated or not. The implications for entrepreneurs consist in the degree of promotion of achieving a good first impression and the manipulative or persuasive value of the negotiation techniques applied in the Romanian business environment.
TopBackground
At the first glance it can be said that “entrepreneurship is a process whereby firms and individuals in firms (entrepreneurs) explore and exploit opportunities” (Onetti, Zucchella, Jones and McDougall-Covin, 2010, p. 338). Talking about entrepreneurship it can be observed that nowadays innovativeness or an entrepreneurial perspective is imperative for the flexible and proactive management of business activities in a complex and dynamic globalizing world. (Onetti et al., 2010, p. 338).
Another definition says that entrepreneurship is the process through which one company explores and exploits global opportunities, leveraging both local and international relationships, regarding inward and outward business activities (Onetti et al., 2010, p. 339).
The term “entrepreneur” is French in origin and literally translates to mean “one who takes between”. (Enuoh and Inyang, 2009, p. 64) or is defined in the ordinary sense as every man (or woman) of business, every entrepreneur who owns or has no capital (Constantin and Kavoura, 2019, p. 1093). The gender related problem is also discussed in literature, as Entrepreneurship has been imbued with the male stereotype, as the entrepreneur has been attributed traits pertaining to masculinity including “competitive”, “resolute”, “strong-willed”, “courageous” (Sahinidis, Stavroulakis, Kossieri and Varelas, 2019, p. 174). At this point, it can be concluded that entrepreneur is someone who exercises initiatives by organizing a venture to take benefit of an opportunity and, as the decision maker, decides what, how, and how much of a good or service will be produced (Makarona and Kavoura, 2019, p. 16-17).
Drucker (1985 in Enuoh and Inyang, 2009, p. 64) considers that the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity. The American Heritage Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as a person who organizes, operates and assumes the risk of business ventures.
Based on all the definitions presented so far, the term or the idea entrepreneur can be conceptualized as a change agent, “an innovator who is also a risk taker, who exploits business opportunities in his environment and utilize resources effectively to develop new technologies, produces new products and services to maximize his profits and contributing significantly to society’s development” (Enuoh and Inyang, 2009, p. 64).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Impression: The effect left in the human consciousness of things or happenings around him with which he comes in contact.
Entrepreneurship: A process whereby organizations and individuals in those organizations explore and exploit opportunities by using proactive management of business activities.
Business Communication: A form of human communication, a special technique aimed at reaching directly and individually the goals proposed by the seller, determining the potential customer to act and/ or react immediately.
Social media: A range of different Web 2.0 internet-based tools that increase and enhance the exchange of information.
Online Business Communication: A web-based online communication targeted to specific publics used in the organizational and business context.
First Impression: Is achieved by framing people, things, events, with which they interact in contrasting categories such as good/bad, beautiful/ugly, etc.