Abstract
The range of possibilities opened up by big data technologies offers companies in all sectors a remarkable opportunity for development and transformation. And if the majorities are convinced of its strategic interest, many are wondering about the implementation of such a project. Today, companies using big data are search engines like Google; social networks like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn; e-commerce websites like eBay, Ali Baba, or Amazon, etc. But, it would be premature to conclude that big data is reserved for large companies only and that they alone can gain added value from its use. Indeed, as the motorist uses the highway without having built it, the commercial or public organizations, whatever their size and their field of interests, will be able to benefit from the use of big data.
TopIntroduction
I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for the joy, you can do it forever (Stephen King)
With the growing size of data typically comes a growing complexity of data structures, of the patterns in the data, and of the models needed to account for the patterns. Big data has put a great challenge on the current statistical methodology and computational tools.
It is everywhere, the big data or how the data available today, will change our daily lives. Big data refers to all the data generated every day by a simple contact with our smart object. These data are collected, then stored and especially analyzed! This can then lead to interpretations and strategic decisions for companies. If some people consider big data as a big brother, others see it as a new revolution: that of information!
In what follows, I want to highlight the importance of the big data context for the entrepreneurs or future entrepreneurs who want to start their project in this field. So, listen to me: you have to know that there is the sun for you too in the big data universe. Because to succeed in the digital transition of your company, ensure its development, improve the well-being and efficiency of its employees, beautify its customer relations and fertilizer sales, join this entire universe which born in the heart of the digital transition! “Data is everywhere”.
Do you want to accelerate the digitalization of your business? So immerse yourself in your data-driven universe and change your way of doing things. Because this chapter will help you to understand your entrepreneurship context and what is changed in your universe to better prepare your fly to the big data universe and how to join the analytics arena. So, let’s go!
TopEntrepreneurship And Entrepreneurs Throughout History
Generally speaking, people would be more interested in knowing how the process of entrepreneurship initiates or what the activities of an entrepreneur are (Sedkaoui, 2018c).
First of all, we must qualify the popular belief that attributes the origin of entrepreneurship to economic science alone. A careful reading of the first two authors generally identified as the pioneers of the field, Cantillon (1755) and J.B.Say (1803, 1815, 1816 and 1839), makes us discover authors who were interested in both the economy and businesses, their creation, their development and their management.
Cantillon was basically a banker we would call today lender venture capital. His writings reveal a man looking for business opportunities, preoccupied with clever and economical management that maximizes ROI.
The term “entrepreneurship” can be traced back to as early as the Middle Ages when the ‘entrepreneur’ was simply someone who carried out tasks, such as buildings and construction projects by applying all the resources that he disposes of. However, it was during the16th century when business was used as a common term, and the entrepreneur came into focus as a person who is responsible for undertaking a business venture.
It can be seen that the term of entrepreneur has acquired its present meaning in the course of the 17th century. Even if the term was used before Cantillon, one can notice, as Schumpeter (1954) has noted, that Cantillon was the first to present a clear conception of the whole function of the entrepreneur. So, the notion of entrepreneurship was introduced to political economy in Cantillon’s “Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général”, published posthumously in 1755.
J.B. Say is the second author who has been very interested in the activities of the entrepreneur. He saw the development of the economy through the creation of enterprises. Cantillon and Say saw the entrepreneur primarily as a risk taker since he was investing his own money. For Cantillon, the entrepreneur buys a raw material - often a product of agriculture - at a certain price to transform it and sell it at an uncertain price. It is, therefore, someone who knows how to seize an opportunity to make a profit, but who must bear the risks.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Startups: The first thing that is associated with entrepreneurship is startups. It is necessary to establish its definition in order for it to be used later on in this study. A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. A startup is also considered as an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. The term scalable suggests that the aim of every startup is to grow (and, consequently, to stop being a startup) and to mature into a fully functional company: to an SME.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Is a business strategy that optimizes revenue and profitability while promoting customer satisfaction and loyalty. CRM technologies enable strategy, and identify and manage customer relationships, in person or virtually. CRM software provides functionality to companies in four segments: sales, marketing, customer service and digital commerce.
Key performance indicator (KPI): Is a high-level measure of system output, traffic or other usages, simplified for gathering and review on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Typical examples are bandwidth availability, transactions per second and calls per user. KPIs are often combined with cost measures (e.g., cost per transaction or cost per user) to build key system operating metrics.
Entrepreneurial Activity: Entrepreneurial activity, as an output of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, is considered the process by which individuals create opportunities for innovation. This innovation will eventually lead to a new value in society and this is, therefore, the ultimate outcome of an entrepreneurial ecosystem while entrepreneurial activity is a more intermediary output of the system. This entrepreneurial activity has many manifestations, such as innovative start-ups, high-growth start-ups, and entrepreneurial employees.
Return on Investment (ROI): Is a performance measure, used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. ROI measures the amount of return on an investment, relative to the investment’s cost. To calculate ROI, the benefit (or return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment. The result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.
Time-to-Market: Is the length of time it takes from a product being conceived until its being available for sale. It refers to the amount of time it takes to design and manufacture a product before it is available to buy. It is important in industries where products are outmoded quickly. A common assumption is that Time-to-Market matters most for first-of-a-kind products, but actually the leader often has the luxury of time, while the clock is clearly running for the followers.
Innovation: It is recognized as a source of growth and competitiveness. The Oslo Manual distinguishes between four types of innovation. Product Innovation: Introduction of a new product. This definition includes significant improvements to technical conditions, components or materials, embedded software, user-friendliness, or other functional characteristics. Process Innovation: Establishing a new production or distribution method, or significantly improving an existing one. This notion involves significant changes in techniques, material and/or software. Marketing Innovations: Establishing a new marketing method requiring substantial changes in a product’s design, conditioning, placement, promotion, or pricing. Organizational Innovation: Establishing a new organizational process in practices, workplace organization, or company public relations.
Open Data: This term refers to the principle according to which public data (that gathered, maintained, and used by government bodies) should be made available to be accessed and reused by citizens and companies.
Data-Driven Business Model (DDBM): Has become an ever-more important area of study and application and puts data at the center of value creation.
Entrepreneurial: A process in which opportunities for creating new goods and services are explored, evaluated, and exploited.
Business model: A business model is a company's plan for how it will generate revenues and make a profit. It explains what products or services the business plans to manufacture and market, and how it plans to do so, including what expenses it will incur.
Internet of Thing (IoT): The inter-networking of physical devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data and send, receive, and execute commands. According to the Gartner group IoT is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment.