that may aid individuals in productive work (Schultz, 1961:8).We typically believe that the attributes of human capital which are skills and knowledge are what gives individuals confidence and drives them into the entrepreneurial arena. To dig deeper into what drives foreign individuals to have entrepreneurial intentions, I carefully interviewed foreign entrepreneurs in Taiwan. Information in my study sheds light on how an individual’s early life education and foreign experience can result into them having entrepreneurial intentions in Taiwan.
Human capital
Based on the interview protocol I found six sub categories that will better help us analyze the effects that human capital has on entrepreneurial intentions. Figure 2 depicts the time and space categories and the sub-categories belonging to them for human capital.
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Time and Space Sub-categories for Human Capital
Human capital and early life education. Individuals are usually taught something from their early life that aids them as a working adult. Some of these childhood lesson may help them evolve into an entrepreneur later in life.
Understanding the effects of Human capital and early life education will help for future studies. Self-learning skills is an important aspect of this category and may help future studies better identify how this can affect entrepreneurial intentions.
Self-learning skills- Taking the primary responsibility to learn new skills and knowledge on one’s own.
Self-learning skills: The ability to teach your-self something is extremely vital for entrepreneurs. Many individuals lack this skill, so they usually find schools, institutes, or companies to provide knowledge for whatever they are doing.
•Human capital and
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Entrepreneurs usually understand that they need to teach themselves different skillsets to help them become successful as Adam mentioned “I taught myself how to program, it was because most teachers at that time did not know how to program. We had a computer department. I would go there at 6am in the morning until class started, and then I would stay after until 6pm until they kicked me out, and I learned how to program. That taught me.” These skills will also give rise to an individual’s intrinsic motivation which is necessary for all entrepreneurs. Self-learning skills is an
important aspect of human capital that was not consider in the former study, but has now been presented as something of importance.
Human capital and learning from your foreign experience: Learning about the processes that individuals go through will give us a better insight on the motivations that they have, or the events that compels them to start their entrepreneur journey.
Understanding the effects of “Human capital and learning from your foreign experience” will help for future studies. Putting this category into three
sub-categories will help future studies better identify the details of each important aspect.
Finding your path: To seek or search for a direction in life to obtain a sense of fulfillment.
Cultural experience and learning: Immersing your-self in a culture while learning the set customs and practices.
Communication skills: The ability to communicate efficiently and effectively with another person or persons.
Finding your path. Finding your path was overlooked in our survey, and there were obviously no implications of the need to understand the path that the
respondents set for themselves. However, Carl mentions that every individual has a
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purpose when they go abroad, and this may be true in the entrepreneurial experience.
He said, “There is a tendency for people to just let go, let loose, like be the person that they are, and at the same time, lose the real purpose of why they went abroad which is to gain more experience, or to improve their personalities. So, to me my main goal to go abroad is really to broaden my horizons and learn more, but many people would lose that.” The purpose of coming to Taiwan and doing business can serve as a milestone in the pursuit of understanding how human capital affects entrepreneurial intentions.
Cultural experience and learning. Cultural experience and learning has been a big help to some of the respondents. Although I mentioned cultural background and countries visited in the previous study, I made little effort understanding the
respondent’s real cultural experience and the knowledge they had obtained through their experience. Adam reiterated this idea through his entire interview. He mentioned
“In regards to Taiwan: from a business standpoint in Taiwan, competition is seen different here,because they have not killed off the ma and pa shops as they did in North America. I learned that you can still sustain a business, without being eaten up by big corporations and super stores.” Learning about how a culture does business may ignite one’s creativity and produce entrepreneurial intentions because of the possible perceived business opportunities from the learned cultural experience.
Communication skills. All of the respondents mention the importance of communication skills and language. Learning how to communicate with others will give individuals the ability to better find and use information more appropriately.
When individuals want to be an entrepreneur and do business, having communication skills are critical. If an individual does not have any communication skills, that individual may give up on his entrepreneurial journey. Adam mentions 3 skills that
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are important for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial intentions. He says these skills are
“Business fundamentals, Marketing Fundamentals, and communication skills.
Because as I mentioned earlier, being an entrepreneur is quite easy, but if you don’t have a solid business marketing base, then it would be difficult, next would just be communication, various communication skills. So communication would be
interpersonal, cross cultural, collaborating, listening, brain storming, etc.” Learning how to communicate using language or your body will also come as a skill. For some individuals, it will be used as a tool to overcome barriers and obstacles. Bob mentions
“Taiwan is an amazing place to develop entrepreneur skills. Especially being a foreigner because you are always overcoming obstacles and learning how to communicate, speaking a different language or trying to communicate with people without even speaking the language, which is another skill. Using body language and any skill that you can develop is always going to help out your entrepreneur skills no matter what.” These skills will help entrepreneurs develop confidence and thus facilitate their entrepreneurial intention.
Human capital and your direct business experiences in Taiwan. This category could shed light on the skills and tools that all foreigners would need in order to do business. Better understanding the specific needs of entrepreneurs will reveal how entrepreneurial intentions can be accelerated.
Understanding the effects of “Human capital and your direct business experiences in Taiwan” will help for future studies. Putting this category into two sub-categories will help future studies better identify the details of each important aspect.
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Creativity: The ability to formulate old ideas, rules, or traditions to create new ideas, rules or tradition that can be put into practice.
Problem solving- The ability to come up with a solution to a complicated or complex issue.
Creativity. In the previous study, I emphasized the importance of creative development while living in your host country. This creative development was solely focused on the environment in which the respondent was currently residing in.
Although creative development in your current environment is important, creative development in what you love is the most important. Individuals naturally have new fresh ideas because of their background. Doing what you love may cause individuals to learn how to be more creative in their field. In return, it may ignite their
entrepreneurial intentions. Bob mentions “I come from a music culture and I feel that Taiwan really doesn’t have too much of a music culture at all. I think that in that perspective, my creativity has kind of disappeared which is kind of unfortunate.
Creativity comes from a few different things and one of them is doing the things that you really love. If I am not doing music I feel that my creativity is not as
strong.”Future studies can emphasize and exam this characteristic.
Problem solving: In this study, the entrepreneurs mentioned problem solving as a means to help people. It wasn’t always about solving their own problem, as much as it was about solving problems that others may have as well. Learning how to solve other people problems may come as a skill and may turn into a reason why
individuals have entrepreneurial intentions just as Carl mentioned “My goal as an entrepreneur is to really just try to solve things, and before this I was already doing this, you know in my job. I was trying to help people, I was trying to help the company solve problems in terms of the best way to market stuff, or in terms of the best way to
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help the company market stuff or the best to help marketing, so it is the same with entrepreneurship.” The importance of knowing how to problem solve for the future will give individuals the confidence needed for their entrepreneurial journey.
Entrepreneurship may be a life of problem solving and may require some skills as Adam said “If you want to be an entrepreneur, you are opening up your life to a life of problems, and a life of problem solving.”