231
IS THERE EVIDENCE OF A EUROPEAN LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR IN
TOURISM?
Badulescu Alina, Badulescu Daniel
Department of Economics, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea
abadulescu@uoradea.ro
dbadulescu@uoradea.ro
Abstract: Entrepreneurship is a very important field for research, due to its contribution to
development and growth. Moreover, investigating particular features of entrepreneurs in
different sectors would be an important point to further policies to fostering
entrepreneurship. This paper investigates the specific traits of entrepreneurship in
tourism, particularly questioning of the evidence of a different type of entrepreneur in
tourism. As literature proposes the model of a “lifestyle entrepreneur” in tourism, we focus
on testing this hypothesis by using the data available in EUROSTAT database on
“Enterprises managed by the founder”. Based on evaluating empirical data that would
support this idea, we find the conclusion that there is not enough evidence to support the
idea of a more family-motivated and not only profit-oriented entrepreneur in tourism.
Key words: tourism entrepreneur; lifestyle entrepreneur; tourism; EU and Romania
JEL Classification: M13, L26
1. Introduction
The nature of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur’s attributes and personality traits have
been extensively studied in the last century, but the variety of approaches, methods and
influences express a lot about the impossibility of consensus in this regard. Ever since the
first systematic research on entrepreneurship, it has been associated with
development. Thus, the entrepreneur was considered as an intermediary combining
goods and services demanded on the market (Cantillon 1730, 1959), as risk
undertaker (Say 1880, 2001) or capitalist-entrepreneur employing production factors,
assuming risks and carefully analyzing the market developments (Turgot), because
his/her entire business is based on anticipating consumers’ desires to whom the
production results are intended. Classics (e.g. Smith, Ricado or Mill) are more succinct,
they rather see the entrepreneur in terms of "business management", even if Mill shows
that entrepreneurship requires "special qualities". The importance of entrepreneurship
was first officially recognized by Alfred Marshall, who stated that the organization is the
coordinating factor of productive inputs and the entrepreneur is the leading factor within
the organization. Marshall shows that qualities associated with a good entrepreneur are
rare and limited, "so large and numerous that very few people can accumulate in a truly
effective way" (Burnet 2000). This contractor is the employer of human resources, a
leader of others, but their deep business knowledge, to take bold risks, continued to seek
opportunities that lead to lower costs. The economist most associated with
entrepreneurship theory is Joseph Schumpeter (Formaini 2001), who considered that the
entrepreneur does not necessarily discover things or goods, but exploit in an innovative
way things that have already been invented, so he or she makes a “creative destruction”
and brings up new industries, while obsolete industries retire or disappear.
Frank Knight, addressing entrepreneurship theory, makes a clear distinction between risk
and uncertainty, and consider that the role of entrepreneur is to assume uncertainty about
these events and even to protect the other shareholders of firm effects of the event. Later,
Knight insists that entrepreneurs are owners of the company (residual claimants) and thus
they are entitled to profit. For Kirzner, businesses suffer from an "utter ignorance", they
232
simply do not know what useful information are available and the contractor, always alert,
discover and exploit new opportunities and removes a part of its "utter ignorance" (Iversen
et al 2008). For Kirzner, the entrepreneur is a pure governor, who has no property. Gilder
believes that the real economy is the creation of entrepreneur and entrepreneurial activity
and not multinational corporations, economic policy and political compromises, which
suppress simple and creative energy and enthusiasm of individual entrepreneurs. Gilder
calls often irrational entrepreneurship as a process, carried on by "orphans and outcasts"
conducted in a hostile environment. Schultz argues that entrepreneurship is in every
aspect of human existence, and student and housewife are entrepreneurs they reallocate
their time and try to use it better for learning activities or household. Casson tried to meet
the definitions of Schumpeter and Knight by affirming the idea that the entrepreneur is
that person trained to make decisions. Mark Casson defines the entrepreneur as
someone who has different skills that allow him/her to make value judgments for the
intelligent use of scarce resources, make difficult decisions on supply and demand
forecasting under uncertainty, and is able to claim as a reward profit. William Baumol
considers the entrepreneur as assuming two functions: the Schumpeterian innovator and
the modern manager (Aidis 2003). Baumol argues that the entrepreneur does not
disappear and reappear, the number of productive and unproductive entrepreneurs
change if there are some motivational structures. An entrepreneur may own or not a
business, may be employed or not in a productive activity, but the defining factor is the
"innovative behaviour".
However, the entrepreneurial behaviour is not driven only by rational decision-making
structures, does not aim only development at any price; there are other explanations, noneconomic,
that should be approached to understand the entrepreneurial process, i.e.
those typical characteristics and personality traits, such as creativity, risk undertaking,
innovation and pro-active behaviour that can be observed in different social, political or
economic environment (Timmons, 1994). Thus, according to Morrison (2006), the various
entrepreneurial hypostases such as lifestyle, social and family relationships may indicate
that there is often a clear orientation towards non-economic reasons. There is no doubt
that a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship itself is not sufficient to motivate a person
to develop a business. However, the intention to create a business occurs only when
positive attitude towards entrepreneurship (Koh, 1996).
2. The ”lifestyle entrepreneur”: some literature
The importance of entrepreneurship for tourism and leisure industry is very special, as
revealed by numerous authors, such as: Thomas (1998, 2000), Morrison et al (1998),
Getz (2004), Buhalis and Main (1998). These activities are based on entrepreneurial spirit
and activism of SMEs. Tourism and leisure have always attracted a large number of
various entrepreneurs, but not always growth oriented, both concerning the business
itself, and their own skills and knowledge. Entrepreneurial activity in tourism, hospitality
and leisure has been often perceived more from tourists’ perspective than from a business
perspective. Images of idyllic beaches, spectacular mountain landscapes etc. have often
been identified as one of the main reasons for which future tourism business owners have
left their jobs or residences in cities to set up tourist establishments. The picture of their
existence as entrepreneurs in places they have dreamed before eclipsed the fatigue of
solving current problems, difficulties and required managerial decisions. Often the desire
to enjoy the perceived quality of life, a certain lifestyle and economic status has leaded to
ignore the real business. Thus, the entrepreneurial decision, taken on the basis of
psychological determinants, without any experience or training, quickly led to failure, to
the rapid consumption of savings collected in earlier career of the entrepreneur (Peters,
Frehse, Buhalis 2009).
233
Components often approached in defining the profile of small business owners, managers
and entrepreneurs in tourism are related to age and gender (Ateljevic et al 1999; Szivas,
E. 2001, Ahmad 2005), education (Glancey and Pettigrew 1997; Avcikurt 2003), work
experience (Ateljevic et al 1999; Szivas, E. 2001), marital status (Getz and Carlsen, 2000),
and motivational impulses can be added.
According to the mentioned authors, the dominant small business owners / managers /
entrepreneurs are middle-aged (30-45 years) or more over 45 years. Most are married
(Getz and Carlsen, 2000) and as such, small businesses are majority owned and
managed by men (Morrison, Breen and Ali 2003, Avcikurt 2003), although researchers
like Getz and Carlsen are reluctant to the male domination. However, Ahmad (2005)
believes that male owners and entrepreneurs dominate in net proportion (81%), especially
in small firms. This can be an expression of traditional society influences, where the man
is, at least formally, head of the family and the decision maker (Mastura Jaafar et al 2010).
In terms of formal education of entrepreneurs and business owners, the data are more
inconsistent. In Australia, entrepreneurs with higher education comprise only one third of
total (Getz and Carlsen, 2000), or even less, while in European countries it seems to be
a balance between people with secondary studies and university graduates (Glancey and
Pettigrew, 1997). Both are still haunted by the fact that most types of studies completed
at whatever level, is significantly different from the requirements of the profession
(technical studies, language, etc.) and should be supplemented by further stages of their
studies and training courses in tourism.
Given the ease of entry into this industry, many owners / managers are reported to have
different types of occupations and experience before venturing into the tourism sector
(Ateljevic et al 1999; Szivas, 2001). In New Zealand and the UK prior work experience in
tourism and hospitality industry is not particularly representative, i.e. about one third of
the entrepreneurs said they had previous experience in this f
231IS THERE EVIDENCE OF A EUROPEAN LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR INTOURISM?Badulescu Alina, Badulescu DanielDepartment of Economics, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradeaabadulescu@uoradea.rodbadulescu@uoradea.roAbstract: Entrepreneurship is a very important field for research, due to its contribution todevelopment and growth. Moreover, investigating particular features of entrepreneurs indifferent sectors would be an important point to further policies to fosteringentrepreneurship. This paper investigates the specific traits of entrepreneurship intourism, particularly questioning of the evidence of a different type of entrepreneur intourism. As literature proposes the model of a “lifestyle entrepreneur” in tourism, we focuson testing this hypothesis by using the data available in EUROSTAT database on“Enterprises managed by the founder”. Based on evaluating empirical data that wouldsupport this idea, we find the conclusion that there is not enough evidence to support theidea of a more family-motivated and not only profit-oriented entrepreneur in tourism.Key words: tourism entrepreneur; lifestyle entrepreneur; tourism; EU and RomaniaJEL Classification: M13, L261. IntroductionThe nature of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur’s attributes and personality traits havebeen extensively studied in the last century, but the variety of approaches, methods andinfluences express a lot about the impossibility of consensus in this regard. Ever since thefirst systematic research on entrepreneurship, it has been associated withdevelopment. Thus, the entrepreneur was considered as an intermediary combininggoods and services demanded on the market (Cantillon 1730, 1959), as riskundertaker (Say 1880, 2001) or capitalist-entrepreneur employing production factors,assuming risks and carefully analyzing the market developments (Turgot), becausehis/her entire business is based on anticipating consumers’ desires to whom theproduction results are intended. Classics (e.g. Smith, Ricado or Mill) are more succinct,they rather see the entrepreneur in terms of "business management", even if Mill showsthat entrepreneurship requires "special qualities". The importance of entrepreneurshipwas first officially recognized by Alfred Marshall, who stated that the organization is thecoordinating factor of productive inputs and the entrepreneur is the leading factor withinthe organization. Marshall shows that qualities associated with a good entrepreneur arerare and limited, "so large and numerous that very few people can accumulate in a trulyeffective way" (Burnet 2000). This contractor is the employer of human resources, aleader of others, but their deep business knowledge, to take bold risks, continued to seekopportunities that lead to lower costs. The economist most associated withentrepreneurship theory is Joseph Schumpeter (Formaini 2001), who considered that theentrepreneur does not necessarily discover things or goods, but exploit in an innovativeway things that have already been invented, so he or she makes a “creative destruction”and brings up new industries, while obsolete industries retire or disappear.Frank Knight, addressing entrepreneurship theory, makes a clear distinction between riskand uncertainty, and consider that the role of entrepreneur is to assume uncertainty aboutthese events and even to protect the other shareholders of firm effects of the event. Later,Knight insists that entrepreneurs are owners of the company (residual claimants) and thusthey are entitled to profit. For Kirzner, businesses suffer from an "utter ignorance", they 232simply do not know what useful information are available and the contractor, always alert,discover and exploit new opportunities and removes a part of its "utter ignorance" (Iversenet al 2008). For Kirzner, the entrepreneur is a pure governor, who has no property. Gilderbelieves that the real economy is the creation of entrepreneur and entrepreneurial activityand not multinational corporations, economic policy and political compromises, whichsuppress simple and creative energy and enthusiasm of individual entrepreneurs. Gildercalls often irrational entrepreneurship as a process, carried on by "orphans and outcasts"conducted in a hostile environment. Schultz argues that entrepreneurship is in everyaspect of human existence, and student and housewife are entrepreneurs they reallocatetheir time and try to use it better for learning activities or household. Casson tried to meetthe definitions of Schumpeter and Knight by affirming the idea that the entrepreneur isthat person trained to make decisions. Mark Casson defines the entrepreneur assomeone who has different skills that allow him/her to make value judgments for theintelligent use of scarce resources, make difficult decisions on supply and demandforecasting under uncertainty, and is able to claim as a reward profit. William Baumolconsiders the entrepreneur as assuming two functions: the Schumpeterian innovator andthe modern manager (Aidis 2003). Baumol argues that the entrepreneur does notdisappear and reappear, the number of productive and unproductive entrepreneurschange if there are some motivational structures. An entrepreneur may own or not abusiness, may be employed or not in a productive activity, but the defining factor is the"innovative behaviour".However, the entrepreneurial behaviour is not driven only by rational decision-makingstructures, does not aim only development at any price; there are other explanations, noneconomic,that should be approached to understand the entrepreneurial process, i.e.those typical characteristics and personality traits, such as creativity, risk undertaking,innovation and pro-active behaviour that can be observed in different social, political oreconomic environment (Timmons, 1994). Thus, according to Morrison (2006), the variousentrepreneurial hypostases such as lifestyle, social and family relationships may indicatethat there is often a clear orientation towards non-economic reasons. There is no doubtthat a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship itself is not sufficient to motivate a personto develop a business. However, the intention to create a business occurs only whenpositive attitude towards entrepreneurship (Koh, 1996).2. The ”lifestyle entrepreneur”: some literatureThe importance of entrepreneurship for tourism and leisure industry is very special, asrevealed by numerous authors, such as: Thomas (1998, 2000), Morrison et al (1998),Getz (2004), Buhalis and Main (1998). These activities are based on entrepreneurial spiritand activism of SMEs. Tourism and leisure have always attracted a large number ofvarious entrepreneurs, but not always growth oriented, both concerning the businessitself, and their own skills and knowledge. Entrepreneurial activity in tourism, hospitalityand leisure has been often perceived more from tourists’ perspective than from a businessperspective. Images of idyllic beaches, spectacular mountain landscapes etc. have oftenbeen identified as one of the main reasons for which future tourism business owners haveleft their jobs or residences in cities to set up tourist establishments. The picture of theirexistence as entrepreneurs in places they have dreamed before eclipsed the fatigue of
solving current problems, difficulties and required managerial decisions. Often the desire
to enjoy the perceived quality of life, a certain lifestyle and economic status has leaded to
ignore the real business. Thus, the entrepreneurial decision, taken on the basis of
psychological determinants, without any experience or training, quickly led to failure, to
the rapid consumption of savings collected in earlier career of the entrepreneur (Peters,
Frehse, Buhalis 2009).
233
Components often approached in defining the profile of small business owners, managers
and entrepreneurs in tourism are related to age and gender (Ateljevic et al 1999; Szivas,
E. 2001, Ahmad 2005), education (Glancey and Pettigrew 1997; Avcikurt 2003), work
experience (Ateljevic et al 1999; Szivas, E. 2001), marital status (Getz and Carlsen, 2000),
and motivational impulses can be added.
According to the mentioned authors, the dominant small business owners / managers /
entrepreneurs are middle-aged (30-45 years) or more over 45 years. Most are married
(Getz and Carlsen, 2000) and as such, small businesses are majority owned and
managed by men (Morrison, Breen and Ali 2003, Avcikurt 2003), although researchers
like Getz and Carlsen are reluctant to the male domination. However, Ahmad (2005)
believes that male owners and entrepreneurs dominate in net proportion (81%), especially
in small firms. This can be an expression of traditional society influences, where the man
is, at least formally, head of the family and the decision maker (Mastura Jaafar et al 2010).
In terms of formal education of entrepreneurs and business owners, the data are more
inconsistent. In Australia, entrepreneurs with higher education comprise only one third of
total (Getz and Carlsen, 2000), or even less, while in European countries it seems to be
a balance between people with secondary studies and university graduates (Glancey and
Pettigrew, 1997). Both are still haunted by the fact that most types of studies completed
at whatever level, is significantly different from the requirements of the profession
(technical studies, language, etc.) and should be supplemented by further stages of their
studies and training courses in tourism.
Given the ease of entry into this industry, many owners / managers are reported to have
different types of occupations and experience before venturing into the tourism sector
(Ateljevic et al 1999; Szivas, 2001). In New Zealand and the UK prior work experience in
tourism and hospitality industry is not particularly representative, i.e. about one third of
the entrepreneurs said they had previous experience in this f
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