ï¶ Religious Entrepreneurship Approach
Religion itself is long found to be one of the components of the society. It has seen observed that all religions also tend to encourage the act of entrepreneurship by stressing the need for people to work hard in order to get food to eat (Tonge, 2009), for instance max Weber in his work in 1958 which he titled `protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism` relates the element of religion as a foundation to succeed in economic activities. Weber said that the success of protestant people in economic activities which is also part of entrepreneurship development is because of the protestant ethics. He relates religion with entrepreneurial development and indeed success in economic activities.
He reported a consistent relationship between protestant religions` belief s and the involvement of Protestants in whatever the occupation they were engaged. Weber stresses the factors that the religious belief was that a man`s primary responsibility should be that of doing his best in whatever his role is. He noted that God has assigned in life rather than to withdraw from the society and devote himself entirely to God. This is one of the highest deals which the Catholic Church is known for or propagates. Therefore, the protestant ethic could be considered as the driving force behind the modern entrepreneurship development, supporting these arguments above, more recently, most churches in Lagos state have in the couple of years devoted in the need to self employment and wealth creation to it`s members, this is no doubt part of entrepreneurship development.
Similarly, Islam religion encourages entrepreneurship activities as the source of income. Prophet Muhammad was also known to have engaged in entrepreneurial activities. He mentioned that 9/10 of sources of rezeki (incomes) can be derived from business activities. He invented the so called concept of Syumul (integrated) which he argued to mean that entrepreneurship could not be separated or isolated from Islam itself. Thus, entrepreneurship falls within the system of Islam. This system includes; Islamic faith, law, moral and ethics. He reminded Muslims that business activity which is part of entrepreneurship is also a religious activity. Hence, achieving worldly success with regard to your business could also have a correlation with achieving success there after.
2.9 The Problem Militating against Entrepreneurship Development
In spite of their significance and of small industries to the national economy, many problems and constraints still exist in promoting their development and growth. For instance, an international labor organization (1994) study shows that inadequate technical entrepreneurial talent particularly affects the development of small scale manufacturing and processing industries. While large scale industries can be established with expatriate capital, small industries need to have a domestic entrepreneurial and industries base.
Another obstacle to the modernization of small industries are the persistence of a low level of technology, the shortage and inadequate entrepreneurial skills of operators and the absence of an effective management techniques (UNIDO, 1994). Their low product quality makes it difficult for them to compete in a technologically driven knowledge based and export oriented globalized economy. There is, therefore the need to tap the considerable R & D efforts that take place at universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, and other public and private sector research institution through increased commercialization or technology transfer of research results. However, this can only be achieved through a deliberate intervention strategy of developing a core of characteristics among the small industry operators to enhance production efficiently, quality and output.
The failure of past efforts by small industry operators and the little intervention by government necessitate the need to access why indigenous technical innovations, management practices and other nay success factors in business are often not translated into feasible business ventures despite the fact that the country has the technological need. These issues according to researchers such as Afonja (1999) imply a link between technical innovation, nascent entrepreneurship and a much broader level of technological development. The present study focused mainly on a narrow aspect of the link nascent entrepreneurial characteristics and it effect on the development and growth of small – scale manufacturing industries.
There is a broad consensus among policy makers, researchers and practitioners that a fundamental cause of difficulties experienced by many development countries such as Nigeria is lack of technical entrepreneurship. This is manifested in the low rate at which small – scale manufacturing industries are created and at the high rate of morality in the sub – sector (Afonja, 1999). It is particularly evident in Nigeria where there are many barriers militating against the development and growth of the real sector that is the bedrock of any economy.
Such barriers inhibit entrepreneurial progress in the country despite a number of strengths and opportunities that encourage the prevalence of “creative imitators†rather than “innovators†with low level of entrepreneurial talent (Obodoechi, 2007). Edge (2002) suggest that the main prerequisite for such progress in Nigeria is the development of an institutional framework and enterprise culture capable of creating the optimum condition for technical entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, a number of models perceived to be relevant in international context have not been effective in Nigeria due to lack of a holistic, equitable approach to industrial development and socio – economic transformation.
