Saturday, February 15, 2014

Youth Entrepreneurship and Review for Econ Quiz


Check out this article from BBC Business under Entrepreneurship. Thought this might serve as nice practice for our first set of economy vocabulary and a bit of review before our quiz next week. I’ve included some of our terms, but please work in as much of the vocab or as many of the concepts as you can in your responses.


First, take a second both to feel a bit envious of these talented young entrepreneurs and to bask in the impressive business accomplishments of these young people.

Then, go through and comment (for one, multiple, or all of the businesses) and explain the factors of production (the last factor should be easier since it is the main focus of the article.) Explain 1-2 (no need to list all the items that fall under the four categories) aspects of the land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship factors. Include a bit of analysis on how the entrepreneur successfully brought all the factors together. Keep in mind that the source of labor/entrepreneurship in these examples often comes from the person being featured.

Example: Leanna Archer
Land: Natural ingredients that go into her products.

Labor: Leanna and her team that makes the products.

Capital: Leanna’s knowledge of her grandmother’s hair products.

Entrepreneurship: Self-explanatory from article. 

Here, I’ve only listed one aspect of each factor; there are plenty more. Please feel free to add on to this nascent case study or start your own.


BONUS: Consider what an opportunity cost could be for any of the examples and write a little bit about that opportunity cost.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

For Anshul Samar, “chemistry genius”

Land: resources and materials he needs to produce the product, Elementeo

Labor: Samar’s work synthesizing chemistry information, collecting facts, working with others to market/promote/sell the product

Capital: initial money needed to start with the first 5,000 sets, knowledge on chemistry

Entrepreneurship: finding his place in a market where a toy/game can help make learning a difficult subject like chemistry a bit more fun and interactive

The article also mentioned that Samar missed a lot of school due to a rare lung cancer, which would have affected his time available to work on the development of the product and the energy he must have needed to do so. This free time, combined with a younger point of view than most toymakers, and a robust knowledge of chemistry helped him create a product that was kid and learning-friendly.

Unknown said...

For Ludwick Marishane,

Land: natural resources and materials he uses to produce his DryBath gel

Labor: Marishane's efforts to create, develop, and sell DryBath

Capital: initial investment needed to start his business, funds and facilities needed to manufacture and sell his product

Entrepreneurship: Marishane's recognition of a need for a water-less bathing product, his idea to create such a product, and his management of the product from inception through development to sale

Unknown said...

Last, but not least, Ilwad Elman the social entrepreneur

Land: Resources and materials necessary to produce medical kits, business starter kits, and educational materials

Labor: Elman and her mother providing counselling and education.

Capital: Funds necessary to procure materials to be assembled into kits, and the knowledge necessary for counselling and education.

Entrepreneurship: Elman's leadership to pull together several important and vital services to aid those in need, management of a social network in order to reach people and start lines of communication and business, and diplomacy to reach out to those who would otherwise reject help from a young person.

The land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship factors of production model provides a limited perspective on what is necessary in order to run a successful aid organization, but it really is only part of the story. The label of entrepreneur does not encompass all of what Elman seeks to do.