Chapter 1: Entrepreneurship in Engineering

An article in the website of the National Academy of Engineering contained the result of a study on the beliefs of the teachers who
teach entrepreneurship to engineering students. Accordingly, these educators believed that the entrepreneur has the ability to act on
opportunities and is characterized by passion, resourcefulness, drive, and the belief that one can be successful; that the features of the
entrepreneurial mindset, and the interpersonal, technical, communication and business skills as well as the ability of act on
opportunities, solve problems, and know from failure, can be learned; and that the way the educators teach entrepreneurship is
deeply influenced by the educator’s own career experiences and belief about how people become entrepreneur.
On the Arizona State University website is a writeup that includes the traits of the person with entrepreneurial mindset. These features
are as follow:

 ability to take initiative,

 be comfortable with risk,
 find reactive solutions, and
 adapt to change.
One suggestion on developing the entrepreneurial mindset may involve changing some of the current thought processes by first
identifying which parts of the current mindset needed to be improved. The making of the plan to make those changes, may follow.
Accordingly, Alain Fayolle defined the entrepreneurial mindset as a specific state of mind which orientates human conduct towards
entrepreneurial activities and outcomes.
The Stanford Professor Carol Dweck wrote that the students don’t get entrepreneurial mindset. Instead, they choose it. They develop it
and developing it, takes hard work.
There is an expression which is innovation mindset. A writer wrote that the partner of creativity is a strong mindset describing the
latter as the mental state of a person. The same writer believed that focus is essential in business success. The start of the focus
of a company is maybe on the highly specialized type of services, goods, or markets. Accordingly, for the organization to succeed, it
must have the focus first. It may take up later the innovation mindset.
The writer noted that innovation has a role in product development. He enumerated four items which he called as drivers of
innovation mindset. Consequently, these are reclassified here as types of outcome like for instance new ways, new products, new
system, and new things after a development such as of the new product by the product development to address the customer need.
The development can be essential for the product to be competitive. The product needed to stand out.
The differentiation is the old technique in the marketing strategy.
Certain types of innovation can be made.
 One constituted a process of small change in the product like in the packaging or on price, if not on size or bundle.
 Reinventing the product is another way of innovation in what the writer called as breakthrough innovation which is indeed
reinventing the old product to create a new one.
 One type of innovation which that aforementioned writer wrote, is called pivoting which accordingly, involved looking at the
core like the product or service from different angle.
Harvard Business School (HBS) Online contributor took this term innovation with the word novelty and usefulness, considered it a
must to be new and original, and identified types of it to design and implement such as product or service innovation, process
innovation, and business model innovation to transform business operation such as of what is currently in the ride- sharing platform.
To Stanford University, engineering innovation refers to any product, process service or infrastructure in the public or private sector.
In civil engineering, the Norwich University recognized five innovations to improve sustainability, namely:
 rainwater harvesting as a climate change strategy,
 plastic road,
 floating homes described as practical living spaces that sit on water,
 green roof system with vegetative layer grown on rooftop, and
 vertical farming with multistory high-rises to grow food.
Lately, in a technology symposium, engineering students showcased innovations which were described to be bold innovations. For
instance, in mechanical engineering is a senior design project, a device which is to prevent blood clots by providing compression to
the legs.
A product is a good, service or idea having tangible and intangible attributes that satisfies the customer and is received in exchange
for money or certain unit of value.
Goods are tangible.
According to Kate Gibson, HBS Online contributor, there are nine innovative products, representing successful innovations which
had stood in the test at time, namely

 the wheel,
 printing press,
 light bulb,
 automobiles,
 computers,
 cellular phones,
 the internet,
 bagless vacuum cleaner, and
 iPhones.
Gibson wrote that to foster innovation in the workplace, among inventors and entrepreneurs, and in a regular practice, adopted can be
is a design thinking mentality which is considered as a solutions-based approach to innovation.
Services are intangible. A service is a result of a human or mechanical effort to people or object. Selling services can be one of the
many ventures. A shift from goods- producing to service- providing employment can be happening. Home repairs as one among the
many, an employee may be hired for.
One of the headings on a website pertains to engaging the employees to create a sustainable business. A company provides
accordingly every employee with the opportunity to join a team, and to develop a corporate program on the core area as food. Another
heading is about succeeding in a business by being a team player. One concern of a team leader is improving the team performance.
Managing a team is a challenge.
Team formation may be followed by the company’s benefits, namely:

 employee motivation,
 increased communication,
 sharpened planning skill, and
 increased employee collaboration.
A team in a company undergoes stages of development from:

 forming,
 storming,
 norming and
 to performing.
Team develops. Judith Stein on the webpage of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) wrote about the stages of the team
development based from the framework of Bruce Tuckman in the mid- 1960s. Putting a milestone such as a last stage named as
ending in the team’s development which is with the use of the key word termination, is maybe little modification from Tuckman’s
framework from forming, storming, norming to performing.
According to Stein,

 during forming, members are usually showing excitement to be part of the team, and eagerness of what lies ahead.
 When members get to the storming stage, they may feel that the team can’t live up to each of their overall expectation (and
excitement).
  In the next stage of the team’s development, the members resolve the discrepancy between the expectation and the reality
of the team’s experience (in the same phrase as used by Stein).
 According to Stein, during the performing stage in the team’s development, the members feel satisfied about the progress
made by the team. She described a period in performing which is a team’s lifetime period that may happen as the team is
highly performing in what Stein considered as truly pleasurable and fruitful experience as it is not an end in the team’s
development though she didn’t reject the possible large change when quite a number or many of the members go resulting to
the cycling back of the team to the early stage of development.
Chapter 2: The engineering graduate, customers, and the market
The College of Engineering and Computing of the University of South Carolina caters to various graduate programs of which is
the technology innovation and entrepreneurial engineering. The course is meant to inspire entrepreneurial- minded engineering and
science students to take leadership roles in the product design in large organizations and embark on new business ventures (as in the
statement written on the website of the aforementioned academic institution). This academic undertaking places accordingly the
students with high- academic background into that for blending business and technical skills in the entrepreneurship. It also prepares
the students to evaluate the processes and the products which influence the future and the current market.
The College of Engineering of Northeastern University offered the program of engineering entrepreneurship to enable
interdisciplinary student entrepreneurship by providing education on the concepts, tools, and resources to foster ability and creativity to
develop business ideas.
In the Penn State College of Engineering, students from many majors learn how to create new and innovative products, services and
businesses.
According to the writer of an article for a website, a student can become a successful entrepreneur if the student believes on what it
takes to be one. This student may be a science or engineering academic learner.
The aforementioned writer wrote about Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, who accordingly started the Facebook in his
dormitory room while attending Harvard University. The same was writing about Alexis Ohanian with Steve Huffman, founder of
Reddit, along with Aaron Swartz, who was student in the University of Virginia when he with Steve started their website. He and those
in the long list of student entrepreneurs made the impact in business while still earning their degrees.
The Facebook service started as an idea and in just more than two years, it became a successful business with core market
accordingly consisting of college students with potential market of college students who are outside US and the high school students. It
could had adopted a business strategy keeping up with its underlying growth metrics (as similar in the phrase used by that writer of
the website article) ensuring better consumer experience. With the rise in the internet and the rise in the social media, the customer
behavior has changed dramatically however accordingly.
MIT researchers put a value to free digital online goods such as social media like Facebook, search engines, maps and the like. After
a series of surveys by the researchers, the value of the Facebook was put at 40 dollars to 50 dollars per month for US consumers.
To conduct the surveys, the researchers used three large scale online surveys in which the customers were asked to put a price tag on
the free online services that they consume. The surveys accordingly drew about 65,000 respondents. The study revealed a huge
value that the customers place on certain categories of online goods.
Researchers in the field of entrepreneurship are dealing with variables in researches which covered the key terms that include
good, customer, service, price, and value as well as terminologies such as market and survey.
Who is the customer of the entrepreneur? What is a value proposition?
On the webpage of Cornell Law School, the word customer is defined as any person who buys for resale directly from the seller or
the seller’s agent or broker. In the Cambridge Dictionary the word customer is defined as a person who buys goods or a service.
On the webpage of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness of the Harvard Business School, the value proposition is
considered as having the task of defining the kind of value which a company will create for its customers. With it is the statement of the
benefits which a company is delivering to the customers who buy its product or avail of its service. For one writer, the effective value
proposition is to be created. Before launching a venture, the entrepreneur should know what market need is fulfilled by the product or
service.
Market research has a role in the marketing plan and strategy. One area in the research is the target market or the customers.
Identifying the target market is beneficial. Knowing the customers will enable the entrepreneurs to focus on funding and promotion of
the goods or services.
It is important to divide the market into smaller homogenous groups in a process called market segmentation.
Sarah Cornelisse whose article appeared on the webpage of Penn State Extension of The Pennsylvania State University,
recognized what she described as commonly used segmentation factors, namely

 geographics,
 psychographics,
 behaviors, and
 demographics.
To start to identify the market, the following questions must be answered:
Who are the people that comprise the target market? The answer to the first question points to the demographic segmentation;
Where are these people located? Second question to geographic segmentation
What do they think? Third to psychographic segmentation where the psychographics are taken as the values of the customers and
what motivate them to buy the product.
What do they do that make them unique from the others? Fourth as the behavioral segmentation.
With the market segmented, there remained to be other concerns which include those about creating a competitive advantage.
Catherine Cote wrote an article on what she considered as sources of competitive advantage. These included:

 the product attribute differentiation,

 human capital,
 price discrimination,
 customer’s willingness to pay, and
 bundled pricing.
One went to a grocery store and may find a bundle of two or more products together. For instance, in one occasion a customer found
one small shampoo pack and large shampoo in a bundle whose cost is different based from the price of each item when bought
separately. According to Cote, the way the price is set must be strategic. Besides, the consumer may be driven by value and hence
increase the willingness to pay. Cote described bundled pricing as the practice of selling two or more products together in a “bundle,”
for which the cost is different than that of purchasing all of the items separately.
Price discrimination is considered by a Harvard professor as a common and most powerful price strategies for companies
(including entrepreneurial entities). One experienced on price reduction due to old age, though of a woman resulted to putting away
and leaving the specified deduction from the usual price, away in a rage of disgust over mistaken identity on age basis. Nevertheless,
as Cote did put it, reduced price for seniors and students is one among the various examples of price discrimination that is
considered as one source of competitive advantage. This is true to the same woman who availed from a fast ferry ride of the deducted
fee for student fare by substantial amount of money.
Cote took the human capital as a source of competitive advantage. She explained as she wrote that the hiring, training, and retaining
of skilled employees is in totality a competitive advantage.
She also considered the customer’s willingness- to- pay as a source of competitive advantage. The consideration about the
willingness of the customer to pay for a service or a product is viewed from the urgency of the need of the customer.
Accordingly, the willingness to pay is the maximum price a customer is willing to pay for a product or service. This willingness to pay
is linked to the need of the customer as when the same woman felt the need to dispose of the leftover food from the refrigerator, she
had to elevate her willingness to pay the service of a public vehicle driver to bring the item to the disposal site.
Accordingly, the types of the needs of the customers include social need as the customer considered self with perception of others
in relation to the product or service, functional need which is best addressed by purchased product or hired service, and emotional
need that is secondary to the functional need and relates to how the customer wants to feel.
Entrepreneurs are invited to balance the organization’s capabilities and the customers’ needs. To strategize in the non-price
competition through competitive advantage of product differentiation, is a call. One writer wrote that competitive advantage grows out
of the value which the firm is able to create for its buyers and clients. Product differentiation is the reason why the customer chose to
select the company’s brand. It made the goods different and more appealing to the customers than the other options in the category.
Three researchers did plan a research on understanding the consumers needs through market research and published the efforts done
for the study with the purpose of demonstrating how the existing market research in the assistive technology field can be leveraged to
create new solutions and to help those solutions to reach wider markets. They believed that the primary research is beneficial in
understanding the needs and expectations of a manufacturer’s target audience. Accordingly, understanding what the manufacturer
knows and what is needed to be known about the target audience is as a whole the first step that is important in the conduct of the
market research. The researchers considered the drawing on the secondary research by the manufacturers to establish
information. They did draw on references such as technical assistance centers to develop an approach to collecting and analyzing
primary data. They took up a number of commercially available software applications to support quantitative data analysis. They are up
for the findings to support. Accordingly, once the manufacturer develops and implements the data collection and analysis plan, findings
to support the business strategy may be utilized.
Goel (2023) presented an algebraic presentation of the market structure. Before doing so, he provided a definition of the market
claimed to be commonly agreed upon description among economists as the market is a meeting place for sellers and buyers to
transact a product.
The definition includes abstract products like

 emotional value,
 attention,
 power, and so on (Goel).
Using the said framework, Goel puts the term market in the form of a mathematical structure which will enable analysts to make
comparative analysis of markets with complex transactions. The said markets are those which are considered as set of transactions
which can be added, subtracted and multiplied. In this manner, two markets can be compared. Below is an example presented in an
article written by Goel showing an application of the described concept.
Example
Paul buys 100 mangoes in a store. He intended to make a juice for the students’ acquaintance party. To make this four-season Filipino
style drinks, Paul needed 30 oranges, 5 pineapples, and 10 apples. He followed a recipe and made the juice as follows:
1. Paul juiced 50 mangoes into the pitcher and hurriedly left out the remaining 50 as he quickly juiced 2 pineapples.
2. He realized that he had to include the oranges and so stopped juicing the pineapples while he was confronted by the intricacy of the
skin of the pineapple. He juiced the 30 oranges into the pitcher.
3. He proceeded to juice 1 more pineapple before realizing that he was supposedly to be juicing the apples.
4. He juiced the 10 apples into the pitcher. He finished juicing the other 2 pineapples.
5. He remembered the remaining mangoes but decided to leave them not juiced.
Using the method introduced in the article written by Goel, the step by step calculation would be as follows utilizing the addition symbol
+ for p + p which is 2p and x for notion of multiplication:
1. 50(m) x 2(p) = q
2. q x 30(o) = r
3. r x 1p = s
4. s x 10a x 2p = t
where m, p, o and a represented mangos, pineapples, oranges, and apples respectively.
The arbitrarily chosen q, r, s, and t were used to show the iterative nature of the process enabling one to see the value of the punch at
each step which is not present in the way the economists could easily get when calculating by adding 50 mangoes, 30 oranges, 5
pineapples, and 10 apples. With value added at the end, the latter lacks the ease in analyzing transactions while the former would
allow one to dissect the value added at each step.