Entrepreneurship in the Raw Materials Sector

Proceedings of the LIMBRA International Scientific Conference

Zoltán Bartha, Tekla Szép, Katalin Lipták, Dóra Szendi, Zoltán Bartha, Tekla Szép, Katalin Lipták, Dóra Szendi

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032195964
• eBook ISBN: 9781000597745
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

The Entrepreneurship in the Raw Materials Sector proceeding is a collection of papers focusing on the macroeconomic aspects of green growth, the business opportunities in the raw materials sector, and the challenges in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship training. These papers were presented during the closing conference of LIMBRA ('Decreasing the negative outcomes of brain drain in the raw materials sector'), a project funded by EIT Raw Materials in the period of 2019-2021. LIMBRA primarily aims at generating new entrepreneurial ideas in the raw materials sector, and to encourage engineering students graduating in raw materials-related programmes to start their own businesses. This proceeding offers a good summary of our approach, and our results: identify the critical trends in the macroeconomic environment; learn about the specifics of the raw materials markets; develop new business ideas, and rely on your local ecosystem for extra knowledge, mentoring; and finally, help students to "Become stay-at-home entrepreneurs".

Entrepreneurial opportunities in the waste management sector in Hungary

A.S. Gubik, Á. Horváth, M. Kis-Orloczki & K. Lipták

University of Miskolc, Miskolc, Hungary

DOI: 10.1201/9781003259954-6

ABSTRACT: The objective of the article is to examine whether the area of the Hungarian waste management sector could be an attractive entrepreneurial target for young people participating in raw material-related education. Our research based on desk research and interviews with stakeholders and students provide a complex picture of the entrepreneurial opportunities inherent in waste management. According to our results intention of students to be entrepreneurs is low among students in the technical field. Career opportunities for students need to be addressed more intensively, and students need to be made aware of them so that they can think in time and prepare according to their plans. In order to be able to turn their business ideas into well-developed business plans, they also need economic/business/entrepreneurial knowledge or peers who can perform these tasks in the planned business. The institutional framework for this needs to be created within the university, which also requires stronger communication and collaboration between faculties. Our work contributes to the entrepreneurial intention literature. It shows how important the sectoral characteristics are in the formation of the decision and the success of the activity, in addition to the students’ intention.

1 Introduction

The role of entrepreneurship in economic growth has become accepted in recent decades. (Carree & Thurik, 2010; Hope, 2016). Besides the economic role the social significance of becoming an entrepreneur is unquestionable. The role of entrepreneurship in preventing the migration of young workers is also important for regions where it is more difficult to provide an employment perspective for young people.

The decision to start a business is very complex, one of the defining elements of which is the entrepreneurial opportunity and the recognition and exploitation of these opportunities by the individual. We agree with Shane and Venkataraman (2000) that although recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities is rather subjective, the opportunities themselves are objective phenomena even if it is not known to everyone at all times.

Entrepreneurial opportunities are influenced by a number of factors, such as the general macroeconomic environment and economic policy, but we also started from the premise that entrepreneurial opportunities are basically determined by sectoral characteristics.

Each sector creates very different opportunities for young entrepreneurs, this article deals only with the examination of entrepreneurial opportunities in the waste management sector. However, it is necessary to examine not only the business opportunities in the waste sector, but also whether students are able to recognize these opportunities, identify the competencies, attitudes and intention that are the basic conditions for starting their own business.

The article seeks to answer the question of what entrepreneurial opportunities the waste management sector offers for young people participating in raw material-related education. As well as whether young people studying in the sector recognize these opportunities and have entrepreneurial plans.

To determine the significance of the sector, we used the statistics of the CSO, OPTEN and Eurostat and performed several analyses. Our sectoral analysis was complemented by an analysis of the macro environment (PESTEL), which verified the existence of important elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem as well as expert interviews that also shed light on a number of hidden insider aspects. Finally, students were asked what entrepreneurial opportunities they see in the sector, whether they have entrepreneurial intention, ideas, whether they have already taken steps to start their own business.

The structure of the article is as follows: in the first step, we present the specifics of the waste management sector based on statistical data and PESTEL analysis, and then we present the results of the semi-structured expert and student interviews. Finally, we summarize our main findings.

2 Literature Review

Businesses cannot be created without entrepreneurial opportunities. Opportunities and opportunity recognition therefore are critical issues for entrepreneurship.

In the context of opportunities, authors dealing with the topic have quite different viewpoints. Following Kirzner who defines entrepreneurship as recognizing opportunities (Kirzner, 1973), many authors see the recognition of opportunities as a key factor of entrepreneurial activity (Stevenson, & Jarillo, 1990). Others emphasise that opportunities should not be explored but created. Drucker (1985) sees innovation as a specific tool of entrepreneurs, by which they exploit change as an opportunity. According to Zahra (2008) it is a circular process where discovery enriches creation which, in turn, fosters the discovery of new opportunities.

There are also different views in the literature regarding to whether opportunities are objective or subjective in their nature. The authors also emphasize that the discovery of the opportunity is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of the business, a decision on the use of the opportunity is also needed. We agree with Shane and Venkataraman (2000), and consider opportunities objective but consider their recognition to be subjective. To clarify the concept of opportunity, Davidsson (2015) recommends to separate 3 dimensions of it: External Enablers, New Venture Ideas and Opportunity Confidence. The first covers aggregate-level circumstances, the second stands for “imagined future ventures” last is about the individuals’ subjective evaluation. In this way, he separates objective circumstances from subjective perception and evaluation.

A number of works address the importance of individual differences (individual nexus) in opportunity recognition. A group of authors highlights the role of information, knowledge and experience (Shane, 2000; Grégoire & Shepherd, 2012, Gruber et al., 2012), the ability to recognize seemingly unrelated patterns and the relationship between them (Baron & Ensley, 2006), the role of entrepreneurial intention (Grégoire & Shepherd, 2012), and other personal characteristics such as self-efficacy (Krueger & Dickson, 1994), education etc.

We consider it critical whether an individual shows intention to start his or her own business, that is, whether he or she wants to take advantage of the opportunity he discovered. From this aspect, the formation of intention, as an important factor in the opportunity recognition, should also be the focus of attention. The academic literature frequently investigates issues related to how entrepreneurial intention develop in individuals, what its components are, and how it can be influenced. The role of education on entrepreneurship has been proven in many cases (Nowiński et al. 2017, Maresch et al. 2016, von Graevenitz et al. 2010, Egerová et. al. 2017, Kolstad & Wiig, 2015, Gubik 2013; Szerb & Lukovszki, 2013, Ling & Venesaar, 2015), also the social environment and culture (Autio & Wennberg, 2010, Thomas & Mueller, 2000; Thurik & Dejardin, 2012, Shane et al. 1991; Zhao et al. 2012) and personal characteristics (Meager et al. 2003, Gauthier et al., 2018) are decisive.

The waste policy aims of European Union to protect the environment and human health and help the EU’s transition to a circular economy. Waste management occupies a special place in the Hungarian system of public service provision. In 2012, a new law was adopted, under which the provision of public waste management services was transferred to the state from 1 January 2013. The primary objective of waste management policy is to minimise the negative impacts of waste generation and management on human health and the environment, while reducing the use of resources, in line with the EU’s targets and commitments up to 2030. One of the fundamental problems of waste management in Hungary is that the person who collects, sorts and pre-treats the waste is not the same as the person who then sells it on the market. As a consequence, the waste product chain already contains a major economic depreciation in the waste product.

3 Research Methodology

In our research, we sought to answer whether the conditions for successful entrepreneurship in the waste sector are met, what challenges and difficulties the actors in the sector face, and finally, whether entry into the sector can be attractive for potential entrepreneurs. The conditions for a successful business are an innovative idea and the recognition of business opportunities creating a marketable product or service, for which there is solvent demand.

The favorable development of the profitability prospects and the existence of a supportive, business-friendly environment are essential for the long-term operation of the company. To be successful, both the role of the entrepreneurial aptitude and the entrepreneurial knowledge should not be underestimated. We examined the existence of these key success factors based on industrial and environmental analysis on the one hand, and demographic and economic data of companies operating in the waste sect...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Technical program committee
• Sponsors
• Top OECD performers in green growth—an FOI model analysis
• A comprehensive indicator set for measuring the sustainable energy performance in the European Union
• Challenges for universities in the aspect of the growing importance of the sustainable development and circular economy
• Research on employee bonus systems in Polish enterprises
• Mentoring as a tool supporting the development of student entrepreneurship in the raw materials industry
• Entrepreneurial opportunities in the waste management sector in Hungary
• Ecology aspect of CSR—What is the social plastic?
• Analyzing entrepreneurship-growth nexus across high and low income countries
• Business model analysis for the scope of entrepreneurship in a solar drying field in the European region
• Bio-solution for global sand crisis and sustainable organic agriculture in desert states
• Recovering oxides from construction waste as an alternative raw material for the production of cement clinker
• The Circular Economy in Polish industry—analysis of the issue and opportunities for implementation
• Trends in material recovery of waste
• Applying real-life problem-solving learning methodologies to train entrepreneurship students in the raw materials sector
• Use of augmented reality as a support for the visualization of urban data
• Coal-fired power plants in the crossfire of the European Union's energy and climate policy
• Spent pickling liquor as industrial waste recover opportunities
• Author Index