Week 9 Reading Reflection

     In chapter 10 of Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, and Practice, I was interested to learn about everything that went into creating a successful market research design. I’ve always had a general idea of what the process was because I have participated in a couple of research projects in the past couple semesters and in high school I had to design a simple project. I thought it was really helpful how the chapter was broken down into the major parts of the project, i.e. data and questions.

     I didn’t find any particular part to be confusing. This chapter seemed to be straightforward and mostly informative. Overall I thought that the examples and tables were very helpful in providing the information in a visual format, which I think was especially important for figure 10.4.

     I would be interested in knowing which data is best, primary or secondary. Kuratko listed several negative for both types of data such as secondary can be “outdated and, therefore, less useful” (Kuratko 287). Something else I would be interested in knowing is which marketing philosophy Kuratko thinks is best/ most effective. He mentions that any of the “three marketing philosophies can be successful for an entrepreneur’s new venture” (Kuratko 294) but he doesn’t say which is best.

     In this chapter I didn’t disagree with anything that the author said, which I think is because I have some background in research. I thought that for the most part it was very straightforward and easy to comprehend.

My Secret Sauce

     I would describe myself, overall, as pretty ordinary because there are few things that make me different from others. If I had to come up with five things they would be:

     I lack a competitive drive but I’m ambitious which I think makes me someone who can work well with others because I’m not someone that has to be leading the team and controlling everything in order to get the job done.

     I’m extremely honest which can sometimes be a good thing and a bad thing. I’m not afraid to answer any question honestly even if it’s not what you want to hear.

     I’m non-confrontational which could be perceived as a bad thing because I can often seem like a pushover since I won’t complain if something is wrong with my order, for example.

     I’m very logical and creative. I approach situations in more unique ways than most people and when I come up with a solution I think of all the things that could go wrong or right.

     Above all I’m humble. I’m not someone to boast about a grade, money, or really any achievement. I hate to make people feel bad about themselves so I try not to be the cause.

     For my interviews, I interviewed my mom (0:00), dad (0:18), grandmother (1:52), twin brother (2:17), and best friend Savannah (2:31):

     My mom said that I am a kind and caring person that has a passion to succeed. While my dad listed numerous things that he thinks describe me which include quiet, logical, dependable, organized and shy, just to name a few. My grandmother said I was a quiet, determined individual who studies hard. Cameron, my brother, said that I am not afraid to go against the grain and that I’m not influenced by others. While, Savannah said that I’m very humble and intelligent. She mentioned that I’m someone that can show I care about someone or something without having to actually say it out loud.

     Overall, the people I interviewed didn’t say exactly the same things that I listed. I said I was non-competitive, non-confrontational, logical, creative, and humble while most of the people said I was kind, caring, quiet, logical, determined, humble and intelligent. Two of the five things I listed were explicitly stated in the interviews and I feel like another one, non-confrontational, was kind of alluded to when I was described as shy. Therefore, I think the people I interviewed see me as I see myself, I think the only reason that non-competitive and honest weren’t brought up was because the people I interviewed haven’t either ever seen me in a situation where I’m showing these qualities or it’s just been a while since they had. I wouldn’t make any corrections because I think that the people I interviewed said most of what I had listed and I don’t think these interviews are enough to say that I don’t possess the qualities that they didn’t mention but I did.