Emerging Trends in Entrepreneurship in 2025

Social responsibility

In his business, the entrepreneur is not a single player. He needs to interact with other parties for there to be any meaningful business. These are the stake holders in his business and the manner in which he treats them has a lot of impact on the success or failure of the business. The entrepreneur has a responsibility to his customers, suppliers, investors, creditors, the government and the community at large. He should ensure that the business as an entity meets its end of the bargain when it comes to fulfilling the promises and objectives it set out to achieve. This is what is commonly referred to as social responsibility. It is an aspect of business management that should not be ignored by the entrepreneur. 

Many firms have seen the importance of taking this aspect of business management seriously in recent years. It is a new and difficult area of consulting, one which addresses fundamental business concepts and purposes and the increasingly complex relationships of business firms with their environment. It is an area that is value-laden and controversial, where businesses have to face diverse and even conflicting interests, requirements, recommendations and pressures. It is an area the importance of which has grown considerably over the last two decades and will continue to grow in future years. Firms that accept that the landscape for the social role of business is changing confront a difficult series of operational challenges. They must make up for the deficiency in existing knowledge, competency, and systems around social responsibility management and begin to develop their capabilities. They are keen to get reliable and balanced guidelines on how to act. They increasingly appreciate help from consultants in facing both policy and operational issues related to their social roles, functions and relationships, especially if consultants demonstrate their ability to help in preventing conflicts and crises. 

Part of the consultants' role is to convince clients that social responsibility is becoming more and more an important part of business fundamentals. Consultants are called to help their clients define the  most appropriate manner in which their business should relate to stakeholders, and take into account issues that are typically the province of the public and civil sectors. Both facets require consultants to first persuade, and then guide their clients into unmapped territory and untraditional roles. Consultants have no less of an agenda than to redefine the concept of "business as usual”. Who then should the entrepreneur be responsible to? 

1. Responsibility to Customers

The entrepreneur’s attention should be focused on his customers at all times. These are the stakeholders whose influence on the business is most crucial. The entrepreneur can ensure that his customers’ interests are well taken care of by;

Treating customers with respect

This is important from the moment the customer walks into his shop or makes a call to the moment the transaction is completed.

Act honestly

The entrepreneur should not always put the interests of the business way ahead of everything else even to the point of being dishonest. The customer deserves to know the truth at all times regarding the product or service been provided. He should help the customer make the right purchasing choice. He can do this by providing all pertinent information regarding the use of the product, the entrepreneur should ensure that this information is available to the customer, either as a label or a separate brochure. This is a legal requirement, in case there are dangers in using the product in a particular way.

Be objective about the product’s success

The entrepreneur should not exaggerate about the good points of the product or service. Customers notice this and may not come back if what the entrepreneurs tells them about the product does not meet their expectations.

Be fair in handling disputes

Customer complaints will always be there in any kind of business. What the entrepreneur needs to do to achieve amicable relationship with his clients is to be as cool headed as possible when it comes to dispute handling. He should listen to all sides of the issue before deciding on his course of action. If he handles the situation badly, he risks losing a customer.

2. Responsibility to Suppliers

The entrepreneur needs his suppliers so he can get a continuous supply of commodities for his customers. He therefore needs to establish good relations with the supplier at all times.

Treat suppliers with respect

The entrepreneurs should established good relations with the supplier and train all his employees to do the same. Each supplier is a stake holder in the firm no matter what value their supplies are in any given trade period. If they are treated with respect, they in turn will treat the entrepreneur and his business with respect. This applies whether it is a simple phone call or an actual visit to or from their premises.

Refuse to participate in dishonest schemes

It is the entrepreneur’s duty to act honestly in all dealings with the suppliers. This means that he should not initiate deals that involve the concealment of information either to the authorities or to any other third party. At the same time, the entrepreneur should not engage in unfair business practices as proposed by a supplier. This will enable him create a good reputation and his business associate will feel comfortable dealing with his business.

Give them time to fill their order

The entrepreneur should give the supplier time between making an order and having the same delivered. He should not make last minute orders and expect the supplier to deliver in record time. This is good business practice and shows respect for the suppliers’ system of delivery. Orders should be made in good time and if there are possibilities of the need for emergency supplies, this should be pre-arranged between the entrepreneur and the supplier.

Handle disputes fairly

In cases of disputes, the entrepreneur should calmly listen to the supplier’s side of the story. A consensus meeting should be arranged where the two parties, plus a mediator, if the need arises can sit and iron out the differences amicably. The possibility of losing business on either party should be the overriding concern and an arrangement not to stifle trade should be worked out between the concerned parties.

Let the current supplier know the reason for change to another

It may turn out that a supplier for one reason or another is unable to meet the demands of the entrepreneur. Should this happen, the entrepreneur’s main concern should be that his business operations are not adversely hampered by this. He may be forced to look for another supplier who can meet his demand. Once a decision is reached, it is good business practice to inform the current supplier of this in writing. This letter will be preceded, of course with prior communication on the dissatisfaction of the entrepreneur with respect to services delivered by the supplier, in which case the supplier will be given ample time to improve his quality of service.

Do not return back goods damaged in your care

The entrepreneur should ensure that all goods being returned to suppliers for credit due to damage or not meeting his order are bona fide returns. This means that they are valid returns and not part of his old stock.

3. Responsibility to Creditors

Honor Credit Policy

The riskiest business for lenders of funds is the inability of the borrower to meet his end of the obligation. Lenders will expect the entrepreneur to adhere to the credit period as outlined in the credit policy. This document will normally be sent to the entrepreneur and he will be required to sign it before accepting the funds or the credit facility. The entrepreneur should strive to stick to the terms as much as possible and if there is a possibility of departing from the arrangement, proper communication should be done and in good time.

Acknowledge all correspondence

It is good business practice to acknowledge communications with creditors, whether in writing or email. These will normally be reminders to meet obligations or notices of lapse in credit period that was extended. The entrepreneur may not be in a position to act on the communication at a given moment. Proper communication as to his inability to do the same is a sign of courtesy.

4. Responsibility to Investors

Return on Investment

The entrepreneur is a steward/ agent of the investors. He has been entrusted with funds and given the task of using them to yield the expected returns by investing properly. He therefore needs to constantly update the investors on how the business is doing. This will assist them make a decision as to whether to invest more or give the business more time to grow.

Financial Statements

The entrepreneur has the duty of informing the shareholders about the financial position of the business. This he can achieve by preparing financial statements (Statement of comprehensive income and statement of financial position). The entrepreneur should free himself from any bias in the preparation of the financial statements. The shareholders and any potential investor would need the financial statements so as to make informed investing decisions.

Environmental Issues in Business

Major business corporations have been on the war path with environmental lobby groups, mostly non-governmental bodies, over the issue of environment conservation. This has sparked debates as to whether most entrepreneurs and executives give due importance to issues concerning the physical environment in which their businesses operate or whether their main motive is wealth maximization at the expense of a sound environment. Most executives in large firms are concerned in cutting down on their internal costs of production. This in turn has resulted in external costs increasing as a result of waste management strategies that attempt to pass on the cost hurdle to other parties. In the end, it is the environment that bears the brunt of profit maximization objectives of the business. This may not apply to all corporations but more often than not, all players in the business world have something to do with this.

One main cause of the disparity between the two warring groups mentioned above is the timescales that forms the basis of their respective objectives. While most businesses want to record high profits within a relatively short period of time, the environmentalists have long term plans for the environment. The environment conservation measures have long term implications and this does not go very well with the profit maximization objectives of a growing firm.

To resolve the conflicts, there has to be some consensus between the environment support groups and the business community. The entrepreneur is a stake holder in these deliberations and should take an active role in resolving the conflicts. 

The NGOs with help from the government can facilitate dialog in the following ways;

• Encourage upcoming businesses to take social responsibility seriously and even have this as part and parcel of their short term and long term business objectives.
• Encouraging top management in the corporations to have environment conservation as one of the important matters under their social responsibility objective. This ensures that policy formulation regarding this matter will be given the importance it deserves.
•  Involving all individuals in the business community in the environment conservation exercises that are organized from time to time. This also includes the top management and directors of major companies. Once they lead by examples, their employees and budding entrepreneurs will borrow a leaf from their involvement.
• Clarify roles and responsibilities regarding environmental protection by developing an organized structure to deal with environmental protection matters, defining environment related procedures, etc.
• Strive to alleviate burden on the environment in all aspects of business activities - from product research and development and design to procurement of raw materials, manufacture, transport, usage, servicing and disposal - through pollution prevention, conservation of resources, energy saving, waste reduction, reuse and recycling.
• Strive to develop and provide advanced, highly reliable, wholly proprietary technologies and products that will contribute to solving environmental and energy problems.
• Strive continuously to improve and enhance environmental protection activities not only by fully complying with environmental laws and regulations but also, when necessary, by establishing, implementing and evaluating independent standards and setting environmental goals and targets.
• In the performance of business activities overseas and exportation of products, pay full heed to impact on the local natural and social environments and strive to protect those environments; also, become actively involved in technological cooperation overseas in matters of environmental protection.
• As part of the annual report to shareholders, registered companies should be required to give a report on its social responsibility activities and include a report on measures taken to prevent environment pollution in addition to the proactive measures taken to conserve the same. This forum can be organized by the NGOs or by the government through the relevant ministry that is in charge of environment conservation.

In any business, the motto often goes something like "We strongly believe that the customer comes first and that we are obligated to be an innovative partner to society."- A business should thus believe and have as its primary purpose to contribute to society through its research and development, manufacturing and other business activities. Accordingly, in the performance of its business activities the company should embrace the awareness that it is an integral member of society and, in all aspects of its business activities, it will strive to reduce burden on the environment and shall devote its comprehensive technological capabilities to the development of technologies and products that will protect the environment, as its way of contributing to the development of a sustainable society.

Emerging Trends

The entrepreneur should keep himself up to date with the current trends affecting businesses in general and assess the extent to which his business is likely to be affected.

1. E-Commerce

E-Commerce also known as Electronic Commerce consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread internet usage. The use of the internet in conducting trade in this manner is spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.  

The entrepreneur, in considering whether this is the path he wants to take, should arm himself with all the pertinent facts about E-Commerce. He should carry out extensive research into the trends in external markets and assess how this pattern is taking effect in the local economy.  E- Commerce has grown tremendously in the last few years, with retailers offering online shopping tripling in 1998 alone. The internet has offered merchants a method of reaching new markets and new customers, and customers have found E-Commerce an effective way of researching and purchasing goods without the hassles of crowds, parking and checkout lines. One fact that cannot be argued against is that things are constantly changing and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. Change has become the one constant rule in e–commerce and probably will be for some time to come. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items, i.e. products that do not have a physical aspect attached to them, such as shares in the stock market. However, most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web.

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.

This model could be useful to an entrepreneur who wants to open an on line bookshop. Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. it also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.

E-Commerce Features

E-commerce software ranges from affordable, off the shelf packages designed for small business owners, to fully customizable software for larger firms. E-commerce software typically offers user design tools, integrated with other utilities such as inventory control, accounting, sales and purchasing, web-based reporting and robust security features to ensure secure financial transactions and customer privacy.

Off the shelf software seem to work for the small business owner or entrepreneur. This software provides an affordable way to open an online sales channel. Web-based user design tools, shopping cart templates and built-in support for secure transactions make it possible to get a business up and running in a matter of days.

Why should an entrepreneur be concerned about E-Commerce? 

The following section examines the benefits he is likely to receive;

• More exposure, more profit. Marketing a product or a service via the internet provides direct company exposure 24 hours a day, 365 days a year all over the world. This gives the company a better chance to earn more profit by providing the means to reach more customers.
• Reduces company expenses setting up and maintaining an e-commerce web site is more economical than setting up a retail outlet or maintaining a large office. The company no longer needs to spend so much on promotional materials or installation of expensive equipment to be used for customer service, nor does it need to hire more personnel to do the inventory duties. An online database keeps the purchasing history of the company and the customers. A single person can retrieve the database to check purchasing histories easily. It can also reduce operations cost, as the employees can electronically share and access data, preventing the need for multiple printings.
• Information sharing between business partners and other businesses E-commerce provides an effective way to exchange business information with partners, as it is internet-based. E-commerce also allows companies to buy the goods and services presented by other online companies (suppliers) - known as business-to-business (B2B). 
• An entrepreneur's customers are also likely to benefit from E-Commerce in the following ways;
• Convenient and time-saving shopping the e-market is open 24 hours, every day. There is no need for the customers to travel, wait in long lines or even carry an item back home. A click on the product and your credit card information (for Electronic Fund transfer) are all it takes to purchase an item and have it delivered. Aside from credit cards, customers can also choose from a variety of convenient payment.
• Better choices. Aside from the opportunity to visit a wide variety of on-line shops, e-commerce allows customers to check complete information about a certain product. In addition to that, there are no sales persons pressuring the customer into buying a product.
• Cheaper prices. Going online reduces company expenses. As a result, customers can buy items from many on-line companies at lower prices than offered by traditional stores.
• Customer satisfaction. The internet provides real-time, interactive communication. The company utilizes these features of the internet to quickly respond to customer queries, thus providing better customer service and greater customer satisfaction.

The Entrepreneurs Interests

The entrepreneur thinking about trading through e-commerce should carry out a feasibility study to see whether the project can generate a return on investment. It is important that the entrepreneur is not carried away with the hype of technology. The need for this technology should translate into positive returns after a while.

The entrepreneur is likely to increase sales as he will be running parallel systems for a while before going full scale into e-commerce, should he decide to do this. He will need to get an internet service provider (ISP) to host the e-commerce site. The ISP will facilitate the creation of an internet presence of the business. This may be one of the set up costs the entrepreneur should be prepared to incur. The entrepreneur should also bear in mind the security issues as he goes into e-commerce. E-Commerce exposes the business to the internet where all sorts of data traverse. Some of this data may pose a threat to the business in the sense that confidential information may be picked up by a third party and used maliciously for personal gain.

1. Business Outsourcing

Outsourcing is one of the emerging business opportunities that have arisen in the recent past. It involves an organization taking out of its hands functions and processes that are not core to its mainstream activities or reason for existence and entrusting these tasks and operations to an entity that has the capabilities and expertise to carry them out more efficiently. Outsourcing can also be defined at the process of subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources. 

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a form of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific non – core business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. The main motive for Business process outsourcing is to allow the company to invest more time, money and human resources into core activities and building strategies, which fuel company growth. The entrepreneur, in fact, doesn’t need to justify outsourcing. They might even have to justify work done internally, that could easily be outsourced. The global market today is highly competitive and ever-changing. A business must focus on improving productivity and yet, cut down costs. Therefore, a lot of tasks that use up precious time, resources and energy, are being outsourced. BPOs, or the units to which work is being outsourced, often are flexible, quicker, cheaper and very efficient. Business process outsourcing helps free up a firm’s capital and reduce costs. The functions or processes being outsourced range from manufacturing to customer service to software development and much more BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing - which includes internal business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing - which includes customer-related services such as contact center services. BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring (or nearby) country is called nearshore outsourcing.

2. Globalization 

Globalization refers to the process by which local, regional or national phenomena become integrated on a global scale. The term ‘Globalization’ is often used to refer to economic integration of countries. In this, national economies are unified into the international economy through trade, foreign investments, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. This process is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural, political and biological factors. The term can also refer to the transnational dissemination of ideas, languges, or popular culture.

A United Nations organ, ESCWA has written that globalization "is a widely-used term that can be defined in a number of different ways. When used in an economic context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labour...although considerable barriers remain to the flow of labour...” Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but its spread slowed during the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth century. This slowdown can be attributed to the inward looking policies pursued by a number of countries in order to protect their respective industries. However, the pace of globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of the twentieth century.

The entrepreneur can use this emerging trend to his benefit and for the future profitability of the business. By analyzing what other businesses are doing and how they are managing the effects of economic cycles in various countries, he can put himself in context and see to what extent the world economic reality is impacting on his business operation.

After the Second World War, nations realized the need to unite in the major areas that affect economic growth. These were countries in Europe that had seen the adverse effects of the World War. The consequences of disagreements among nations can lead to very catastrophic financial distress as witnessed after the war. This could have been avoided had there been mechanisms to address differences in economic realities in the affected countries. As a means towards unification, several institutions were established to manage and control the flow of economic goods between countries. These institutions include the international Bank for reconstruction and development (the World Bank), and the International Monetary Fund.

Globalization has also since been facilitated by advances in technology which have reduced the costs of trade, and trade negotiation rounds, originally under the auspices of the General agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT), which led to a series of agreements to remove restrictions on free trade. Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered through international agreements - GATT. Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the World trade organization (WTO), for which GATT is the foundation were aimed at promoting free trade and include:

• Elimination of tariffs; creation of free trade zones with small or no tariffs
• Reduced transportation costs, especially resulting from development of containerization for ocean shipping.
• Reduction or elimination of capital controls. 
• Reduction, elimination or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses. 
• Creation of subsidies for global corporations. 
• Harmonization of intellectual property laws across the majority of states, with more restrictions
• International recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patents granted by China should be recognized in the Unites States).

Cultural globalization, driven by communication technology and the worldwide marketing of Western cultural industries, was understood at first as a process of homogenization, as the global domination of American culture at the expense of traditional diversity. However, a contrasting trend soon became evident in the emergence of movements protesting against globalization and giving new momentum to the defense of local uniqueness, individuality, and identity, but largely without success.

Measuring Globalization 

Economic globalization can be measured in different ways. These ways center on the four main economic flows that characterize globalization:

• Goods and services, e.g. exports plus imports as a proportion of national income or per capita of population.
• Labor/people, e.g. net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by population.
• Capital, e.g. inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or per head of population.
• Technology, e.g. international research & development flows; proportion of populations (and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions (especially 'factor-neutral' technological advances such as the telephone, motorcar, broadband).

As globalization is not only an economic phenomenon, a multivariate approach to measuring globalization is the recent performance index. The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and data on cultural proximity is calculated. Information on these studies can help the entrepreneur better understand his customers and predict their consumer patterns. the entrepreneur can use the indices to project how globalization will impact on sales given that what happens in other countries have an indirect impact on his business.

Effects of Globalization 

Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways such as:

1. Industrial - emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign products for consumers and companies, particularly movement of material and goods between and within national boundaries. This acts to expand the entrepreneur's scale of trade across the boundary.

2. Financial - emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external financing for borrowers. As these worldwide structures grew more quickly than any transnational regulatory regime, the instability of the global financial infrastructure dramatically increased, as evidenced by the financial crises of late 2008. An entrepreneur running a multinational company would have been worst hit by this phenomenon.

3. Economic - realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods and capital. The interconnectedness of these markets, however means that an economic collapse in any one given country could not be contained.

4. Political - some use "globalization" to mean the creation of a world government which regulates the relationships among governments and guarantees the rights arising from social and economic globalization. Politically, the United States has enjoyed a position of power among the world powers; in part because of its strong and wealthy economy.  With the influence of globalization and with the help of The United States’ own economy, the people's republic of China has experienced some tremendous growth within the past decade. if China continues to grow at the rate projected by the trends, then it is very likely that in the next twenty years, there will be a major reallocation of power among the world leaders. China will have enough wealth, industry, and technology to rival the United States for the position of leading world power. A lot of supplies from China will prove cheaper for a local entrepreneur and this trend may be of interest to him/her.

5. Informational - increase in information flows between geographically remote locations. Arguably this is a technological change with the advent of fiber optic communications, satellites and increased availability of telephone and internet.

• Language - the most popular language is English.
• About 35% of the world's mail, telexes, and cables are in English.
• Approximately 40% of the world's radio programs are in English.
• About 50% of all internet traffic uses English.

6. Competition - survival in the new global business market calls for improved productivity and increased competition. Due to the market becoming worldwide, companies invarious industries have to upgrade their products and use technology skillfully in order to face increased competition.

7. Ecological - the advent of global environmental challenges that might be solved with international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Since many factories are built in developing countries with less environmental regulation, globalism and free trade may increase pollution. On the other hand, economic development historically required a "dirty" industrial stage, and it is argued that developing countries should not, via regulation, be prohibited from increasing their standard of living.

8. Cultural - growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousnessand identities which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to increase one's standard of living and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and participate in a "world culture". Some bemoan the resulting consumerism and loss of languages.

• Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies). Some consider such "imported" culture a danger, since it may supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity or even assimilation. Others consider multiculturalism to promote peace and understanding between people.
• Greater international travel and tourism. Which estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any time. 
• Greater immigration, including illegal immigration
• Spread of local consumer products (e.g. food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture).
• Worldwide fads and pop culture such as pokémon, sudoku, numa numa, origami, idol series, Youtube, orkut, Facebook, and myspace accessible to those who have internet or television, leaving out a substantial segment of the Earth's population.
• Worldwide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.
• Incorporation of multinational corporations in to new media. As the sponsors of the all-Blacks rugby team, Adidas had created a parallel website with a downloadable nteractive rugby game for its fans to play and compete.

1. Social - development of the system of non-governmental organizations as main agents of global public policy, including humanitarian aid and developmental efforts.
2. technical
3. Development of a global telecommunications infrastructure and greater trans-border data flow, using such technologies as the internet, communication satellites, submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless telephones.
4. Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g.. Copyright laws, patents and world trade agreements.
5. Legal / Ethical
6. The creation of the international criminal court and international justice movements.
7. Crime importation and raising awareness of global crime-fighting efforts and cooperation.
8. The emergence if global administrative law.

Negative Effects

It is too easy to look at the positive aspects of Globalization and the great benefits that are apparent everywhere, without acknowledging several negative aspects. They are often the result of globalized corporations and the delocalization of economies that were once self-sustaining.

Globalization has indeed played an important role in creating an enabling environment for growing businesses. The increasing pace at which international economies are being integrated over the last couple of years has given rise to a lot of optimism for upcoming entrepreneurs. Countries such as China and India which were very poor not more than 20 years ago have benefited a lot from Globalization. However, pundits are not so quick to give this phenomenon a green bill of health without looking at the adverse effects that globalization has had in certain areas. These are among the focus of their arguments;

Sidelining of Local Industries

Agriculture and industries in developed and even developing countries have been sidelined in the interest of keeping a breast with what is happening elsewhere. Competitive advantage no longer plays a major role in deciding what an economy should focus on. 5

Sweatshops

It can be said that globalization is the door that opens up an otherwise resource poor country to the international market. Where a country or nation has little material or physical product harvested or mined from its own soil, an opportunity is seen by large corporations to take advantage of the “export poverty” of such a nation. Where the majority of the earliest occurrences of economic globalization are recorded as being the expansion of businesses and corporate growth, in many poorer nations globalization is actually the result of the foreign businesses investing in the country to take advantage of the lower wage rate: even though investing, by increasing the capital stock of the country, increases their wage rate. An example of this is the oil exploration activities that have been taking place in Kenya.

Cultural Effects 

The internet breaks down cultural boundaries across the world by enabling easy, near instantaneous communication between people anywhere in a variety of digital forms and media.

The internet is associated with the process of cultural globalization because it allows interaction and communication between people with very different lifestyles and from very different cultures. Photo sharing websites allow interaction even where language would otherwise be a barrier. The internet has however brought with it a wave of new culture that has not gone very well with the more conservative communities. Through the internet, young people have adopted a lifestyle that likens to that of their peers in the western countries, jeopardizing the importance given to traditional / cultural values. This clash has led pundits to discourage the use of the internet beyond what they consider necessary.

Unbalanced Exchange

Globalization has been seen to favor the western countries more than their counterparts in developing countries. The opening up of markets abroad has seen an inflow and outflow of economic, political and cultural values between nations. However, developing countries have found themselves on the receiving ends of most of these values, somehow creating a demand for more. The end analysis is that most developing countries have taken it upon themselves to solve most of their problems by copying what is done outside and in most cases this has had a financial implication.

1. Trade Fairs/Exhibitions

A trade fair is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent trends and opportunities. Some trade fairs are open to the public, while others can only be attended by company representatives (members of the trade) and members of the press, therefore trade shows are classified as either "Public" or "Trade only". They are held on a continuing basis in virtually all markets and normally attract companies from around the industry. The entrepreneur will find that attending these events give him many ideas on how to improve his business. He will meet other entrepreneurs in the same industry who share a lot in common with him. Trade fairs also act as avenues to establish business networks and linkages that is so important to a growing industry.

Trade fairs often involve a considerable marketing investment by participating companies. Costs include space rental, design and construction of trade show displays, telecommunications and networking, travel, accommodations, and promotional literature and items to give to attendees. In addition, costs are incurred at the show for services such as electrical, booth cleaning, internet services, and drayage (also known as material handling). The entrepreneur should thus carry out a cost benefit analysis of attending such events, in as much as they are of value to his business.

Consequently, local authorities often promote trade shows as a means of economic development through the promotion of the Jua Kali sector (Open Air Market. Exhibitors attending the event are required to use an exhibitor manual to order their required services and complete any necessary paperwork such as health and safety declarations. An increasing number of trade fairs in many other countries are happening online, and these events are called virtual tradeshows. They are increasing in popularity due to their relatively low cost and because there is no need to travel whether you are attending or exhibiting.