Developing Entrepreneurial Spirit in North-Eastern Region - A Cross-Cultural Perspective Special References in Assam

Abstract

India as an emerging entrepreneurial society has been designing and implementing several approaches, methods and intervention to inject and strengthen the spirit of entrepreneurial motivation. It can be understood from the level and strength of entrepreneurial traits and competencies acquired, created, enhanced, sustained and their degree of influence on the dynamic process of managing enterprise performance. North-East (NE) India occupies a strategic place in the process of economic development from the balance regional development. This region is a melting pot of cultural and ethnic diversity having both intrinsic driving and restraining forces for expediting and inhabiting development process by its village and cottage industries. On the other hand, due to continuous ethnic conflicts, quite sensitive bordering area has been hindering economic progress in the region. The economic growth on post liberalization will depend upon largely on the supply of competent entrepreneurs who can gather the resource and manage them to establish viable employment venture. The state of Assam geographically from the core of North-Eastern region and is endowed with vast deposit of natural resources but it has been considered as an industrially "A" category backward state of India. It is apparent from the fact that there are less than 3% country's large-medium scale enterprise and less than 1% small enterprises in the Assam. As mentioned earlier, entrepreneurs in the region belong to various ethnic groups and cultures. By using various cultural variables viz, locus of control, risk taking, time orientation, orientation to collectivism and power distance, it is understood that their entrepreneurial competency level and spirit is mostly low and moderate. The entrepreneurial values and attitudes provide direction and common tendency to act against many odds in this direction. As combined effect, these help in developing entrepreneurial spirit. Once the entrepreneurial spirit is imbibed, an individual start feeling the need and inner urge to do something new, something unique by certain standard of excellence.