Pedroza Pedroza & Araque Barboza / Económicas CUC, vol. 45 no. 1, pp. e24610. January–June, 2024

Entrepreneurship is in the service of economic growth, human development, and social happiness.

Emprendimiento al servicio del crecimiento económico, el desarrollo humano y la felicidad social

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17981/econcuc.Org.4610

Reflection Article

Received date: 24/02/2023

Return date: 21/06/2023

Acceptance date: 20/07/2023

Publication date: 28/07/2023

Arturo Pedroza Pedroza

Universidad Metropolitana

Barranquilla, Atlántico (Colombia)

arturopedroza35@hotmail.com

Francis Yrama Araque Barboza

Universidad Metropolitana

Barranquilla, Atlántico (Colombia)

faraque@unimetro.edu.co Correo Electrónico - Tec Innova

To cite this article:

Pedroza Pedroza, A., & Araque Barboza, F.Y. (2023). Entrepreneurship is in the service of economic growth, human development, and social happiness. Económicas CUC, 45(1), e24610. https://doi.org/10.17981/econcuc.Org.4610

JEL: L26.

Abstract

Entrepreneurship as a social action is a tool for innovation and change that allows the contribution of each one of the individuals, thus making the most of industrial, technological, scientific, and human advances. This reflection article aimed to propose a theoretical-conceptual approach to measure the importance of entrepreneurship within society, with a global reference framework about its generalities, characteristics, types of ventures, and political-legal context at the global and Colombian levels. The approach is hermeneutic-interpretative, with a documentary-bibliographical method reaching the point of theoretical saturation. Finally, it is concluded from a reflective position that entrepreneurship contributes to economic growth and human development, is a restorative element of the social fabric, and is a dynamic of collective prosperity and social happiness.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; socioeconomic growth; human development; social happiness.

Resumen

El emprendimiento como acción social es una herramienta de innovación y cambio que permite el aporte de cada uno de los individuos, logrando de esta manera sacar el máximo provecho en avances industriales, tecnológicos, científicos y humanos. Este artículo de reflexión tuvo como objetivo plantear un abordaje teórico-conceptual sobre esta temática para dimensionar la trascendencia del emprendimiento dentro de la sociedad, con un marco de referencia global a cerca de sus generalidades, características, tipos de emprendimientos, contexto político-legal a nivel global y de Colombia. El enfoque es hermenéutico-interpretativo con un método documental-bibliográfico llegando al punto de saturación teórica. Finalmente se concluye desde una postura reflexiva que el emprendimiento como acción contribuye al crecimiento económico y el desarrollo humano elementos restauradores del tejido social y dinamizador de la prosperidad colectiva y la felicidad social.

Palabras clave: Emprendimiento; crecimiento socioeconómico; desarrollo humano; felicidad social.

Introduction

When speaking of entrepreneurship from a universal context, it is essential to link it to the processes of economic adjustment and reactivation in the regions, which leads to exploring alternatives that, from citizen initiative, promote the achievement of productivity and social welfare (Roa, 2005). To adapt to structural imbalances (Guzmán Vásquez & Trujillo Dávila, 2008; Moyano Londoño, 2022), the agents of the economy in developing countries require normative conditions that provide security to the processes linked to economic growth.

From this perspective, entrepreneurship, as a vital activity of communities, requires from the State and the productive ecosystem a political, social, and legal framework that guarantees stability, structure, and compensation for the risks inherent to entrepreneurship “that the environment favors the opening of new businesses, these being access to financing, the regulatory framework in which companies operate and the support and training services that entrepreneurs can access” (García-Macías, Zerón-Félix & Sánchez-Tovar, 2019, p. 101).

Thus, learning to be an entrepreneur becomes a fundamental pillar for formulating policies that promote a change in culture in countries such as Colombia, which strategically influences the structural changes necessary to promote this type of competencies in training human resources (Austin, Stevenson & Wei-Skillern, 2006; Vedula, et al. 2022).

“The interest in entrepreneurial education is presented as an international educational trend that has strongly permeated the educational institution” (Azqueta & Naval, 2019, p. 517), contributing to human development, personal fulfillment, and happiness as a particular impact, general welfare that necessarily influences the citizen, which is built with others and for others, an axiological principle of solidarity. Still, at the same time of dependence on the achievement of better own and collective results (Hernández, Chumaceiro & Ravina, 2019), the above leads us to the reflection raised in this article, linking entrepreneurship to the restoration of the social fabric and dynamize of prosperity and happiness within the rule of law.

Methodology

The approach is hermeneutic-interpretative, using a documentary-bibliographic method that reaches the point of theoretical saturation. It is necessary to distinguish that the density of information is not equivalent to the amount of information (Nascimento et al., 2018); rather, the selected information represents the characteristics of the undertaking (Flick, 2022). These characteristics are codified in the researcher’s interpretation from a data reduction process. (Glaser & Strauss, 2017)

In this regard, it was essential to conduct a process of information gathering that addressed the various expressions of the study phenomenon. This made it possible to recognize the information, which was later derived in the analytical praxis within the construction of this article.

Discussion of the Results

International context of entrepreneurship:
Linkage with the Sustainable Millennium goals

When analyzing the millennium goals in a binding vision between the growth of a country’s economy and development, it is necessary to consider the vital link between them and the promotion of entrepreneurship, understanding from this identification the importance for countries and their development planning, to promote support to citizens who build their entrepreneurial vocation.

The first sustainable goal, “end poverty in all its forms everywhere” (ECLAC [Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean], 2019, p. 15), defines that poverty is not only a matter of income availability and the ability to meet expenses, but it also involves in its influence the deterioration of the individual, the family and the social fabric from the impossibility of satisfying basic needs (food, education, housing, etc.) likewise, it includes conditions that deteriorate the quality of life, and by action or omission of governments (Hautecoeur, Zunzunegui & Vissandjee, 2007; Lazo-Gonzales et al., 2023), they encourage behaviors such as discrimination, exclusion and the encirclement of the participation of communities in decision making to organize themselves.

By 2030, ensure that all men and women, particularly the poor and vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources and access to essential services, ownership and control over land and other assets, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technologies, and financial services, including microfinance. (ECLAC, 2019, p.16)

In line with the above, ECLAC’s second objective emphasizes achieving higher levels of productivity for small-scale farmers, particularly women, Indigenous people, and families, though, among other things, secure and equitable access to land, resources, and inputs, especially knowledge, financing, access to markets and the opportunity to add value to their products and explore new possibilities for self-employment or productive diversification.

The fourth-millennium goal that seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, through the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all (ECLAC, 2019) commits education systems to the achievement of quality education as a basis for improving people’s lives and sustainable development in this sense it is recognized that the countries of the region, have made progress about the increase in access to education in all cycles and levels coupled with the increase in schooling rates in educational institutions.

The eighth goal is to “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” (ECLAC, 2019, p. 39). It highlights an environment in which formal job opportunities are scarce, deteriorating investment, and a steady decline in consumption, which results in a deterioration of the conditions of the primary social contract underlying democratic societies.

As a result, communities’ right to share in the benefits of productive force development is restricted. “Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, the creation of decent jobs, entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services” (ECLAC, 2019, p. 40).

In summary, the commitment of these sustainable objectives and the converging goals with entrepreneurship in the institutional framework of the 2030 agenda converge in the need to create new quality jobs, proposing a great challenge for developing economies to prevail amid economic and social imbalances ... To achieve sustainable economic development, societies must create the necessary conditions for people to enter the productive dynamic, not only as workers but also to transcend towards self-management of their life project, focused on producing, associating, organizing, self-managing and innovating, willing to persevere in their economic initiatives and assuming risks.

Entrepreneurship policy and regulatory ecosystem

The need for change permeates the entrepreneur’s function to revolutionize the various forms of production; in this sense, Schumpeter (1983), Azmanova and Chamberlain (2022), and Delanty (2022) state that there are permanent possibilities of obtaining profits by generating new things or producing old things more cheaply, attracting new investments, generating a decisive advantage. In this same perspective, Burnham and McClelland (2003) point out that:

Motivation is related to drive because it provides effectiveness to the collective effort aimed at achieving the company’s objectives and pushes the individual to the continuous search for better situations in order to fulfill himself professionally and personally, thus integrating himself in the community where his action becomes meaningful. (p. 95)

Duque (2018) states that among the types of entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship is based on the innovative ideas of members of the same community that are suitable for providing solutions to everyday needs, using technology, and using the natural capabilities of the individual to create and improve.

Sustainable entrepreneurship implies a process whose actions lead to the achievement of development through the discovery, valuation, and exploitation of opportunities and the creation of value that stimulates the growth of the economy, the integration of communities, and respect for ecosystems “the activity of entrepreneurs is fundamental for the development of a country’s economy. Entrepreneurs create companies, proposing new products, services, processes, or business models. Although many of these fail to survive”. (PNUD [United Nations Development Program], 2021, p. 1)

The regulatory framework that supports entrepreneurship in Colombia derives from the Constitución Política de Colombia (1991), which enshrines the existence of private property over the means of production as the economic basis of citizenship and expression of democracy and provides for the permanence of this principle in the present and future of the Republic, in line with the capitalist mode of production, where freedom of enterprise and its supervision by the State support the basis of entrepreneurship in any of its qualities.

The role of the State, in this case, is to regulate the operation of productive units whose social objects must be by the protection of the rights of the majorities protected by the public interest that precedes the private interest (Constitución Política de Colombia, 1991). Indeed, Article 58 guarantees private property and other rights acquired by civil laws, which cannot be disregarded or violated by subsequent laws.

The State extends the norm’s scope by establishing that workers can participate in company management: “The law may establish the incentives and means for workers to participate in the management of companies” (Article 57, Constitución Política de Colombia, 1991).

This is strategically complemented by the emergence of private initiatives in science and technology in the search for innovation based on the protection of intellectual property, fundamental for the rigorous organization of the issuance of patents, which guarantee the growth of the productive forces, Article 60 of the Constitución Política de Colombia decrees that “The State shall protect intellectual property for the time and through the formalities established by law” (1991). From the sectoral perspective, it is essential to emphasize that the constitution accompanies by principle the right of access to private property in a progressive manner for purposes of agrarian development: “It is the duty of the State to promote progressive access to land ownership by agrarian workers, individually or associatively.” (Article 64, Constitución Política de Colombia, 1991)

From the perspective of the forms of ownership, the opportunity for the citizen to participate in the management of companies where the State has strategic interests for the development of the country’s economy and social welfare is established, Article 150, numeral 7, of the Constitución Política de Colombia (1991), states “to create or authorize the constitution of industrial and commercial companies of the state and mixed economy companies.”

Regarding culture and the development of national identity, the State supports the development of enterprises in the regions that can generate added value from the country’s cultural diversity (Article 305, paragraph 6 of the Political Constitución Política de Colombia, 1991). “To promote, by the general plans and programs, enterprises, industries, and activities convenient for cultural, social and economic development.”

Regarding the consolidation of entrepreneurship and the safeguarding and security at the micro, small, and medium enterprise levels, Law 590 of July 10, 2000, is aimed at generating an environment that promotes the economic functionality of these productive units, encouraging the structuring and management of the so-called Regional Councils of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, as well as the generation of regional policies for that purpose. Promote the integral development of micro, small, and medium enterprises, considering their aptitudes for generating employment, regional development, integration between economic sectors, and the productive use of small capitals. (Art. 1, Law 590)

In terms of social development, based on the experience of the application of the (Art. 1,
Law 590), which stimulates the stability of enterprises in their various dimensions, and considering their labor-intensive nature, it is understood that although it is necessary to stimulate the emergence and permanence of enterprises, it is more important to focus on entrepreneurship as a cultural construction that connects individuals and communities with their environment in terms of productivity, innovation, and emancipation.

From this approach and following the precepts of educational legislation, provision is made for the space established at the regulatory level in the General Law of Education of 1994 concerning Article 32, which regulates Vocational Secondary Education. This space is where education for work and productivity is established, articulating the development of entrepreneurship as a subject, which will later be extended to all levels.

In 2006, with the approval of Law 1014 for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship, the educational system, the company, the state, and entrepreneurship were articulated, with the purpose that, in the future, Colombia will be a nation of entrepreneurs (Article 1.
Law 1014) “Education must incorporate, in its theoretical and practical training, the most advanced of science and technology, so that the student can create his own company.” (Article 1. Law 1014)

To structure the so-called transversal subject of entrepreneurship in schools, the State created two specific guides for the educational system to incorporate entrepreneurship content in the curricula of educational institutions: Guide 21 and 39 of the Ministry of National Education of Colombia (2023a and 2023b).

This is guide 21, which articulates education to the productive world, focusing attention on general labor competencies; this of an organizational nature at the pedagogical level was established about general labor competencies subdivided into Personal, intellectual, interpersonal, organizational, and technological competencies. In this document, for the first time, the so-called “Business competencies for entrepreneurship” were integrated into the Colombian educational system. These competencies define the skills students need to “create, lead and sustain business units on their own.” (Ministry of National Education of Colombian, Guide 21, 2023a, p.10), developing the following axes:

To this end, Guide 21 calls for revising IEP [Institutional Educational Projects], studying the incorporation of labor and productive competencies into their management, guaranteeing the sustainability of teachers’ efforts, and measuring the impact of articulating labor competencies. (Ministry of National Education of Colombian, Guide 21. 2023a)

Considering the IEP in its relationship with the needs of the environment and the strengths of each institution, the planning of actions to be implemented in the short, medium, and long term from the pedagogical praxis, determining those responsible and monitoring progress.

This process led to the study of alternatives, which should converge with the institutional reality of the educational institutions, the most appropriate options to incorporate the General Labor Competencies, and the way to articulate the GLC to the work of the areas, constitute entrepreneurship as a transversal project and explicitly include the GLC in the institutional projects and develop entrepreneurship projects where the joint work of all teachers is evidenced in an interdisciplinary manner.

In this same context, Guide No. 39, focused on strengthening the culture of entrepreneurship in essential education establishments nationwide, contains provisions aimed at members of the educational community, especially teachers and managers, so that they can develop the conceptualization of the culture of entrepreneurship and the development of competencies related to learning to undertake, from an integral perspective that involves entrepreneurial attitudes and entrepreneurship, whose references emerge from the analysis of essential experiences that have been implemented by various institutions in the country.

This guide is a document structured based on three components guided by three questions that pragmatically and didactically orient entrepreneurship as a transversal axis of schools; these questions are the following (Ministry of National Education of Colombian, Guide 39, 2023b, p. 4):

  1. What is the culture of entrepreneurship in educational establishments?
  2. How can to foster a culture of entrepreneurship in educational institutions?
  3. What can educational institutions do to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship?

The first question corresponds to the definition of entrepreneurship in the context of educational institutions. It is followed by an understanding of the entrepreneurship culture that unveils the nature of entrepreneurial attitudes and the institutional scenarios where entrepreneurship is promoted. Finally, entrepreneurship and the attitudes required to develop a business plan or business model are discussed.

The second question involves aspects that converge with the components of the Institutional Educational Project, such as directive management in the culture of entrepreneurship, administrative and financial management, and academic management and orientations about management among the members of the educational community, from which responsibilities are established with the assignment of roles.

The third question of the Guide includes aspects such as the elaboration of the area plan and the class or classroom plan of natural sciences, integrated into the elaboration of projects that are significant in the student’s life as a future entrepreneur. This entails supporting the creation of spaces for socialization and displaying their experimental production units as a recurrent and institutional activity.

From the perspective of the propaedeutic cycle, Guide 39 is one of the best-written documents designed to integrate entrepreneurship into education. It prepares students for their technical, technological, and professional training, making innovation a competence for life. (Ministry of National Education of Colombian, Guide 39, 2023b)

Scientific support for entrepreneurship from a Colombian government perspective

By establishing the prerogative of incorporating scientific advances into entrepreneurship training, it is understood that this cross-cutting subject is related to the different levels of complexity of the competencies and training of the future entrepreneur; for this reason, the initiative arises to support from the State the undertakings with innovative character from a solid scientific base, for which the Law of Science and Technology 1286 of 2009 is articulated to the promotion of entrepreneurship, aimed at developing a productive model that is based on science, technology and innovation, promoting economic development and a new national industry.

Through this law, COLCIENCIAS was created, with the objective of: “strategic programs for the development of the country, the complementarity of efforts, the use of international cooperation and the visibility, use, and appropriation of the knowledge produced by our communities of researchers and innovators” (Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, 2023).

Recent entrepreneurship regulations to strengthen the solidarity economy and the restoration of the social fabric.

With Law 2069 stimulating business issued in 2020, opportunities are granted to promote, foster, and manage from a solidarity perspective (cooperative model). In the promotion of this type of entrepreneurship, financing is encouraged for its development and the inclusion of micro, small, and medium entrepreneurs to the productive acerb of the country (Chica, Posso, & Montoya R, 2017), to the streamlining of very complex processes of official sector purchases and training in solidarity economy of future entrepreneurs.

This new law enhances the following benefits for the solidarity entrepreneur: the generation of resources for entrepreneurship, the simplification of procedures for legal organization, the reduction of fees, the generation of formal employment, and the stimulation of the arrival of a more significant number of entrepreneurs in the business ecosystem with the potential to contribute to the country’s economic recovery (Roberts & Woods, 2005).

The law also extends its influence to productive segments that by their nature are connatural to solidarity action, such as rural activities, where the social fabric in times of peace generates leadership and recovery, where the needs of transforming rural communities are addressed with the possibility of generating micro businesses with vulnerable social groups such as women, farmers and young people who for generations have been marginalized from access to fair conditions of labor, professional and productive development (Montes de Oca Rojas, 2020).

Finally, Law 2234 of 2022, which promotes the policy of social entrepreneurship, incorporates the most advanced in terms of community development and balanced formation of the social fabric. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism is in charge of regulating the procedure to recognize and encourage the so-called social entrepreneurs:

It is a type of enterprise undertaken by natural or legal persons, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, that seeks to solve problems and address and strengthen processes affecting various communities through business and market techniques. (Article 3, Law 2234 of 2022)

For Colombia as a nation, this vital law connects the country with the Sustainable Millennium Goals because from now on, social enterprises are recognized as business models that aim to solve social and environmental problems, focusing on the strategic use of business and market techniques, from the structuring of innovative ideas at the community level that aims to human and social development.

In Colombia, the sector that integrates social entrepreneurs recognizes the efforts of multiple national and international non-governmental organizations that joined forces to enact this law and to understand the importance of social entrepreneurship as a business model that aims to generate added value around social welfare and the reconstruction of the delicate social fabric, affected by decades of armed conflict. According to the 2020 Report: Radiography of Social Entrepreneurship in Colombia

Most social enterprises (69.2%) are less than five years old, which shows that social entrepreneurship is a growing phenomenon. However, a significant percentage, 30.8%, have survived more than five years, which shows that they are sustainable. (RECON Colombia, 2020, p.12)

Other aspects to highlight of the characteristics of this type of entrepreneurship are the geographical distribution and its relationship with the conditions of multidimensional poverty (Serruto Castillo & Carrillo Velázquez, 2019), which can generate a confluence that potentiates solutions and alternatives for communities at greater social risk, according to the report, “There is a relationship between Multidimensional Poverty and Social Entrepreneurship as an innovative tool to address this problem ... The Caribbean has the second highest number of initiatives with 20%, and the first with the highest multidimensional poverty index with 33.5%”. (RECON Colombia, 2020, p.11)

The following conclusions should be drawn from this report:

Entrepreneurship is an action for socio-economic growth,
human development, and social happiness.

Entrepreneurship constitutes an action around developing a new product or service or a new way of producing or managing what already exists (Valdez & Márquez, 2018). In this process, the entrepreneur possesses a fundamental characteristic: taking risks from the perspective of resources, the socially necessary time to generate innovation, and perseverance to achieve the company’s development. “Studies on entrepreneurship do not reach a consensus about the definition of the entrepreneur, but converge in that it is driven by the need to innovate and take risks.” (Bucardo Castro, Saavedra García, & Camarena Adame, 2015, p.107)

It is necessary to understand that, from the perspective of economic and social sciences, the entrepreneur must have an instrumental knowledge of economics and finance, which allows him to foresee, in a balanced way, the possible scenarios of the new productive proposal “The entrepreneur is an agent who manages the company and directs it according to the internal and external factors that are inherent to it, trying to achieve success through it.” (Bucardo et al., 2015, p.107)

Even the most promising business plans, at the threshold of calculated management, may give rise to conditions that are susceptible to failures and can ruin an investment, considering the changing characteristics of the business environment, including inflation, legal instability, foreign trade policy that can affect competition, discouraging production chains, and insecurity in terms of social welfare that can affect the assets, life, and honor of the entrepreneur.

In the case of Latin American countries, it highlights the existence of groups outside the law that propitiate situations of threat against the integrity of entrepreneurs), “the situation of the illegality of certain activities that cause a series of unfair competition, as well as high levels of uncertainty in certain states due to the level of violence and intervention of criminal organizations within the commercial activity.” (Macías, et al., 2019, p. 103)

Most entrepreneurs emerge amid situations of great expectation, which, in terms of complexity, generate a framework where uncertainty and change underlie, in which opportunities must be achieved, or new routines must be built amid economic, social, political, cultural, and environmental contingencies. (Osorio Tinoco, Gálvez Albarracín & Murillo Vargas, 2010).

As a product of economic relations, environment, and culture, in the development of entrepreneurship, there is a high incidence relationship between the social actor (entrepreneur) and the object (social environment), which determines the conditions that stimulate its emergence, whether as a result of necessity, opportunity or vocation.

When entrepreneurship is undertaken out of necessity, as is the case in Colombia, where 33.3% of people enter the world of small businesses for this reason (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Colombia, 2022), immediate management is one of the main characteristics since it is linked to the immediate need to obtain income. The loss of productive routines, employment, and adversities in general can turn this type of entrepreneurship into a solution to the deterioration of secure sources of resources.

For this reason, its nature is traditional in the quality of the product or service; in the organization, the level of specialization of the entrepreneur is minimal since he/she must perform all the tasks, which may reduce the ability to scale the business. One aspect to emphasize is the low expectation to innovate (generally micro-enterprises, sole proprietorships, and even family businesses), so the life of the enterprise is characterized by its volatility.

As a result of this exercise, in 2020, Colombia presented an EAR [Entrepreneurial Activity Rate] of 31.1%, composed of a more significant proportion of nascent entrepreneurs (55%), that is, those who have been involved in the process of starting their venture for up to three months but still do not pay a salary or receive any remuneration, about new entrepreneurs. (Innpulsa Colombia, 2021)

Entrepreneurship motivated by opportunity points to a specific market need. Its characteristics and level of specialty give it a scalable character from the beginning of business management (López, 2016). Therefore, innovation and the presentation of a structured business plan are standard in this type of business.

In these types of ventures, the level of specialization is remarkable; in general, a work team with diverse functions and competencies is required, which confers a productive horizon to the business, rigorous routines and previous market, administrative, and operational studies define the level of organization and operation of these projects. A characteristic of the object of opportunity-based ventures is their specific weight regarding technology, level of innovation, and added value.

Opportunity entrepreneurship is a determining factor in a country’s economic growth, further distinguishing the type of companies that opportunity entrepreneurs create. In principle, these should be technology-intensive and high-value-added companies. (Maya-Carrillo et al., 2016, p. 318)

To Osorio Tinoco et al. (2010), “The entrepreneur introduces new forms of organization, new products, new ways of doing things, and conquers new markets.” (p. 78)

Although entrepreneurship by necessity or opportunity is opposed formally, they converge in a common denominator: they constitute a business that will safeguard the entrepreneur’s needs, one in the short term (by necessity) and the other in the medium and long term (by opportunity).

Something important in ventures by opportunity is the bases that at a social, economic, and political level required for their management and permanence, which is why they are linked to the educational context, especially in higher education, where countries seek to link them to the R&D scheme, generating a unique quality as products of research (Howaldt, Domanski & Kaletka, 2016), which in Colombia the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation [MinCiencias], categorize them as technical and technological production, with a whole complex structuring of categories.

These products generate ideas, methods, and tools that impact economic development and generate societal transformations. The research that generates knowledge focused on solving social, technical, and economic problems is implicit in developing these methods and tools. (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, 2021, p. 69)

The nature of opportunity entrepreneurship is considered disruptive in the context of a country’s productive heritage, given the innovative character that it imprints on the investment proposal, mainly because it is responsible for breaking business or productive traditions (García-Macías et al., 2019), its scientific and technological base is linked to institutional policies to stimulate the growth of key productive sectors, in which the answer is intensive investment in science and technology.

However, despite the efforts to influence the level and technological complexity of the undertakings by the institutions responsible in the State for promoting them, in Colombia and Latin America, entrepreneurs are not very willing to join this type of productive platforms, aiming more at the consolidation of businesses in traditional subsectors in the national productive context (Guachimbosa, Lavín & Santiago, 2019). Some point to the market structure as responsible for this low propensity to innovate risk of entrepreneurs, and others to the little support from the financial sector for this type of project; however, it is the limited construction of an entrepreneurial culture that does not respond to the development of entrepreneurial skills of the citizen. (Muñoz Luengas & Medina Franco, 2019)

For this reason, at the end of the twentieth century, the boom experienced by ICT [Information and Communication Technologies] made the country adjust from being normative to changing that culture.

Since the early years of the 21st century, the country has strengthened its entrepreneurial culture, generating solid links between the education and productive sectors through the Law for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship, or Law 1014 of January 26, 2006. This law establishes that education is the context responsible for generating a new culture toward the entrepreneurial vocation (Law 1014 of 2006).

Considering the significant implications of the entrepreneurial vocation in the economic and social vindication of citizens due to its impact on the reduction of social imbalances and inequalities in a country like Colombia, characterized by job insecurity and unemployment (Hopkins, 2019; Alvarado et al., 2022), “the Colombian State has been deploying multiple and varied efforts to consolidate entrepreneurship not only as an intention but also as a culture, highlighting the role of education, particularly higher education, in this process” (Alvarado Muñoz, & Rivera Martínez 2011, p. 64).

Concluding

In terms of social structure, entrepreneurship is fundamental to achieving the growth and development of people since it promotes innovation and creativity and propitiates the use of opportunities for citizens who project to integrate into the business fabric of their locality or region (Campo-Ternera et al., 2018), building a productive denomination and existence, generating autonomy and making significant in the life project, challenges and overcoming of a complete work of independence. Promoting entrepreneurship needs to develop a legal ecosystem that guarantees the entrepreneur the possibility of acting within a legal framework that allows the deployment of their competencies in economic freedom and entrepreneurial action.

The above is reinforced by the sustainable development objective Sustainable Cities and Communities, which aims to access the entire population to adequate, affordable, and safe housing, essential services, and means of transportation, especially for people in vulnerable situations (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Colombia, 2022), the possibility of having an inclusive and safe settlement space in other words, cities that learn from the experiences of others. (Borrayo, Valdez, & Delgado, 2019)

Many studies on urban happiness conducted by the group Government, Territory, and Culture of the Higher School of Public Administration of Colombia in 2018 expressed that entrepreneurship is an important life project option for young people in the cities of more significant agglomeration in Colombia. In this sense, as cities possess good public administrations reflected in their excellent equipment, qualified migrations are reduced, and the greater the intersubjective happiness, the more outstanding the achievement of local democracy. On the contrary, the less developed the city infrastructure and the poorer the local administrations, the higher the migration of qualified young people, the greater the discomfort, and the lower the intersubjective happiness. (Muñóz Cardona, & Martínez Soto, 2020)

A just society is one in which there is public concern for its citizens, fostering in them their capabilities, i.e., the possibility of living in an environment that helps them discover how to be productive and happy, allowing the development of the “supreme being” as pointed out by Aristotle in its different dimensions in order to achieve happiness as the supreme good.

This is a call for reflection to think of an education based on the individual’s capabilities, i.e., one that helps him/her discover himself/herself and be happy, concludes Nussbaum and Sen (1993). In terms of Nussbaum (2010), a broader and more inclusive social education, which trains for work but also trains to live well in society, together with others, and helps them to be happy, is a tolerant education with respect for the other and the other.

Finally, linking entrepreneurship to the education sector, in addition to influencing the construction of a culture, is a strategy aimed not only at impacting the country’s economy and productivity but also at contributing to the human development of communities and achieving social happiness.

Statement of Authors

Pedroza Pedroza: Preparation of original draft, conceptualization, research, writing. Araque Barboza: project management, research, methodology, writing, revising, and editing.

Financing

This article results from research conducted by a university in Barranquilla, Colombia. The research aimed to study different aspects of an essentially structural socio-economic problem afflicting housing development in the municipality of Galapa; the project was financed by the university’s resources and support from the institution of higher education, Universidad Metropolitana.

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

The present research does not represent any conflict of interest with them, the journal, the publishing entity, and the funding entities.

Acknowledgments and Thanks

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to Colombian entrepreneurs for their tireless work and dedication to building a better future for the country. Their courage and determination contribute to Colombia’s social and economic development, and their example inspires many to follow in their footsteps toward fulfilling their dreams and goals.

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Biodata

Arturo Pedroza Pedroza holds a master’s degree in education. Economist. Teacher-researcher. Metropolitan University. Author of scientific articles and book chapters. Junior Researcher at MinCiencia. Member of the Edusar Research Group. Category A. Area of expertise in entrepreneurship, resilience, social systems, migration, human rights, equity, inclusion, and diversity. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5429-3476

Francis Yrama Araque Barboza holds a PhD in Human Sciences. Master’s in public management. Sociologist. Researcher-Teacher. Metropolitan University. Author of scientific articles and book chapters. Associate Researcher of MinCiencia. Member of the Edusar Research Group. Category A. Area of expertise Gender, family, domestic violence, identities, social systems, human rights, elderly, entrepreneurship, equity, inclusion, and diversity. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7420-520X