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ASSESSING RADIOGRAPHER’S CONCEPT ON THE PROSPECTS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURE IN RADIOGRAPHY

Dept: MEDICAL RADIOGRAPHY AND RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCE File: Word(doc) Chapters: 1-5 Views:

Abstract

The research work was carried out to ascertain how knowledgeable Radiographers are on the prospects of entrepreneurial venture in the field of Medical Imaging, the challenges facing some of them from setting up their own Radiodiagnostic centre. It was carried out amongst practising Radiographers within Enugu Metropolis. Data was collected using questionnaire that were distributed to the Radiographers. Tables, frequencies and Percentages and a Bar chart was used in the analysis. It was revealed that a greater percentage of Radiographers are Knowledgeable about the Prospects of entrepreneurial ventures but some are faced with the major challenge of competition and fear of the (unknown).which has been a militating factor to the setting up of many private Radiodiagnostic centre across the Federation

INTRODUCTION

People use the terms “entrepreneur” and “entrepreneurship” interchangeably. The entrepreneur is the person who starts his own business. The exact definition of “entrepreneurship” still remains a vague concept,  that is why there are different postulates from different scholars.

 WHO IS AN ENTREPRENEUR?

The definition of entrepreneur, derived from the French word entreprendre (to undertake) refers to the undertaking of an enterprise of purpose, particularly one that requires the ability to engage in risks and daring activities

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. This mindset of leadership provides framework and motivation for daily activities.

The entrepreneur as a person brings in overall change through innovation for the maximum social good

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. Human values remain sacred and inspire him to serve the society. He has firm belief in social betterment and he carries out this responsibility with conviction. In this process, he accelerates personal, economic as well as human development. The entrepreneur is a visionary and an integrated man with outstanding leadership qualities

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. With a desire to excel, he gives top priority to Research and Development. He always works for the well-being of the society. More importantly, entrepreneurial activities encompass many professions and foster a spirit of enterprise for the welfare of mankind; an example of such kind is entrepreneurial venture in the field of Medical Radiography.

In the healthcare sector, Medical Imaging  is growing very fast and there is opportunity for Radiographers in the profession to establish an entrepreneurial venture . The complex nature of health care demands that Physicians and other health professional develop an understanding of the business of medicine.

However, it is a pity that there is no adequate exposure to  some adaptive mechanism necessary to help prospective Radiographer Entrepreneurs to adapt and survive to some of the harsh challenges in entrepreneurship , which has in no small way led to a poor concept of some Radiographers towards the prospects and benefits of entrepreneurship.

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Medical Imaging is a big business involving millions of hard-earned money and managing it is quite challenging. Establishing an outpatient Medical Imaging Centre with Computed Tomography(CT) and Conventional Radiological Units involves million of cash which may be borrowed. Despite huge investments in cash and efforts, business success in medical imaging is not automatic, as private Medical Imaging practice is fraught with a lot of problems such as poor infrastructure, unstable economic climate, lack of government incentives and poor managerial skills

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, which has led to bad attitude of some radiographers’ towards entrepreneurial venture.

 

 

However, there has been some militating factors (lack of finance, government unfavourable policies, societal and cultural problems to mention but a few) which has in no small way posed as a challenge to the Medical Imaging scientist and has invariably affected some of these Professionals in having the wrong mindset and concept towards what entrepreneurial ventures entails, its prospects and benefits in the field of Medical Imaging.

 

In conclusion, if  Radiographers’ can look pass beyond these limiting factors highlighted above and be able to envisage and have a good foresight on the prospects and benefits of entrepreneurial ventures one can tap in the field of Medical Imaging ,then  the Profession would be escalated to a higher degree of level in terms of job creation ,revenue generations ,innovations and lots of other prospects one can think of, which would invariably create breed of radiographers that would have the right concept towards entrepreneurial venture in the field of Medical Imaging.

 

1.2.STATEMENT OF PROPLEMS

1)     There seem  to  be  dearth of knowledge on the  concept of entrepreneurship  probably because  of  limited  information available to the Radiographer .

 

 

 

2)   Starting a radiologic or radiographic imaging centre is capital intensive which seem to limitRadiographers proactiveness  .

 

3)       There is paucity of knowledge on the part of Radiographers on  business  management skills .

 

4)      Establishing a  Radiodiagnostic  clinic has been   confronted by   many factors(fear of unknown, competition e.t.c),could these be the case of Radiographers’  under consideration

 

 

1.3. PURPOSE OF STUDY

• To assess how knowledgeable Radiographers are on the concept of entrepreneurship  as it relates to Medical Imaging.
• To create awareness about capital accessibility for prospective Radiographer entrepreneurs
• To assess the knowledge of Radiographers in terms of business
• To ascertain the pivotal/primary factors which seem to hinder the establishment of Radiodiagnostic centre for the target population

 

 

 

1.4. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

• For Radiographers to have the right concept towards the prospects for entrepreneurship in the field of Medical Imaging.
• For Radiographers to be more goal oriented especially when it comes to entrepreneurial ventures.
• For more prospective Radiographer entrepreneurs to have the necessary managerial skills in running an entrepreneurial venture in the Field of Medical Imaging.
• For more Radiographers that would be able to face the competitive nature of business ventures which comes with establishing a Radiodiagnostic in the field of Medical Imaging to emerge

 

 

1.5. SCOPE OF STUDY

The research  work  wascarried out at  UNTH , NOHE ,AND,  ESUTH. The  three tertiary Hospitals within  Enugu Metropolis.

 

 

 

 

1.6.LITERATURE REVIEW

Good Entrepreneur can create a strong economy. Entrepreneurship is an important facet of industrial growth and development of a nation. It is the backbone of a nation that sets its eyes on maximizing its performance in every field

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. The spirit of entrepreneurship brings about enthusiasm, persistence and the ability to seek entrepreneurial opportunities that leads to success. A nation’s ability to generate a steady stream of business opportunities can only come about when its people take to entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurs are essentially the engines of growth for a nation

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. There are several factors that go into making a successful Entrepreneur, and he or she need not necessarily possess a strong business and financial background. On the contrary, well-conceived and well directed training can always produce an outstanding entrepreneur

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. In addition, Today’s World with its burgeoning population offers limited avenues of employment.

Richard Cantillon (1680-1734)was the first of the major economic thinkers to define the Entrepreneur as an agent who buys means of production at certain prices to combine them into a new product

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. He classified economic agents into landowners, hirelings, and entrepreneurs, and considered the Entrepreneur as the most active among these three agents, connecting the producers with customers, thereby acting as the middle man  also Harvey Leibenstein (1922-

 

1994)  in his work postulated that Entrepreneurs have the special ability to connect different markets and make up for market failures and deficiencies by recognizing market trends, develop new goods or processes in demands but not in supply and determining profitable activities.

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Relating this to the field of Medical Imaging ,when a Radiographer  has ventured into the world of entrepreneurship, his aim is to buy a Radiological equipment(Fluoroscopy, Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance) and in doing that, not just any type of equipment ,but one that would be commiserate to the amount he can afford and still be able give him the optimum results he requires from it. But on the other hand the equipment might not give him exactly what he wants because he is constrained with the limited resources at his disposal and goes for a substandard unit because of it’s cost effectiveness and still goes ahead and takes the  risk, that is why according to Frank Knight (1885-1972) who introducedFrank Knight’s Risk Bearing Theory. He  considers uncertainty as a factor of production, and holds the main function of the Entrepreneur as acting in anticipation of future events. The entrepreneur earns profit as a reward for taking such risks. From the above theory he has categorised an Entrepreneur as a risk taker whose ultimate profit is to make profit.

In the field of Medical Imaging the radiographer must first of all recognise the prospects of his business venture, asks himself   whether the environment is it

 

favourable to tap into? If all these factors are not critically analysed then there is a tendency that the business venture would fold up and the needed value the Radiographer needs to create through his entrepreneurial business would no longer be actualised ,that was why according to Kao(1991) in his work defined entrepreneurship as an attempt to create value through recognition of business opportunities.

Other scholars began to look at entrepreneurship in another perspective i.e in terms of  an “innovative based business ventures, constant creative ideas enterprise”  in other to meet up with the constant changes seen in the global market, that was why Peter Drucker et al (1909-2005)  in his work holds innovation, resources, and an entrepreneurial behaviour as the keys to entrepreneurship. According to him entrepreneurship involves increase in value or satisfaction to the customer from the resource, creation of new values and combination of existing materials or resources in a new productive combination.

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Kuratko(2009) in his work defined entrepreneurship as a dynamic process of vision, change and creation that requires an application of energy and passion towards the creation and implementation of new ideas and creative solution. While Bottom & Thompson(2004) defined an Entrepreneur as a person who habitually creates and innovates to build something of recognised value around

 

perceived opportunities. From the above theories, the key words to be taken into cognisance are increase in value and satisfaction from Peter Drucker et al (1909-2005) work, Kuratko (2009) in his work defined entrepreneurship as a dynamic process of vision, change and creation and an Entrepreneur as a person who habitually creates and innovates from Bottom & Thompson (2004). The main object here is to deduce that for an entrepreneur in the field of Medical Imaging “change” should be a constant process, and a driving force when he decides to venture into entrepreneurship whereby there is constant and habitual development of new ideas, innovations and creativeness in order to meet up with the constant revolving global Market and Patients needs. If this crucial factor is not taken into cognisance then the field of Medical Imaging would remain stagnant, outdated in terms of health delivery services invariably creating a negative concept of what entrepreneurial venture in the field of Medical Imaging entails.

.To survive and prosper during this transitions , innovations and evolvement of new ideas, radiology groups can learn from the entrepreneurial innovations that have made companies like McDonald’s successful. McDonald’s first “studied what value meant to the customer, defined it as quality and predictability of product, speed of service, absolute cleanliness, and friendliness, then set the standards for all of these” . They essentially designed an end product that

 

defined customer value and then created an efficient process to deliver this value, inexpensively to the customer and economically for the organization.

Therefore, in order to achieve the right concept towards the prospects of entrepreneurial venture in the field of Medical Imaging by prospective Entrepreneurs , a new breed of entrepreneur  must evolve, the value innovator, who will further expand on the lessons learned in the outpatient Imaging Centre market ,which would further enable him to further have the right attitude and concept towards the prospective customers

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. The value innovator will leverage technology to enhance or even create value for the customers (the referring physician and the patient),thereby meeting up with the  current global demand for the patient, using  sophisticated equipments like Computed tomography(CT) and Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) in clinical diagnosis.

However, there has been militating factors that has posed a great challenge for entrepreneurial ventures in the field of Medical Imaging which has in no small way beclouded the mindset of some prospective radiographer entrepreneurs making them overlook the prospects of entrepreneurship in radiography

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 ,some of these factors include viz:

• The presence of administrative and trade barriers that curtail capacity building and inhibit access to technical support.

 

• Rampant political and bureaucratic corruption, together with the absence of social consensus on important macroeconomic policy issues.

Because of these political and bureaucratic corruption,  Gallup poll in 2007, did a survey in which about 89% of respondents planning new businesses had no intention of registering their operations because of corrupt practises, indicating they would still prefer to be part of the informal economy

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. Which has also been a bane in entrepreneurial ventures amongst prospective entrepreneurs  In the health sector more especially in the field of Medical Imaging.

 

• Severe infrastructure deficits (mainly of power and electricity) that hamstring both new and existing businesses in the field of Medical Imaging .
• Inadequate access to finance and the absence of a credit policy that addresses the specific needs of enterprises. Also from the same Gallup survey in the year 1997 ,more than 63% of Nigerians featuring in the Gallup survey conceded access to finance as also a militating factor to setting up successful enterprises. More telling is the fact that about 60% of respondents claimed that current policies, despite the government’s
• focus on enterprise development, do not make it easy to start a business in Nigeria.

But amidst all these negative challenges, the prospective radiographer entrepreneur can still have the right concept and prospect towards his business venture if he does possess the following qualities

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 which include;

• Total commitment, determination and perseverance
• Drive to achieve and grow
• Opportunity and goal orientation
• Taking initiative and personal responsibility
• Persistent problem-solving
• Realism and a sense of humour
• Seeking and using feedback
• Internal focus of control
• Calculated risk taking and risk seeking
• Low need for status and power
• Integrity and reliability

Hence, these are the  qualities  that makes some entrepreneurs tick while others fail, invariable giving them the right concept towards the prospect of their business ventures. Also, the role that education would play in inculcating these

qualities cannot be overemphasized, that is why entrepreneurial studies have been inculcated in the curriculum, that the student must have to undertake as one of the criteria for awarding a degree in Radiography, by so doing the intending entrepreneur can equip him/her self with the right concept towards the prospects of entrepreneurial ventures.

Entrepreneurs need to continuously and consistently develop what they have, what they want and where they are. It’s called planning the next move

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. Effective entrepreneurs understand the importance of education, networking and research

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. Yes, it’s true a lot of noted entrepreneurs were college drop-outs, but there are many still successful business owners who still went to college and yet still stayed abreast with current trend on how to maximise profits and expand their horizon.In conclusion, whether motivated by profit or non-profit gain, entrepreneurs define themselves through occupation, in creating, building, sustaining and growing an organization to fill the need of a community, group of individuals or market segment. Entrepreneurs are interested in making a difference and establishing a legacy. Most of all, the entrepreneur is motivated by passion. It takes courage to live with this type of passion.  So in this study we are going to look at the factors that power entrepreneurs choices and actions which often leads one to fail, or succeed particularly in the early years of a new entrepreneurial business venture in the field of Medical Imaging