Solution:

What are Social factors?

• Social factors can go a long way in encouraging entrepreneurship. It was the highly helpful society that made the industrial revolution a glorious success in Europe.

• The main components of the social environment are as follows:

1. Caste Factor:

• There are certain cultural practices and values in every a society that influences the actions of individuals.

• These practices and values have evolved over hundreds of years. For instance, consider the caste system (the varna system) among the Hindus in India.

• It has divided the population-based on caste into four divisions.

• The Brahmana (priest), the Kshatriya (warrior), the Vaishya (trade), and the Shudra (artisan): It has also defined limits to the social mobility of individuals. By social mobility’ we mean the freedom to move from one caste to another.

• The caste system does not permit an individual who is born a Shridhar to move to a higher caste. Thus, commercial activities were the monopoly of the Vaishyas.

• Members of the three other Hindu Varnas did not become interested in trade and commerce, even when India had extensive commercial inter-relations with many foreign countries.

• The dominance of certain ethnical groups in entrepreneurship is a global phenomenon. The protestant ethics in the west, the Samurai in Japan, the trading classes in the US, and the family business concerns in France have distinguished themselves as entrepreneurs.

2. Family background:

• This factor includes the size of the family, type of family, and economic status of the family. In a study by Hardiman, it has been revealed that the Zamindar family helped to gain access to political power and exhibit a higher level of entrepreneurship.

• The background of a family in manufacturing provided a source of industrial entrepreneurship. The occupational and social status of the family influenced mobility.

• There are certain circumstances where very few people would have to be venturesome.

• For example in a society where the joint the family system is in vogue, those members of a joint family who gain wealth through their hard work is denied the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labor because they have to share their wealth with the other members of the family.

3. Education:

• Education enables one to understand the outside world and equips him with the basic knowledge and skills to deal with day-to-day problems.

• In any society, the system of education has a significant role to play in inculcating entrepreneurial values.

• In India, the system of education before the 20th century was based on religion. In this rigid system, critical and questioning attitudes towards society were discouraged.

• The caste system and the resultant occupational structure were reinforced by such education. It promoted the idea that business is not a respectable occupation.

• The unfortunate result of it is that young men and women in our country have developed a taste only for service. Their talents and capabilities have not been made much use of.

• Rather it has been wasted on performing routine conventional jobs. Our educational methods have not changed much even today.

• The emphasis is on preparing students for standard jobs, rather than marking them as capable enough to stand on their feet