Are Drug dealers, entrepreneurs

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction. 2

1.1 Research Purpose. 2

1.2 Research Question: 3

1.3 Research Objectives: 3

Chapter 2: Literature Review.. 5

Chapter 3: Research Methodology and design. 9

3.1 Overview.. 9

3.2 Research Approach. 9

3.3 Research Data. 9

3.4 Data Collection. 10

3.5 Data Analysis. 10

3.6 Reliability & Validity. 10

3.7 Ethical Consideration. 10

Chapter 4: Data Analysis and findings. 11

4.1 Data Analysis. 11

4.1.1 Research findings. 12

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Research Limitations. 14

5.1 Conclusion. 14

5.2 Limitations of the Research. 15

References. 16

Chapter 1: Introduction

The position of a drug dealer as an entrepreneur has always been the center of the debate, where a number of researches were conducted to find out the real status of the drug dealer in the corporate world. The main reason that has always caused this issue to be the center of debate in the drug supply market is the fact that there have been a number of cases in the market with regards to drug trafficking and self-employment of the entrepreneurs in this field. (Gains and Kremling, 2013)

Although this questions regarding the two being interrelated or not, still there are a very few researched conducted in this field and very few cases have been discussed latterly. Most of the previous research was based on drug dealers themselves claiming to be the owners or the entrepreneurs. Two of the previous studies conducted by Adler (1993) and Fairlie (2002) were of the opinion that in most of the cases, it is the drug dealer who liked him to be known as the entrepreneur of his drug supply business. Thus, creating a gap between the reality and the available research conducted in this field. This gap needs to be filled through thou=rough research with regards to this field and analysis of the drug supply market.ENTREPRENUERS

1.1 Research Purpose

ENTREPRENUERS: The purpose and aim of our research will be to try and fill this gap in the literature present with regards to different theories and studies related to drug suppliers in the drug market. The study and research conducted will try to find out whether these suppliers of the drug, the drug dealer, are actually the entrepreneurs or not. The other aim of the research was to focus on the way the people who are associated with this industry lead their life. The study focused on their lifestyles .

A thorough research was conducted in the field of drug supply by carefully analyzing the literature review present in the market and focusing on the ways in which these drug dealers live their lives and do business in the drug market.

As the purpose of the research was based on a very sensitive issue, therefore proper work ethics were followed and the researcher made sure to abide by these ethical issues.ENTREPRENUERS: The approach used for the study was conservative. The research was mainly based on the secondary source because of its sensitive nature, and because the primary research methods would not have been suitable. The unreliable and authenticity of the data collected from the dealers could have been questionable, therefore, most of the research was conducted by studying the previous researchers in form of journals, books, newspaper articles and case studies based on the drug dealers in the market.

On the basis of the research conducted, most of the researchers in the field were of the opinion that these drug dealers are self-employed entrepreneurs and they possess all the characteristics that should be present in any successful entrepreneur. There were questions pertaining to whether the drug dealers practice ethical values in this field, where most of them were involved in unethical ways of conducting this business.

1.2 Research Question:

ENTREPRENUERS: The research is based on the previous literature view related to the drug dealers and their way of doing business in the market. Where according to a study conducted by Sullivan (1985), a young boy involved in the dealing of marijuana drug have exceptional skills and characteristics of a successful entrepreneur. The further researched on the topic and concluded that drug dealers actually possess the qualities of an entrepreneur and have the right to call themselves entrepreneurs. Based on similar nature of researchers, the research question drove for the purpose of research in this field is:

“Are the Drug Dealers Entrepreneurs?”

ENTREPRENUERS: The research question, at first sight, seems easy and very straightforward but there needs to be thorough research and study to find out if the question has any significance. Taking into consideration the research question, there need to be in-depth study to find out the relationship between the drug dealer and the entrepreneur. The following research article has provided considerable research with facts related to this topic.

1.3 Research Objectives:

On the basis of the research question, the research was conducted keeping in view that following objectives:

  1. To determine whether drug dealers are entrepreneurs
  2. To examine if there are similarities in the characteristics, attributes, and lifestyles of drug dealers and entrepreneurs
  3. To identify if there are similarities in the business skills of drug dealers and entrepreneurs
  4. To examine if the business operations of drug dealers and entrepreneurs are similar

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Traditionally, the word entrepreneurship is associated with a complete process in the business world. This process involved everything from designing, launching, and running a new business. This new business starts as a small business that with time and the effort of the entrepreneur emerges as a proper business with profits and products meeting the demand of the customers and the consumers.ENTREPRENUERS (Yetisen et al., 2015). Where the person who starts this new business and in involved in every step of organizing, managing and establishing the enterprise and is ready to take all the risks ad awards associated with the new business is called the entrepreneur. (Zhang and Cueto, 2015).  The entrepreneur is actually the person who is in control of all the commercial activities and directing all the factors of production, including human, financial and material resources, which are required for the success of the overall business. They are like a manager in the organization who launches and is looking into the matters of growth of the enterprise. (Arthur and Hisrich, 2011).

Inversely, a drug dealer is defined as a person who controls the network related to the overall supply of the illegal drug to the people. It is a completely illegal trade. According to Gaines and Kremling (2013), drug dealing involves supply or business of supplying drugs including, heroin, cocaine, meth and marijuana to the illegal market. According to them the market of drug dealing it is supplied is a continuous market which because of being illegal is dependent on many factors. This includes drug dealers keeping the prices low in the market to make sure they can easily find the customers.ENTREPRENUERS.

According to a research conducted by Naylor (2004), the drug dealers are similar to any of the practicing entrepreneur. The basic reason behind this act is that these drug dealers have a complete market, where they can depend on the consumers to buy their product. Similarly, they are also looking for economical aspects of this business where their aim is to earn more and more money from their consumers. The only difference here lies in the issue of having full control of the resources available. The drug dealer, unlike entrepreneur, has a number of restrictions when it comes to exploiting the factors of production. They have restrictions on hiring, ways of production, advertisement and options for business expansion in the market (Fairlie, 2005).

ENTREPRENUERS: The research being supportive towards the drug dealers being entrepreneurs, a research conducted by Strauss (2012) was against this concept. Strauss (2012) argued that there are no possible reasons to term drug dealers as entrepreneurs for the reason that whatever business they are engaged in is an illegal business in nature and is forbidden in the eyes of law. There are no questions regarding the risk involved in this business and that the drug dealers are actually taking a more risky task than any other business man, still the illegal nature over rate all these factors.

There have been a lot of debate regarding this issue of drug dealer can be claimed as an entrepreneur, as there is no question regarding him being working as an entrepreneur who is involved in buying and selling of drugs and the basic intention of all this buying and selling is to make a profit. The only question and the only debate present in the literature regarding the concept of a drug dealer being an entrepreneur or not are because of the fact that whatever business he is involved in is all illegal and has no legal grounds. (Strauss, 2012) These drug dealers are one of the top billionaires in the list of billionaires published by Forbes. An example could be of Al Chapo who is considered to be the 1153rd billionaire in the world according to a list of the world’s top billionaires publishes the magazine, Forbes. Not only is this, he also the 10th richest person in the list of richest people from Mexico. Smith and McElwee (2014) in their book were not of the opinion to call these drug dealers as entrepreneurs due to the fact that whatever business they are doing is all illegal and therefore comparing these drug dealers, even if they are billionaires, with the other entrepreneurs of the world.

ENTREPRENUERS: It has been opined that no one should ever adopt this path of doing business and earning money, but there are some lessons that individuals, especially entrepreneurs can learn from these drug dealers. These drug dealers are street smart people and they earn money with their intelligence. According to him, if the business they are running becomes legal, there would not be a better entrepreneur than a drug dealer. The reasons and traits of the drug dealers he pointed out in his article include, that they are very well aware of their product and have all the required information about their product, which is the key towards selling your product to the right consumer. Their product is their key to success (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). ENTREPRENUERS The researchers also talk about the way they deal with competition. They know who their competitors and the outwork them in order to be able to compete with them. In the end of his article, he points out that the most important aspect of doing a business, and the most important trait of any businessman is that he is willing to take risks and is prepared to take risks. He believes in the concept of higher the risk and higher the returns. This is what makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur, that is, his willingness to take risks. And who, better than a drug dealer, is ready to take risks in his business (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000).

According to a research conducted by Frith and McElwee (2007), drug dealers have all the traits that are required to be a successful entrepreneur in the business world. They have entrepreneurial characteristics like taking risks, looking for more and better profits, creating an environment for buying and selling of their products in the market, using means to exploit opportunities in the market and having competition with respect to their products. These authors were also of the opinion that only legality of the business of drug dealing is questionable, other than that, there is nothing that is present in any other business or there is no trait that a successful entrepreneur has but the drug dealer does not have. He authors concluded their research by finding out that there are no questions regarding the drug dealer not having the traits and characteristics of a successful entrepreneur. A drug dealer exhibits clear and strong along with well-defined characteristics that are important for any entrepreneur to be successful in the business world (Zahra and Wright, 2015).

ENTREPRENUERS: Medal (2016), who is passionate about finding lessons of entrepreneurship in one of the most extreme and obscures places, in his article is of the opinion that successful entrepreneurs can be found in a number of places and sectors and there are successful entrepreneurs in the field of drug dealing. According to him the characteristics that are present in any successful entrepreneur can be seen in these drug dealers too. The characteristics he pointed out in his article includes, being persistent, these drug dealers are persistent and can be seen selling their products in the same place for years. Medal (2013) also pointed out that these people have strong connections which are vital for having and running a successful business. These drug dealers are experts in their business and one trait that sets them apart is the personal branding to their product or drug that they are selling. According to Medal (2013), they are very clever recruiters too, they can recruit some of the best and most experts in their field. He pointed out a clever and creative recruiting of a region to deliver drugs like cocaine into the prison by the drug dealer. That, according to him, needs to be practiced by the present world entrepreneurs, to recruit their staff smartly and cleverly.

ENTREPRENUERS: Another research conducted by Farlie (2002), he used theoretical models to assess the self-employment attitude of the drug dealers in order to take risks, their entrepreneurial abilities, and their autonomy. He is also of the opinion that the drug dealers have all the qualities and attributes that make them entrepreneurs running the risky business of drug dealing in order to gain profits from their dealings. He also concluded that 11% to 21% of the drug dealers are self-employed and that they termed themselves as the entrepreneurs who are engaged in running their entire business of drug dealing by taking all the risks involved in this business. According to the author, they are earning more wages and salary than any other employed person in any organization.

 

Chapter 3: Research Methodology and design

3.1 Overview

The Chapter contains the methodology that will be used for this study. It describes how the data were collected from the respective population and what processes were used to evaluate and analyze the data. This chapter is divided into several subsections that describe the stepwise division of the process of collection of data and procedures used to analyze the data. It will cover the research design for preparing the study, Population which was targeted for this research, a technique that was used for data collection and the instrument used for the collection of data.

3.2 Research Approach

The research approach is divided into different kinds, one of the most commonly used methods is Quantitative Research Method and the other is Qualitative Research Method. There are many authors who have described approaches to make it easier for students and scholars to get guidance for choosing the right approach. Moreover, based on the purpose of the research, the literature review and the methodology used in previous studies, the researcher can select the right research approach to answer the project objectives and questions (Bryman and Bell, 2015).

The research approach is of conservative nature, which addressed the research ethics to a sufficient extent. For the purpose of this research, we have used qualitative research. Qualitative research methods are more flexible, they allow freedom in term of interaction between the researcher and the study participants. Researchers in qualitative methods can ask “open-ended” questions which can be worded exactly the same way with each participant and this is called structured interview…………………………………..continued