UNDERSTANDING ECONOMICS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lisa Idzikowski Britannica Educational Publishing IN ASSOCIATION WITH ROSEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
New innovations and products come to market all around us A new Hyperloop transportation system by inventor and engineer Elon Musk Airbnb Uber Justin’s peanut butter cups and a superfast cell phone charger are just a few examples Every day it seems like another biggest best can’t-live-without-it product arrives on the market Some of these goods and services become popular popular and create a solid consumer following Others fizzle and disappear from the market A device created by eighteen-year-old high school student Eesha Khare for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair could turn into one of the next big things Khare identified a problem engineered a solution and built a product that anyone who owns a cell phone could use a super-fast charging system In the process she won the second second place Young Scientist Award and received a 50,000 cash prize Khare said I developed a new supercapacitor which is basically an energy storage device which can hold a lot of energy in a small amount of volume This tiny device has the ability to charge a cell phone in about twenty to thirty seconds Wouldn’t every cell phone user think this was a handy invention Entrepreneurs and innovators as well as the busi nesses organizations and agencies that they envision and design are what fuel the free market economy At the heart of this market economy a system also called capitalism are the entrepreneurs who produce what they wish and the 4 INTRODUCTION
Elon Musk is a successful entrepreneur and the founder lead designer and CEO of SpaceX Musk’s company is dedicated to manufacturing spacecraft like this Dragon V2 consumers who decide how much of their income to save how much to spend and what to buy This system of free enterprise establishes a cycle of sorts entrepreneurs and innovators discover new solutions to old problems find new ways to do old tasks and develop new products In turn consumers choose from these new creations and purchase what they want for themselves and their families The people who aspire to be entrepreneurs often say that they have a passionate goal to achieve or they dream of creating something to help make people’s lives 5
