Entrepreneurship is a relatively old term with a French root.
The word Entrepreneur is about three hundred years old and the first ones who took note of the entrepreneurial term and the concept of entrepreneurship were economists.
People like Richard Cantillon and Adam Smith have used the term Entrepreneur in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
It is so popular in the realm of Startups.
What it means to be an entrepreneur?
The history of entrepreneurship dates back a century ago
Although some people have been called entrepreneurs for about three hundred years,
but it is just about a century that we commonly understand entrepreneurship as we do today (in terms of entrepreneurship management).
In other words, to consider entrepreneurship as a science, and
that some in universities are entrepreneurial specialists, or
some people want to choose between being an employee and entrepreneurship, and
this choice is recognized as a serious question in the career path,
is a Relatively new phenomenon and belongs to a recent century.
Definition of Entrepreneurship by Schumpeter
In 1928 Joseph Schumpeter put forward the definition of entrepreneurship as follows:
The gist of Entrepreneurship is understanding the opportunity and taking advantage of it.
Schumpeter gradually entered politics, and afterwards, his later definitions took a little more sophisticated and comprehensive.
For example, he emphasized that entrepreneurs are the ones who revive economics and organizations.
Schumpeter’s view of entrepreneurship, however, was not merely covered by this definition.
He sees the dimensions of entrepreneurship beyond the concept of seeking opportunities and nurturing opportunities.
Schumpeter paid special attention to the relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation.
He considered five ways of innovation:
- Introducing a new product
- Using a new way to produce an old product
- Creating a new market for an existing product
- Discovering and using a new resource for raw materials
- Creating a new structure for an existing industry
He looks so closely at the characteristics of entrepreneurs and their practices that
today, in entrepreneurial articles, instead of saying according to
Schumpeter definition of entrepreneurship,
use Schumpeter’s entrepreneur to
preserve all that he has intended.
Joseph Schumpeter, Father of Entrepreneurship
It is common practice to call pioneer of an area as a father of mother of that realm.
Peter Drucker, for example, is the father of modern management, or
Fredrick Taylor the father of scientific management.
If we want to do the same for entrepreneurship, there is almost a general agreement on Mr. Joseph Schumpeter.
In the 1930s and 1940s, he conducted extensive studies on entrepreneurship and published many articles in this area.
Who is the entrepreneur? What is the purpose of entrepreneurship?
Although the word Entrepreneur and the concept of entrepreneurship are simple and understandable,
it can be said that there is no precise definition of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship that is universally agreed.
The definitions of entrepreneurship are abundant and
each one emphasizes on the aspect of the entrepreneurial process and
the characteristics of the entrepreneur.
Of course, the following adjectives appear to be among the adjectives attributed to entrepreneurs:
- Creating jobs
- Creating wealth
- Daring to risk
- Creating Value
- Making the future
- Predicting Future
- Creative
- Pioneer
How do academics define entrepreneurship in articles?
When we get from who is entrepreneur and
What is entrepreneurship questions to
what is the academic definition of entrepreneurship,
it’s going to be more clear and specific.
We no longer deal with the mental image of people and society from entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, and
specifically want to review scientific articles and
look for different definitions of it in them.
Let’s look at some points mentioned in the academic articles:
Definition of entrepreneurship by Howard Stevenson
Howard Stevenson, once a Harvard Publishing director, also defines entrepreneurship as:
Entrepreneurship is pursuing opportunities. Opportunities beyond the resources available today.
In Stevenson’s definition, there are two keywords.
One is looking for and exploring new opportunities, and
the other is not limiting the resources available.
Perhaps in the definition of Stevenson,
building new paths in the economy and business environment is important.
Stevenson says in the explanation of what he described as entrepreneurship: “Do not forget when I defined it”.
Entrepreneur Definition by Richard Cantillon
Richard Cantillon, an Irish-French economist from the 17th and 18th centuries,
risk taking is the main source of entrepreneurship.
He defines entrepreneurship as:
The one who manages the business and accepts the risk. Hoping to take advantage of this risk.
The Definition of Entrepreneurship in the View of Richard Gordon Baty
In the early 1980s, Gordon Baty wrote a book “Entrepreneurship for the Eighties”,
which, although long since the eighties, is still informative and readable.
Baty emphasizes on a word in his book: Focusing on action.
He says the difference between entrepreneurs and other people, is that they intend to take action.
They think about acting and doing.
If they have a complaint, a chance to see, feel threatened, see a solution in action,
react with the creation of a business to respond to what they have seen and felt.
Definition of entrepreneurship in the view Vesper
In his book “New Venture Strategies”, Describing and Analyzing New Businesses,
Vesper points to an important point, which is Value Creating.
Vesper explains that the entrepreneur is the one who has been able to create value.
In other words, between a small company that create jobs for just five people but create a very high economic value and
a business that creates jobs for thousands of people, but it’s not value-creating, Vesper considers the first one as entrepreneurship.
He distinguishes between entrepreneurship and job creation.
Definition of the entrepreneur from the Bringer point of view
Barringer and Ireland in their entrepreneurship book,
considered going beyond the boundaries of the available facilities as entrepreneurial characteristics.
They say in the definition:
“Entrepreneurship is a process in which individuals track the opportunities they see,
regardless of the resources they have, in order to
benefit from the goods and services that will be created in the future.”
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