What is Entrepreneurship

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that the field of entrepreneurship lacks a single unified and accepted definition for the term “entrepreneurship”. This article analyzes the different theoretical roots of entrepreneurship. Not surprisingly, different theories resulted in a conflicting array of definitions describing entrepreneurship in terms of dynamic change, new combinations, exploiting opportunities, innovation, price arbitrage, risk, uncertainty, ownership, new venture formation, non‐control of resources, asymmetries of information, superior decision‐making, personality traits, monopoly formation or something else. What were previously viewed as contradictory definitions can now be seen to describe complementary lexicon terms or “sub‐ domains” of entrepreneurship such as “corporate entrepreneurship”, “social entrepreneurship” or “opportunity entrepreneurship”. The sub‐domains that arise from different theories are organized into a coherent lexicon using simple classification taxonomy. A wide array of sub‐ domain terms is thus organized into a lexicon that can be used to describe the different aspects of entrepreneurship. This article started as the author’s own quest to make sense of the entrepreneurship literature. It is hoped that the proposed lexicon will contribute to a shared foundational terminology for the field of entrepreneurship that will make sense to both academics and practitioner entrepreneurs.