The Meaning and Definition of Entrepreneurship

The word entrepreneur or entrepreneurship is gaining more popularity in the recent years. For developing countries, like the Philippines, entrepreneurs are considered to have a significant role in promoting national wealth and economic growth. Terms, such as “be your own boss”, “create jobs rather than find jobs”, innovative products, and other prominent phrases, have been circulating in the online and offline world of information. Business schools and training centers are now also offering entrepreneurial courses from short entrepreneurship seminars to the longer and more in-depth master’s in entrepreneurship. With all this hype and fame of entrepreneurialism, most of us still don’t have a clear definition of what entrepreneurship is. To begin embracing it, let’s take a closer look at the meanings and definitions of entrepreneurship.

The concept of entrepreneurship has been noted as a factor in microeconomics since the 17^th century, with the work (Essai sur la nature du commerce en general” first published in 1755) of Richard Cantillon who anticipated the belief that the entrepreneur brought equilibrium to a market by correctly predicting consumer preferences. From this concept, the meaning of entrepreneurship has evolved through the development of business and economics in the recent years and decades.

If we’ll search the Internet for the definition of entrepreneurship now, we will found the following evolving meanings published by some of the leading providers of information online.

“Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as “one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods”.”  —Wikipedia.com

“The capacity and willingness to undertake conception, organization, and management of a productive venture with all attendant risks, while seeking profit as a reward.”  —BusinessDictionary.com

“The assumption of risk and responsibility in designing and implementing a business strategy or starting a business.”  —InvestorWords.com

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise”. From these definitions, we can extract the following qualities and characteristics of entrepreneurship:

1. Initiative, innovation and creativity
2. Business sense, economy, productivity and profitability
3. Organization, leadership and responsibility
4. Risk management and strategy
5. Passion and voluntarism

From the attributes above, we can define entrepreneurship as:

“The initiative and voluntary act of managing risk and assuming responsibility in transforming creativity and innovation to unique products for the purpose of providing effective and efficient solutions to consumers, while achieving long-term profitability and contributing growth to the economy as a whole. —BusinessTips.ph

This is my theoretical meaning and definition of entrepreneurship. I see an entrepreneur as a risk-taker, but it doesn’t mean he bears risk. Instead, an entrepreneur manages and controls risk, which gives him more safety than the capitalists. Remember that entrepreneurship is an ever evolving process. Thus, it is still open for more development. How about you, what is your meaning of entrepreneurship?