An Entrepreneur; A complete Definition

Scholars have given several definitions of the concept ‘entrepreneur’. For instance in
1816, Putari (2006) quoted Say who asserts that the entrepreneur is the agent "who unites all means of production and who finds in the value of the products...the reestablishment of the entire capital he employs, and the value of the wages, the interest, and rent which he pays, as well as profits belonging to himself." He views entrepreneurs as change agents (Say, 1816). Knight (1921) views entrepreneurs as individuals who attempt to predict and act upon change within markets



Schumpeter (1934) conceives the entrepreneur as the innovator who implements change within markets through the carrying out of new combinations such as introduction of new techniques of production, reorganization of an industry and innovation. He further argues that the entrepreneur is an innovator, one that introduces new technologies into the workplace or market, increasing efficiency, productivity or generating new products or services (Deakins and Freel, 2009).


In Quick MBA (2010), the entrepreneur is defined as one who combines various input factors in an innovative manner to generate value to the customer with the hope that this value will exceed the cost of the input factors, thus generating superior returns that result in the creation of wealth.


The entrepreneur is the person who perceives the market opportunity and then has the motivation, drive and ability to mobilize resources to meet it.

An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and
assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome (Wikipedia, 2010). The entrepreneur is anyone who has the capacity and willingness to undertake conception,
organization, and management of a productive venture with all attendant risks, while seeking profit as a reward (Business Dictionary, 2010). Interestingly, small business experts also have their definitions of the concept ‘entrepreneur’ (Thinking like, 2010) for instance: Reiss (2010), views the entrepreneur as the person that recognizes and pursues opportunities without regard to the resources he/she is currently controlling, with confidence that he/she can succeed, with the flexibility to change course as necessary, and with the will to rebound from setbacks.


Pinson (2010) visualized the entrepreneur as a person who starts a business to follow a vision, to make money, to be the master of his/her own soul (both financially and spiritually) and is an "educated" risk taker. Murphy (2010) conceives an entrepreneur as a person who is dynamic and continues to seek opportunities and/or different methods of operation and will do whatever it takes to be successful in business.


Given the above wide range of factors and behaviorur which are used to define the concept
‘entrepreneur’, we can see the difficulty and impossibility of finding a unified definition of the ‘entrepreneur’. Hence, to Di-Masi (2010), the concept ‘entrepreneur’ can be best used in the past tense to describe a successful business person. Thus, entrepreneurs are business persons who identify the existence of business opportunities and based on this they create businesses thereby creating new products, new production methods, new markets and new forms of organization to satisfy human needs and wants mostly at a profit.


It should also be noted that though most entrepreneurial businesses start small, entrepreneurs are not only small business owners; they can also be big business owners. This is because successful entrepreneurs, unlike small business owners, are innovative and, when operating in an enabling business environment, can rapidly create a large amount of wealth while bearing very high risk.

In fact, innovation is considered to be the strategic tool of entrepreneurs; this is one of the tools that enable them gain strategic advantage over competitors.

Entrepreneurs are individuals or groups of individuals who carryout entrepreneurship activities to build business empires.

Become an entrepreneur today!