Understanding The Roles Of An Entrepreneur

In order to perform their functions effectively and operate a successful business, entrepreneurs have to perform certain roles. These roles are the same as the basic managerial roles which are as follows:

Want to become an Entrepreneur? See the Characteristics of Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurs

The types and roles of entrepreneur notwithstanding, all entrepreneurs possess certain
characteristics and are motivated to become entrepreneur due to certain factors.

Types of Entreprenuer: Which one are you?

Based on the interaction with the business environment, various types of entrepreneurs can emerge. To this effect, four types of entrepreneurs that has been Identified  are;  Innovative, Imitating, Fabian and Drone.

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

The concept of Intrapreneur and Techpreneur explained

Intrapreneurs

There are given situations where an entrepreneur is not able to establish his or her own business and as such has to work in an organization. In this case they are referred to as ‘Intrepreneurs’ i.e. entrepreneurs within an organization.

A complete Definition of Entrepreneurship

There are many definitions of the concept ‘entrepreneurship’. For instance, Putari (2006) observes that scholars had not been in agreement in their definitions of entrepreneurship and chronicled the definitions of entrepreneurship by various scholars (Brockhaus & Horwitz, 1986, Sexton & Smilor, Wortman, 1987; Gartner, 1988). Cantillon (circa 1730) views entrepreneurship as: “self employment of any sort”. In 1934, Joseph Schumpeter equated entrepreneurship with the concept of innovation and applied it to a business context, while emphasizing the combination of resources. Penrose (1963) views entrepreneurship as the activity that involves identifying opportunities within the economic system.

The Origin of Entrepreneurship

Various scholars have written extensively on the origin of entrepreneurship. What is interesting is that most of the scholars who wrote about the origin of entrepreneurship are either economists or historians. Basically, the concept entrepreneur is derived from the French concept “entreprendre” which literarily is equivalent to the English concept “to undertake”. From the business point of view, to undertake simply means to start a business (QuickMBA, 2010). From the historical point of view, Schumpeter (1951) opined that the French economist Richard Cantillon, was the first to introduce the concept "entrepreneur" in his work in 1755. He viewed the entrepreneur as a risk taker (Burnett, 2000).