Entrepreneurship

According to Henry, Hill & Leitch (2003) the word entrepreneur was derived from the French word ‘entreprendre’ which means to undertake, and the first person who introduced and used the word of entrepreneur was Richard Cantillon (1680-1734), an Irish economist. Cantillon defined entrepreneur as a person with the foresight and confidence to work in conditions when costs may be known, but rewards are uncertain (Bridge, O’Neill & Cromie 1998). Therefore, it can be concluded that entrepreneurship demands foresight and willingness to assume risk (Landstrom 1997, cited in Corbetta, Huse & Rovasi 2004).

In short it can be said that the first concept of entrepreneurship from Cantillon emphasis on taking risk to venture into a business.

Van Praag (2005) divides entrepreneurship concept into five different groups which are classical approach, neoclassical approach, Schumpeterian, Knightian, and neo-Austrian approach. Each concept will be discussed separately.

3.1 The classical approach

According to van Praag (2005) the famous French economist, Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) seemed to be the first expert who added managerial role into entrepreneur characteristics. The managerial role consist of getting involved in combining and coordinating factors which influence production process in order to accommodate the unexpected and overcome problems (Bridge, O’neill, & Cromie 1998).

In summariy, the characteristics of entrepreneurs according to Say is the person who is in charge of production, distribution and consumption activities; a coordinator in market and firm level; a leader and manager within the firm, problem solver (van Praag 2005) and also a risk taker (Corbetta, Huse & Ravasi 2004).

Therefore, according to Landstrom ...

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... the firm and responsible for all activities within the firm. Furthermore, Knight adding the concept of able to handle uncertainty aspects in the managerial role.

Schumpeter brought a new aspect which is innovation in defining entrepreneurship. According to Schumpeter, entrepreneur is a person who is able to bring changes in market place. Later on Kirzner agree on Schumpeter’s concept and view innovation as costless discovery which means the process of finding something unique for the market.

Besides all the differences, all economists include profit as one factor in entrepreneurship concept. However, the term of profit describe in different perception. Schumpeter describes profit as the indicator of success, Kirzner value profit as the driven tool in entrepreneurship activity while others have the perception of profit as a return on entrepreneurship activities.