According to W.B. Gartner, “Brockhaus and Horwitz’s (1985) review of the psychology of the entrepreneurship concluded that
‘…there is no generic definition of the entrepreneur, or if there is we do not have the psychological instruments to discover it at this time” (Gartner, 1988, p.11).
Entrepreneurship is a word that has many interpretations yet as I have read, it is difficult to pinpoint a definition in its entirety. In reading the selected articles, each brought a different perspective in answering the question “what is entrepreneurship?” and how research, opinion and perspectives has shown that even today, the definition is not quite accurate nor definite.
Trait Approach vs. Behavioral Approach
We can look at entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in different approaches as in behavioral and trait. These two approaches allow us to look at a perspective from both sides in terms of character vs. the physicality’s of entrepreneurship. The first approach dives into the traits and in this approach it
“…is assumed to be a particular personality type, a fixed state of existence, a describable species that one might find a picture of in a field guide…” (Gartner, 1988, p. 12).
In this specific approach, we look at entrepreneurs as a figure, more specifically looking into their characteristics and special qualities. Focusing on this approach some say is not accurate let alone strays away from defining exactly what entrepreneurship is, as this idea of figuring out the "who" the entrepreneur is, is not as important as compared to the what.
Behavioral approach then comes into play in which allows us to further look at the process and venture of said entrepreneur. According to W.B. Gartner, he mentions that
“this approach to the study of entrepreneurship treats the organization as the primary level of analysis and the individual is viewed in terms of activities undertaken to enable the organization to come into existence” (Gartner, 1988, p. 21).
Allowing ourselves to investigate the processes and organization itself can help us answer questions then about the entrepreneur and what exactly they do to create these organizations and how they unite all means of production including labor, values of products, wages, interest, rent, etc. In gathering all this information, then are we allowed to potentially define what is entrepreneurship.
Risk taker, Venturer, Reviver
In other approaches, entrepreneurship can be thought of in other perspectives like ones that we may think of on a day-to-day basis. According to Robert F. Hebert & Albert N. Link,
“the entrepreneur is someone who specializes in taking responsibility for and making judgmental decisions that affect the location, form, and the use of goods, resources, or institutions” (Herbert & Link, 1989, p.47).
We can compare this quote to the trait approach from the previous article as this is focusing more on characteristics of the entrepreneur themselves and exactly what “special qualities” they bring to an organization. We know that this is not the best approach, yet this article explains that an entrepreneur is capable of these ideas including being a risk taker, venturer, and a reviver of companies.
However, we can also investigate to an economist point of view of entrepreneurship in that this view is more diverse in opinion when it comes the nature of entrepreneurship. According to Robert F. Herbert & Albert N. Link, they recognize entrepreneurship as
“an independent factor of production on a more-or-less equal footing with land, labor, and capital” (Herbert & Link, 1989, p.40)
in which we can relate this idea to the behavioral trait from the previous article in that economists are looking more into the what instead of the who.
What makes an entrepreneur?
After reading the previous articles, we can infer different references to somewhat finalize what entrepreneurship is and go further as to ask what dictates an entrepreneur and are there similar elements of entrepreneurship throughout different companies? According to Saras D. Sarasvathy,
“All entrepreneurs begin with three categories of means: (1) Who they are – their traits, tastes, and abilities, (2) What they know – their education, training, expertise, and experience; and (3) Whom they know – their social and professional networks” (Sarasvathy, 2006, p. 3).
I can agree with this article's statement and can clearly assume that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs themselves, are heavily involved and can be a main point of connection as they are the ones who can potentially progress a company to become successful based on who they know, what they they know and what they bring to the table themselves.
In reading this article, it ties in both the previous article in that we see both trait and behavioral approaches mentioned as in the article by W.B. Gartner as well as focusing on characteristics of what entrepreneurship is and processes as mentioned in the article by Robert F. Herbert and Albert N. Link. This article, aside from the mentioning of concepts from the other given works, brings in two other perspectives to what entrepreneurship is as to reasonings both casual and effectual.
According to Saras D. Sarasvathy,
“Casual rationality begins with a pre-determined goal and a given set of means, and seeks to identify the optimal – fastest, cheapest, most efficient, etc. – alternative to achieve the given goal” (Sarasvathy, 2006, p. 2).
In this reasoning, I see that ideas are quick and easy as one can almost say as quick as a snap of a finger all while being efficient and effective. In what I perceive, this reasoning allows for solutions to be thought of faster but also with rational thought to the outcomes of these solutions and the longevity of them. In terms of entrepreneurial factors, I would think that as an entrepreneur, as well as answering this essay’s overall question of “what is entrepreneurship,” we can assume that characteristics of this reasoning is one of two approaches used in entrepreneurship and how it can help benefit organizations and companies throughout.
In terms of effectual reasoning, Saras D. Sarasvathy says it,
“…begins with a given with a set of means and allows goals to emerge contingently over time from the varied imagination and diverse aspirations of the founders and the people they interact with” (Sarasvathy, 2006, p. 2).
I believe this reasoning more so a longer thought process in terms of it taking into consideration diverse aspirations and involves varied imagination. It is almost as if the allowance of goals to emerge over time would be slower to finding solutions to entrepreneurial problems. These two reasonings bring a sort of human action point to the word entrepreneurship in that it allows us to see what makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial.
Conclusion
Each article brought a variety of insight and perspective when it came to finding out what entrepreneurship is and what the interpretation or definition of this word exactly means. The approach and research involved in these articles allows us to get more insight to how different authors perceived what entrepreneurship is and what essentially makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial. We saw concepts including trait and behavior approaches, focusing more on the what rather than the who and vice versa, and casual and effectual reasoning. In answering the question of what entrepreneurship is, we can infer that from the articles, entrepreneurship is based on approach, reasoning, and the precision of focus on who the entrepreneur is rather than what is entrepreneurship.
References
Gartner, W. B. (1988). “Who is an entrepreneur?” is the wrong question. American journal of
small business, 12(4), 11-32.
Hébert, R. F., & Link, A. N. (1989). In search of the meaning of entrepreneurship. Small
business economics, 1(1), 39-49.
Sarasvathy, S. D. (2006). What makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial?