To answer this challenging question, one must compare both entrepreneurs to small business managers or owners and entrepreneurial ventures to small businesses. One must also ascertain the meanings of the terms, entrepreneur and small business owner.
The definition of an entrepreneur is a commonly argued point, with several definitions having been given by many different people. The dictionary gives an entrepreneur as 'A person who engages in business enterprise, usually with some personal financial risk`. Under this definition, a small business owner could definitely be classed as an entrepreneur, as anyone who runs and owns their own business is taking risks with their finances every day of trading. However, this definition does not go into enough depth and only takes into account one trait of the entrepreneur's personality and behavioural patterns, which, according
Schumpeter (1934) also suggested that an entrepreneurial venture can be identified by its strategic behaviour, namely five specific categories of behaviour common in all entrepreneurial businesses. These characteristics are supported by Vesper (1980) and can now be used as the basis for classification criteria, they are:
2. Introduction of new methods of production
Schumpeter instead claimed that innovation was the key factor in ascertaining the difference between an entrepreneur and an ordinary business person. By this, he meant that an entrepreneur goes about their business and becomes successful by creating new ways of carrying out established processes. For example finding new methods of production or service. McDonalds can be seen to be an entrepreneurial business, as when it started, there were no other burger chains that pre-cooked their burgers to allow for rapid service, and they can therefore be described as
Example Essays Home
