Basic Concepts and Definitions

Concept of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a fairly new concept that very many disciplines are trying to understand. It has been defined by varied researchers as follows:

• It is the process of opportunity recognition and implementation
• It is also the process of identifying variable business opportunities and implementing them innovatively and creatively.
• It is the process of creating new combination of factors i.e. factors of production to produce economic growth.

The above definitions lead us to adopt a more encompassing definition by Hisrich & Peters (2001). Thus, it is the process of creating something new with value by devoting the necessary time and effort, assuming their accompanying financial, psychic (psychological and social risks) and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary/personal satisfaction and independence.

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur can simply be referred to as a person practicing entrepreneurship

It is the person who is able to identify business opportunities, mobilizes the necessary resources e.g. financial, time, human & initiates a successful business activity.

Also a person, who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of running a business.

There is a link between entrepreneurship and an entrepreneur in that entrepreneurship is both a social and economic phenomenon while entrepreneurs are economic agents. Entrepreneurs are economic agents because they are creators of wealth; they approach wealth growth by taking responsibility, making judgmental decisions, taking the risks and getting the rewards.

 Intrapreneurship

'Intra' means begin therefore intrapreneurship means an entrepreneurship occurring in large existing and established companies. It is also called co-operate entrepreneurship.

Intrapreneurship is the practice of entrepreneurship by employees within an organization.

It occurs when employers of a large firm start thinking innovatively and creatively thereby causing and creating new markets, new products, new services, new systems, and new processes.