Entrepreneurship

Definition

Entrepreneurship is

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the ability to generate new ideas, build businesses from scratch, identify and acquire customers and deliver scale. It requires creativity, self-belief, leadership and risk-taking.

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Entrepreneur is a French word meaning "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods."

Overview

This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity. The most obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of starting a new business (referred as a start-up company); however, in recent years, the term has been extended to include social and political forms of entrepreneurial activity. When entrepreneurship is describing activities within a firm or large organization it is referred to as intrapreneurship and may include corporate venturing, when large entities spin-off organizations.

Entrepreneurial activities are substantially different depending on the type of organization that is being started. Entrepreneurship ranges in scale from solo projects (even involving the entrepreneur only part-time) to major undertakings creating many job opportunities. Many "high value" entrepreneurial ventures seek venture capital or angel funding (seed money) in order to raise capital to build the business. Angel investors generally seek annualized returns of 20-30% and more, as well as extensive involvement in the business. Many kinds of organizations now exist to support would-be entrepreneurs, including specialized government agencies, business incubators, science parks, and some NGOs.

In more recent times, the term entrepreneurship has been extended to include elements not related necessarily to business formation activity such as conceptualizations of entrepreneurship as a specific mindset, resulting in entrepreneurial initiatives, e.g., in the form of social entrepreneurship, political entrepreneurship, or knowledge entrepreneurship have emerged.