The notion of entrepreneur

a review of a group of SME university entrepreneurs (Palmira, 2011)

Abstract

This article discusses the evolution of the concept of entrepreneur. The origin of the term entrepreneur dates back to the eighteenth century when Cantillon, a Frenchman, first coined it in association with the idea of entrepreneurship. It reviews the contributions by Benjamin Franklin, Werner Sombart with The bourgeois, and Max Weber with “Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism”. It also discusses the notion of entrepreneur that developed in the first two decades of the twentieth century together with what was called scientific administration. A study was conducted with a group of twenty entrepreneurs who are attending open and correspondence programs at the National University. The study involved a discussion of the following questions: “What is an entrepreneur?, What are the characteristics of an entrepreneur?, What prompted you to become an entrepreneur? What difficulties have you had as an entrepreneur?, and are you optimistic or pessimistic about the current situation in our country?.” The author presents the results of the study and raises a discussion in this regard.