entrepreneur

entrepreneur

any owner of capital who is engaged in the management of an enterprise for the sale of goods or services for profit. Classical economics focused on entrepreneurial activity as a factor of production in which risk taking was the key attribute of the entrepreneur. Classical microeconomic theory of the firm also assumed the existence of an individual entrepreneur as the basis for decision making in terms of profit maximization. In contrast, sociological study of entrepreneurs has been concerned in particular with their position within the class structure, their values and their relations to other class groupings (see also MIDDLE CLASS). Features of entrepreneurship variously include: values of independence, innovation, competition and a belief in enterprise and profit making (see also PROTESTANT ETHIC, ENTERPRISE CULTURE). Recent organizational research has identified the phenomenon of intrapreneurship: the development of entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour of employees within the enterprise.

Empirical research into entrepreneurs has indicated that they do not comprise a homogeneous category, but include the self-employed, small employers, owner-controllers and owner-directors (Scase and Goffe, 1982). Sociological analysis of the self-employed – small proprietors, artisans and tradespeople – has occupied a problematic place in the study of the changing class structure of capitalist societies in terms of their position between large-scale capital and the working class (see PETTY BOURGEOISIE). Interest in the self-employed has been renewed recently with the proliferation of small businesses and research into the INFORMAL ECONOMY. The class position of owner-controllers and owner-directors has figured prominently in the analysis of the separation of ownership from control, and of the RULING CLASS in advanced capitalist societies. See also MANAGERIAL REVOLUTION, POSTCAPITALISM AND POSTCAPITALIST SOCIETY.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000