The Spirit of Entrepreneurship

Essay aus dem Jahr 2013 im Fachbereich Führung und Personal - Sonstiges, Novancia Business School Paris, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Entrepreneurship as a study has been pioneered particularly since the middle of the 20th century.1 Nowadays, it has become a widespread subject among business schools, management scholars and researchers¿¿with literature abounding. But also in practice, many governments have already recognized the value of entrepreneurship for the economy by offering plenty of Entrepreneurial Development Programs. Therefore, not only economists and businesspeople, but also especially sociologists and psychologists ask themselves what actually is an entrepreneur.

Is it¬¬¿¿as the earliest French writer on entrepreneurship, Richard Cantillion, suggests¿¿someone who takes risk for a profit?2 A capitalist and agent of economic progress as understood by English classical economists such as Smith or Bentham? A consummate innovator as epitomized by the Austrian School legacy with Schumpeter as its greatest proponent? Or simply all of it?

Indeed, entrepreneurship is fundamentally personal. That is why one cannot give an exact definition of the entrepreneur. However, there is a general belief that an entrepreneur¿s personality traits can be essential for the success of a new venture. Still, the entrepreneurial psychology or mindset¿¿what we will call the spirit of entrepreneurship¬¬¿¿has not been thoroughly studied hitherto.3

In order to call attention to the individual differences that make or break entrepreneurs, this paper is adapting a personal approach to this topic basing its insights mainly on interviews with two successful entrepreneurs: Michel Hamou, Managing Director and co-founder of Alti SA, an information technology (IT) services company in France that has just been acquired by Indiäs largest outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services (TCS); and Michaël Cohen, co-founder of Bagel Corner, a French fast food chain with a global vision. Both interviews helped to shape the idea of what an entrepreneur really is, the competencies, cognitions and behaviors he or she should reveal, and, in turn, to unmask common stereotypes about entrepreneurship. With those insights, we will be able to develop an entrepreneurial formula, so as to finally establish a personal definition of the spirit of entrepreneurship.