Social and intellectual dimensions of entrepreneurship

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is above all the ability to perceive opportunities and to tap resources necessary to exploit them. In defining entrepreneurship as ability, one accentuates the fact that it does not have to be equally distributed among people. It can be both learned and taught. However, it should be learned and taught because what is intended is the development of a special capacity. Not only is the skill to see opportunities (in other words to recognize possibilities unseen by others) developed, but so too is the competence (or power) to tap resources necessary to exploit them. A successful entrepreneur not only needs sufficient skill to recognize emerging future patterns (which is the essence of opportunity detection), but also the aptitude to figure out whether or not and how he or she is able to tap the necessary resources. None of these factors can be absent—neither opportunity nor resources. They should be observed and reflected upon simultaneously.

Notes

The present text is a modified version of the chapter that the author published in Stefan Kwiatkowski and Patrice Houdayer, eds. Knowledge Café for Intellectual Entrepreneurship THROUGH or AGAINST Institutions, 2004.

At some point, Natalia became terminally ill herself and had to retire, along with her invalid son. Upon selling her second business, they both settled in a convalescent home.