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.3In 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 India's 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 he