Entrepreneurship and business activity: content of categories

Abstract

For further development of the theory of entrepreneurship and the operationalization of its concepts, it is important to clarify the content of its fundamental categories «entrepreneurship» and «business activity». It is shown that in Ukraine entrepreneurship is considered in two aspects: as an economic category and as a business activity, in defining the content of which various imperatives are used. The entrepreneurship as an economic category is proposed to be considered as the economic relations of society and economic agents associated with the search, creation and commercialization of innovations that are a powerful driving force in developing the country’s economic system. The concept of «business activity» should objectivize the category of «entrepreneurship», which ensures its use in applied research and practice. The business activity both in the legislation and in scientific literature is considered as a commercial type of economic activity, that is, economic and entrepreneurial activity correlate with each other as a general and a partial one. A number of features are used to separate the general concept of «economic activity» from the concept of «entrepreneurial activity». Therefore, there are grounds to state that there is a certain violation of the relationship between the category of «entrepreneurship» and the concept of «business activity» since innovation as a fundamental feature of entrepreneurship in the interpretation of the content of business activity has lost its decisive significance. The existing identification of the concepts of «business activity» and «business» is shown, which can not be regarded as correct. It is proposed to select from the business activity that part of it, which in fact is focused on innovation (search and commercialization of innovations) and mark such an activity as a venture one.