Abstract
<p>During the past two decades there has been a heightened policy and research interest in the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship in South Africa and other countries. The recent focus on entrepreneurship has made an understanding that the nature or role of entrepreneurs is essential for economic growth and business development. Without entrepreneurs, there cannot be any entrepreneurship, whether in a large or small venture. It is increasingly realized that SMME entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship are critical to the generation of output growth, employment creation, wealth expansion, revenue generation and poverty alleviation for individual and national prosperity, when many large firms are downsizing and retrenching labour, amidst a background of recessionary circumstances and fiscal stress. Entrepreneurship has been conceptualized by different schools of thought, stressing different functions, under diverse circumstances in different historical times. This paper critically examines the nature of entrepreneurship by selectively drawing from the economic, management and psychological schools. It then presents an eclectic view of entrepreneurship related to decision-making ability under conditions of uncertainty by individuals who have access to and can control the utilization of resources in response to opportunities. The paper offers some pointers for enhancing the supply of effective entrepreneurship at the national level in South Africa, and suggests that an interdisciplinary approach is needed to gain a better understanding of entrepreneurship.</p>
Highlights
Entrepreneurship has always been an integral facet to human and business development (Urban, 2008: 27) it has been the focus of heightened interest in the policy and academic circles in the past two decades
Against a backdrop of the recent global recession, downsizing by large firms and problems of rising inequality, unemployment and budget deficits in Europe, South Africa and many developing countries, it is realized that vigorous entrepreneurship is critical for sustainable job creation and economic growth in a society
Entrepreneurship is regarded as a prime factor of production that coordinates other inputs and organizes production in the enterprise
Summary
Entrepreneurship has always been an integral facet to human and business development (Urban, 2008: 27) it has been the focus of heightened interest in the policy and academic circles in the past two decades. Until recently, developing countries placed considerable efforts on physical capitalinvestment, in their quest for economic expansion, and entrepreneurship was regarded as a residual factor in the neoclassical growth model. Recently entrepreneurship gained eminence in the endogenous theory, as it is regarded as the engine of growth and development in an economy (Lucas, 2009). Despite the frequency with which the term entrepreneurship or entrepreneur is used, there is a lack of consensus on the fundamental attributes underpinning this factor. The paper highlights the conceptualization of entrepreneurship and attributes of the successful entrepreneur by selectively drawing from the economic, managerial and psychological schools respectively. These are covered in the three sections. This is followed by a conclusion, offering directions for an enhanced understanding of the conceptualization and development of entrepreneurship
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