Innovation is not entrepreneurship, nor vice versa

Abstract

AbstractTo tap into the potential opportunities offered by the phenomena of innovation and entrepreneurship, centers and programming labeled innovation and/or entrepreneurship have become prevalent on university campuses. While exciting, these centers and programming can muddle the demarcation between the two phenomena as centers for entrepreneurship pursue innovation and centers for innovation pursue entrepreneurship. Complicating the situation is a philosophical disagreement over whether one phenomenon subsumes the other or if they are distinguished. This article calls for greater attention to what constitutes innovation and entrepreneurship because a lack of understanding and clarity has the propensity to mis‐specify phenomena, and in turn, mis‐specify strategies and initiatives in practice, plus poses implications for how these phenomena are taught and researched at universities. Four specific areas that clearly distinguish innovation and entrepreneurship are the opportunity created, change orientation, risk incurred, and funding orientation. Innovation focuses on offering creation, reflects a breadth of change that includes incremental, contends with functional/technological risk (does the offering work), and attends to resource deployment. Entrepreneurship focuses on venture creation, emphasizes a need for radical (new and different) change, faces risks arounds getting the business/venture started, and is occupied with resource acquisition (securing funds). Distinguishing these two phenomena by way of these four areas provides needed definition and a demarcation around the domains associated with each phenomenon and exemplifies that what is essential for driving successful entrepreneurship will not automatically drive innovation, nor vice versa.