ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A DIVERSE CONCEPT IN A DIVERSE WORLD Thomas Falcone 304 Eberly College of Business & Information Technology Indiana

University of Pennsylvania (IUP) Indiana, PA 15705 tfalcone@iup.edu Stephen Osborne Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) Abstract Entrepreneurship is an ancient concept that is both simple and complex at the same time. Conceptualizations, definitions, understandings of the phenomenon, have eluded scholars and practitioners for a very long time. While we struggle to try and capture it, as we seem to get closer to a satisfactory resolution, we find that the concept continues to evolve. This paper presents a historical summary and synthesis of entrepreneurship and (re)raises some significant issues that are unresolved. THE HISTORY ENTREPRENEURSHIP The concept of entrepreneurship has been around as long as man has existed. Its serious study and documentation, however, has been around only a couple hundred years, and the field of entrepreneurship studies has only been seriously coalescing over the last fifty. A handful of academic programs focused on entrepreneurship by the mid 1970s but has grown to universal acceptance in curriculum, research and practice Lets go back in time to chronologically reference some of the more important writings on entrepreneurship. Throughout this journey, recognize the many nuances of the definition, causation and person/environment controversies that contribute to the fuzziness of the concept known as entrepreneurship and analyze our conclusion that the field has arrived at an era demanding better entrepreneurship, an entrepreneurship that is more visionary, disciplined and sensitive to the openness of modern systems. We lead you in the application of open systems theory (some other similar theories that we discuss that are closely aligned to open system thinking are complex adaptive theory, systems theory, emergent theory and learning organization theory). We conclude by illustrating how open systems theory has emerged as a point of light from this mass of literature; and how the future study and practice of entrepreneurship might proceed along the systems vein based on some logical assumptions arising from systems theory that helps synthesize a definition that is more operational, capturing behaviors that constitute entrepreneurial events and subsystems epitomized by the American socio-economic system. Diversity of Literature The history of entrepreneurship study is multi-disciplinary, multi-national and rather

lengthy and abstruse. The scope of the literature, the number of authors and the multidisciplinary nature of entrepreneurship complicate any comprehensive literature review. Yet, well try to keep it manageable. The literature on entrepreneurship since Cantillon, 1437 doesnt exactly clean up conceptual, definitional and theoretical matters; in fact, in many ways theoretical progress has left us more puzzled on many issues. For good reason, Wilken (1979) used the search for the Heffalump as a metaphor to describe the search for a definition of entrepreneurship. The mystical Heffalump search is particularly poignant because the Heffalump is a leviathan beast of Winnie the Pooh fame, which is a large and intimidating entity that exists in an unknown kingdom that is mysterious and abstract. In our opinion, the connotation of the word entrepreneurship, itself, is leviathan, having many roots, a large trunk and many extremities -- indicative of quite a long and diverse past that has roots in several languages and a variety of nations, eras, cultures and other tributaries, which contributes to its subjective and diverse connotation and annotation. Table I identifies and categorizes entrepreneurial theorists through history. All the timelines for entrepreneurship in Exhibit I start roughly in the 18th century, because the 18th century was when entrepreneurship began to be studied and written about in earnest. Cantillons reference to entrepreneurship is often cited as one of the first, so thats where the literature really begins to take form. Many of the timelines presented in Exhibit I are traditional views spun a little differently. However, some of the timelines represent non-traditional interpretations of historical phases, stages or transitions in entrepreneurship study and knowledge. All are worth noting. The timelines are amalgams from the historical and current literature. ________________________ Table I about here ________________________ _________________________ Exhibit I about here ________________________ DEFINITIONS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP Many writers have also tried to provide a specific definition for entrepreneurship, identifying what they believe makes entrepreneurship distinct from other forms of economic and management thought and behavior. Table II provides a sampling of definitions covering a variety of perspectives across various eras, with an emphasis on recent developments. These definitions incorporate a wide expanse of skills, thought processes, intentions and actual behaviors. The diversity in the emerging definitions seems to only foil attempts at establishing some universal definition. The diversity and complexity seems to be expanding not contracting, making any condensation into a single summary definition dubious.

_________________________ Table II about here _________________________ SUMMARY Entrepreneurship is an intriguing and important topic, and has been throughout history. Entrepreneurship is distinguished by a unique managerial style and the interrelationships and outcomes it produces in our organized socio-economic existence. The history of the study of entrepreneurship has considerable literature, which emphasizes the importance and uniqueness of the entrepreneurial style. The entrepreneurial style is compelled to constantly rethink our wisdom about how organizational life works; and the style is always lurking to be creative, innovative and change things. This purest and most powerful form of management strives to advance our potential for organizational excellence to new levels of capability, as it intentionally endeavors to learn more about reality and influence our future more effectively. Its going to take forever to genuinely discover how extremely complex and dynamic concepts like entrepreneurship fit into mans perfect future and how entrepreneurial management can be used to give us ultimate progress. We better get started!! REFERENCES Bohm, David, The Special Theory Of Relativity, W. A. Benjamin, New York, 1965. Bruno, A. and Tyebee, Tyzoon, Negotiating Venture Capital Financing, California Management Review, vol. 29 (1), Fall 1986, 45-59. Carland, J.W. and Carland J. C., A model of Potential Entrepreneurship: Profiles and Education Implications, JSBS, v8, no. 1, Spring 1997. Cooper, Arnold, Division History Vignettes, Newsletter of the American Management Association, Entrepreneurship Division, 1999, p. 2. Cooper, Arnold, Entrepreneurship: The Past, The Present, The Future, Presented at the USASBE National Conference, 1/16/98. Fiedler, F. E., A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967. Gartner, William B., What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Entrepreneurship, Journal of Business Venturing, 5, pp. 15-28, 1990. Gartner, William B., Who Is the Entrepreneur? Is the Wrong Question, American Journal of Small Business, Spring 1988. Herbert, R. F. and Link, A. N., The Entrepreneur, Preager, New York, 1982. Hoselitz, B. F., The Early History of Entrepreneurship Theory, Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, 3,no. 4 (April 15, 1951), pp 193-220 (cited heavily in Landstrom, H., The Roots of Entrepreneurship Research, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, v2, No. 2, Fall 1999). In 2001 the Academy of Management Review (AMR) entertained dialogue forum on Entrepreneurship As A Field of Study Shane and Venkattarmans article, 2000, op.

cit.). This series of articles focused on the distinctiveness of entrepreneurship research and the vagaries that surround it. Kansas, Carry On Wayward Son, 1976. Low, M. B. and McMillan, I. C., Entrepreneurship: Past Research and Future Challenges, Journal of Management, 14, 139-161. 1988. Ofori-Dankwa, Joseph and Jullian, Scott D., Complexifying Organizational Theory: Illustrations Using Time Research, AMR, v 26, No. 3, July 2001, pp. 415-430. This Quote borrows heavily from the criticisms of contingency theory by Pondy, L. R. and Mitroff, I. I., Beyond Open Systems Models of Organizational, Research in Organizational Behavior, 1, 3-39, 1979. Ostroff, Frank, The Horizontal Organization, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999. Peters, Thomas J. and Waterman Robert H., Jr., In Search of Excellence: Lessons From Americas Best-Run Companies, Harper Collins, 1982. Schindehutte, Minet, Morris, Michael and Kuratko, Donald, Classification As A Factor In The Scientific Evolution Of Entrepreneurship, Journal of Small Business Strategy, Fall/Winter 2000, v11, No.2. Sexton, Donald L. and Bowman-Upton, Nancy, Entrepreneurship: Creativity and Growth, Macmillan Publishing, NY, NY, 1991. Spengler, Joseph J. and Allen, William R., Essays in Economic Thought: Aristotle to Marshall (Part Four: The Classical School and Marx), Rand McNally, Chicago, 1960. Wilken, Paul, Entrepreneurship: A Comparative and Historical Study, Ablex Publishing, Norwood N. J., 1979. Table I: A Chronological History of Entrepreneurial Theorists CLASSICAL (to about 1850) Richard Cantillon (Irish) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 21) Francois Quesnay (French) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 25) Anne-Robert, Jacques Turgot (French) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 29) Nicolas Baudeau (French) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 27) Jeremy Bentham (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982p. 43) J. B. Say (French) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 32) David Ricardo (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 40) Adam Smith (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 38) J.H. von Thnen (German) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 45) John Stuart Mill (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 44) Bruno Hilderbrand (German) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 74) Gustav (Hans) Schmller (German) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 75) H.K. Von Mangoldt (German) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 48) NEOCLASSICAL (to about 1950) Karl Marx (German) Alfred Marshall (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 53) Leon Walras (French) - (Walker, p. 1) Carl Menger (Austrian) Francis Walker (American)

Friedich Von Wieser (Austrian) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 51) Eugen Von Bhm-Bawerk (Austrian) Francis Y Edgeworth (1926, English) (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 51) F.W. Taussig (American) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 68) Warner Sombart (German) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 75) Max Weber (German) Israel Mayer Kirzner (Austrian) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, pp. 95-96) John Bates Clark (American Harvey Leibenstein (Austrian) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 100) Edwin F.Gay (American) A.C. Pigou (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 56) Ludwig von Mises (Austrian) Schumpeter (German) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 73, p. 75) John Keynes (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 68) MODERN (to about 1980) Frank H. Knight (American) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 69) Arthur Cole (American) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 7) Arthur Koestler (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 3) Bert Hoselitz (American) Jacob Bronowski (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 2) G.L.S. Shackle (English) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 3-4) S. M. Kanbur (American) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 83) F. B. Hawley (American) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 65) T. W. Schultz (American) - (Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 104) David McClelland (American) MODERN SITUATIONALISTS Jeffrey A. Timmons, Leonard Smollen and Alexander Dingee (New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship in the 1990s, Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1990) Robert C. Ronstadt (Entrepreneurship. Dover, MA: Lord Publishing.1984) Lanny Herron and Harry Sapienza Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 49-55, 1992) Gifford Pinchot (Intrapreneuring: Why You Dont Have to Leave the Corporation to Become an Entrepreneur, 1985) Hans Schollhammer (The Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1982) Karl Vesper William D. Guth and Ari Ginsberg (Corporate Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management Journal, 11 (1990), 5-15.) Jeffrey G. Covin and Dennis P. Slevin Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Fall 1991 Vol. 16, No.1 pp. 7-26) Deborah V. Brazeal Journal of Business Venturing, 8: 75-100, 1993) L. Hrebiniak Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 30, pp.: 336-349, 1985) OPEN SYSTEM THEORISTS H. Stevenson, H. Irving Grousbeck, M. J. Roberts and A. Bhide (New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur. 5th ed., Richard D. Irwin, 1999) J.S. Hornsby, D.W. Naffziger, D.F. Kuratko and R.V. Montagno (An Interactive

Model of Corporate Entrepreneurship Process. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 17(2), 29-37,1993) M. B. Low and I. C. MacMillan - (Entrepreneurship: Past Research and Future challenges. Journal of Management, 14, 1988, 339-369) H. E. Aldrich and M. A. Martinez - (Many Are Called, but Few Are Chosen: An Evolutionary Perspective for the Study of Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Summer 2001, 41- 56) B. Bird and M. Jelinek - (The Operation of Entrepreneurial Intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 13 (2): 21- 29,1988) Chester Barnard - (For instance see, S. Robbins and M. Coulter, Management, Prentice Hall, 2002, p.19) Peter F. Drucker - (For instance see, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Harper Business, 1993) Peter Senge - (The Fifth Discipline, Doubleday, 1990) Russell Ackoff - (For instance, see Ackoff Center Weblog) Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn - (The Social Psychology of Organizations, Wiley, 1996, p.17) Tom Peters and Robert Waterman - (In search of Excellence, Warner Books, 1988) Joseph Vogel - (Entrepreneurship, Evolution, and the Entropy Law, Journal of Behavioral Economics, Vol 18, #3, p.186) Mike Moms, Pam Lewis and Don Sexton - (Re-conceptualizing a Entrepreneurship: An Input-Output Perspective, SAM Advanced Management Journal , Winter 1994, V59, #1, p.219) Amir Bhide - (The Origin and Evolution of New Business, Oxford, 2000, P.xiii) Melissa A. Shilling - (Toward A General Modular Systems Theory and Its Application to Interfirm Product Modularity, AMR, 2002, v27, #4, 553-74) Deniz Ucbasaran, Paul Westhead and Mike Wright - (The Focus of Entrepreneurship Research: Context and Process Issues. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Summer 2001 Hans Landstrm - (The Roots of Entrepreneurship Research. New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, 1999, p.10 - 20) Per Davidson and Johan Wiklund -. (Levels of Analysis in Entrepreneurship Research: Current Research Practice and Suggestions for the Future, presented at annual SBIDA Conference, 2002, San Diego) Claudia Bird Schoonhoven and Elaine Romanelli - (The Entrepreneurial Dynamic: Origins of Entrepreneurship and the Evolution of Industries, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001)

Exhibit I: Time Line of Entrepreneurial Thought

Time
1.

. . . 1750

1800

1850
Neo Classical

1900

1950
Modern

2000
Modern Situationalists Open systems
Development

FALCONE/OSBORNE FRAMEWORK . . . Classical TERMS & CONCEPTS DEFINITIONS ORGANIZATION TYPES OF THEORISTS HEBERT AND LINK THEORETICAL POLITICAL MARKETS KOTLERS MARKETS BEHAVIOR Risk, Profit Innovation Nominal Agrarian Novices Mechanistic Economic Freedom Behavior Administration

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Thinking Change Competency

Equilibrium Regulation Personality Reliable

Organic

Operational Humanistic Responsible Learning Organization E-Specialists

Scientific Behavioral Scientists

Organization Theorists

Early Random Production Elitist Freeist Describers

Meandering/Classical Legislated

Neo Classical Bureaucratic/ Democratic Product Sales Representative

Extended Theory Adaptive Societal-marketing concept Proactive

7. 8. 9.

Marketing concept

Physiocrat/Descritionist Prescribers

Structralist Keynesian Traitist Leader Situational Theorists Interveners

10. THEORY 11. IMPERIALISTS

Early(English, French)

Middle(American, German)

Late(Japanese) Globalists/Americans

Table II: Compilation of Entrepreneurship Definitions

1. Entrepreneur is a maker of history, but his guide in making it is his judgment of possibilities and not a calculation of certainties (Shackle, in Herbert and Link (Herbert & Link, 1982), p. viii). 2. Many people set themselves up ... as merchants or entrepreneurs They pay a certain price for a product depending on when they purchase it, to resell wholesale or retail at a certain price (Cantillon, in Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 15). 3. ... must possess art of superintendence and administrator (Say, in Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 32). 4. Central figure in productive system is the entrepreneur. (He) buy(s) the factors of production, the use of the land, labor, machinery and work(s) them up into half-manufactured or finished products, where he sells to other entrepreneurs or consumers, at a price covering his expenses and remunerating his working and waiting (Edgeworth, in Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 55). 5. Entrepreneur is legal owner of an enterprise (F. Von Wieser, in Herbert & Link, 1982, p. 51). 6. Carrying out of new combinations of firm organization -- new products, new services, new sources of raw material, new methods of production, new markets, and new forms of organizations (Schumpeter, 1934, op. cit.). 7. Uncertainty bearing...coordination of productive resources...introduction of innovations and the provision of capital (Hoselitz, 1952, op. cit.). 8. Purposeful activity to initiate and develop a profit-oriented business (Cole, 1959, op. cit). 9. Creation of new organizations (Gartner, 1985, op cit.). 10. Entrepreneurship, in reality is an approach to general management that begins with the opportunity recognition and culminates with the exploitation of opportunity (D. L. Sexton & N. B. Bowman - Upton, Entrepreneurship: Creativity and Growth, MacMillan, 1991, p. 12). 11. Entrepreneurship refers to activities involved in creating new resource combinations that did not previously exist (R. A. Burgelman, M. A., Mardique, and S. C.Wheelman, Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, Irwin, 1988, p. 32). 12. Entrepreneur is one who perceives opportunity and creates organization to pursue it (Bygrane, Ed., The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1997). 13. Entrepreneurship is a process by which people pursue opportunities, fulfilling needs and wants through innovation, without regard to the resources they currently control (Stephen Robbins & Mary Coulter, Management, 6th Edition, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1999, p. 26). 14. Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources available today (Howard Stevenson, USASBE/SBIDA Conference, San Antonio, Plenary Speech, 2/17/00). 15. Emergent, chaotic, and unpredictable charactertermed "newstream activities" (R. M. Kanter and L. Richardson, Engines of Progress: Designing and Running Entrepreneurial Vehicles in Established Organizations: The Enter-Prize Program at Ohio Bell, 1983-1989, Journal of Business Venturing, 6 (January 1991): 63-82. 16. Fundamentally, entrepreneurship is a human creative act. It involves finding personal energy by initiating and building an enterprise or organization, rather than by just watching, analyzing, or describing one. (J. A. Timmons, New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship in the 1990s, 3rd ed., Irwin, Homewood Ill, 1990, p. 5). 17. Entrepreneurship is the launch and/or growth of ventures through the use of innovative riskassuming management. (F. L. Fry, Entrepreneurship: A Planning Approach, West Publishing, St Paul, Minn., 1993, p.27). An integrated concept that permeates an individuals business in an innovative manner (D. F. Karatko and R. M. Hoggets, Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Approach, 4th ed., The Dryfus Press, 1998, p.6).