ADEKUNLE AJASIN UNIVERSITY, AKUNGBA-AKOKO ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT (CED)

CCMAS ENT 211: ENTRPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION
LECTURE MODULE ONE

Concept of Entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship/Corporate

Entrepreneurship)

In the world of today, many businesses have failed (wounded-up) and many more are failing due
to lack of understanding of what it takes to run a business. This necessitates proper
entrepreneurship education in tertiary institutions, that is aimed at building entrepreneurship spirit
in graduates, that is needed for business survival and growth.
At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
• Define the concept of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship/ corporate entrepreneurship
• Differentiate between entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship
• Identify an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur by their characteristics.

What is Entrepreneurship?
The word entrepreneurship is derived from the French word ‘entreprendre‘, which simply means
‘to undertake’. It indicates a situation in which an individual undertakes an act of some sort. It
is important to state that entrepreneurship has no universal definition as many scholars have
defined it differently from their own perspective. For instance, Putari (2006) observes that
scholars had not been in agreement in their definitions of entrepreneurship and chronicled the
definitions of entrepreneurship by various scholars.
Some definitions of entrepreneurship
• Cantillon views entrepreneurship as: “self-employment of any sort”.
• In 1934, Joseph Schumpeter equated entrepreneurship with the concept of innovation and
applied it to a business context, while emphasizing the combination of resources.
• Penrose (1963) views entrepreneurship as the activity that involves identifying
opportunities within the economic system.
• Leibenstein (1968, 1979) perceives entrepreneurship as involving "activities necessary to
create or carry on an enterprise where not all markets are well established or clearly
defined and/or in which relevant parts of the production function are not completely
known”.
• Okpara (2000) defines entrepreneurship as the willingness and ability of an individual to
seek out investment opportunities in an environment and be able to establish and run an
enterprise successfully based on the identifiable opportunities.
• Nwachukwu (1990) regards entrepreneurship as a process of seeing and evaluating
business opportunities, gathering the necessary resources to take advantage of them and
initiate appropriate action to ensure success.
These definitions of entrepreneurship as given by the different scholars, lays emphasis on:
• Self-employment of any sort.
• Creation of organizations.
• Innovation applied to a business context.
• The combination of resources.
• Identification and exploitation of opportunities within the economic system or market.
• The bringing together of factors of production under uncertainty.
Therefore, it can be summarized that any activity that involves a combination of the above can be
regarded as Entrepreneurship. In this sense, entrepreneurship refers to all the processes and
activities involved in establishing, nurturing, and sustaining a business enterprise. It involves the
exploitation of opportunities which exist within a market.

Who is an entrepreneur?
Frankly speaking, not everyone who ventures into a business, or who is self-employed is an
entrepreneur. To be an entrepreneur goes beyond owning or running a business of your own. A
person must possess certain qualities and must have undergone some level of training to be
qualified to be addressed as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are people who see opportunities even
in the midst of threats.
Some definitions of entrepreneur have been given by scholars
• The entrepreneur has been defined by Hornby (1995) as the person who starts or organizes
a commercial enterprise, especially one involving financial risk.
• Meredith et al., (1991) defined entrepreneurs as people who have the ability to see an
evaluate business opportunities, gather the necessary resources in order to take advantage
of them, and to initiate appropriate action to ensure success.
• Stevenson and Jarillo-Mossi (1986) suggest that entrepreneurs create value by combining
resources to exploit an opportunity.
• Putari (2006) asserts that the entrepreneur is the agent "who unites all means of production
and who finds in the value of the products ... the reestablishment of the entire capital he
employs, and the value of the wages, the interest, and rent which he pays, as well as profits
belonging to himself." He views entrepreneurs as change agents (Say, 1816).
• Knight (1921) views entrepreneurs as individuals who attempt to predict and act upon
change within markets.
• Schumpeter (1934) conceives the entrepreneur as the innovator who implements change
within markets through the carrying out of new combinations such as introduction of new
techniques of production, reorganization of an industry and innovation. He further argues
that the entrepreneur is an innovator, one that introduces new technologies into the
workplace or market, increasing efficiency, productivity or generating new products or
services (Deakins and Freel, 2009).
• In Quick MBA (2010), the entrepreneur is defined as one who combines various input
factors in an innovative manner to generate value to the customer with the hope that this
 value will exceed the cost of the input factors, thus generating superior returns that result
in the creation of wealth.
From the forgoing, the important duty of an entrepreneur is to organize the other factors of
production such as land, labour and capital, to ensure the achievement of the organization’s goal.
The entrepreneurs run businesses that may be micro/small, medium or even large corporations.
For example, an entrepreneur can be a book seller at the university gate, a barrister who opens a
law chamber, a man or woman who establishes or school or factory. Whatever the case, the
entrepreneur is the boss, manager, initiator, organizer, planner, administrator, decision maker and
risk taker.
As argued by Olatunla (1997), one out of every three new businesses fail during their first five
years, while as high as eighty (80) percent of small businesses fail during their first five years.
Consequently, an entrepreneur faces great risk and challenges, and therefore, must ensure that
business ideas are properly planned, monitored and coordinated to achieve the desired goals. It is
important that the goal be SMART i.e specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Intrapreneurship/corporate entrepreneurship
Not everyone who possesses entrepreneurial skill will start up as a business owner. For one reason
or the other, some entrepreneurs may be employed to work in corporate organizations.
Sometimes, this may be in a bid to raise business start-up capital, and/or to acquire some level of
experience about a particular business before personally venturing into it. Such corporate
organization employees who possess entrepreneurial skills are known as intrapreneur.
Intrapreneurship entails the development new business ideas, products, or services within an
existing organization. Hence, it is also known as corporate entrepreneurship. Within the
organization, intrapreneurs use their entrepreneurial skills to launch new projects or initiatives
within their organization. They have the backing and resources of their company, but must
navigate internal processes and approvals.

Who is an intrapreneur?
An intrapreneur is an employee of an established company who has an entrepreneurial mindset.
In other words, they embrace innovation, such as thinking of new products or services that can
further the company’s growth objectives. An intrapreneur might spearhead a major new initiative,
for example, and possibly be in charge of their own team. Virtually any type of employee could
be an intrapreneur — from a salesperson to the chief financial officer (CFO). In recent times,
intrapreneurship is greatly encouraged in corporate organizations through the division of
employees into different teams that may also be called think-tank groups within a larger
organization. These teams are granted greater autonomy to pursue their own initiatives
Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship
From the discussion so far, we can deduce that both entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship involve
identifying opportunities, developing new ideas and bringing them to market. Both of these
professionals embrace the entrepreneurial mindset. They are constantly thinking of ways to solve
real-world problems through new or improved products or services.
While there are certainly exceptions, both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs may exhibit the
following character traits and skills:
• Creativity
• Out-of-the-box thinking
• Desire to improve products or services, and solve real-world problems
• Leadership abilities
• Adaptability in an ever-changing business environment
• Passion for continuous, lifelong learning

However, there are areas of differences between an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur. These can
be briefly discussed under the following headings:
Ownership and control
While entrepreneurs create and manage their own businesses, and as such operate independently,
intrapreneurs innovate within the structure of an existing organization
Risk profile
The risk profiles of entrepreneurship versus intrapreneurship differ significantly. Unlike the
intrapreneurs who are only employees, entrepreneurs face high personal and financial risk, as they
invest their own resources and time into their ventures/business.
Compensation/reward
The potential rewards can be substantial, however, including significant financial gain and
personal fulfillment. Intrapreneurs, on the other hand, face lower personal risk since they work
within an established organization and typically retain their job security. While the financial
rewards for intrapreneurs may be less dramatic, they can achieve professional recognition, career
advancement and the satisfaction of contributing to their company’s success.
Decision making
Entrepreneurs in most cases must make sole decision on issues relating to their business, including
securing their own funding (often through investors, loans or personal savings) and build their
support networks from scratch. They need to be resourceful and self-reliant. However,
intrapreneurs benefit from the existing infrastructure, financial resources and support systems of
their organization. They can leverage company resources to develop and implement their ideas
but must also align their initiatives with organizational goals and navigate internal politics and
processes to gain support.

Dimensions of entrepreneurship qualities

According to Gartner (1985), there are four dimensions that can be used to explain the
qualities/characteristics of an entrepreneur. These include: founder’s characteristics-,
organizational characteristics, environmental characteristics, process/condition of establishment
of the venture.
Founder’s characteristics
As implied, this relates to the qualities possessed by an entrepreneur that guarantees his/her
success in any business venture. A potential entrepreneur must re-examine/re-assess
himself/herself to be sure that he/she possesses the capacity to undertake a business, taking into
consideration the required physical, moral and emotional capacities. The following qualities can
make the entrepreneur succeed in business:
Leadership – Successful entrepreneurs are successful leaders because they generate and develop
ideas, gather necessary resources and set goals for business.
Risk-taking- Entrepreneurs are reasonable risk takers. They sometimes take up very difficult but
surmountable challenges, by applying their skills and knowledge. The entrepreneur undertake risk
to profit from it.
Originality – Successful entrepreneurs must be initiative, innovative, creative, resourceful,
versatile and knowledgeable
Self-confidence – Successful entrepreneurs are self-confident and have the likeness for
independence. They are people who are prepared to be accountable for their actions
Task/Result oriented – Successful entrepreneurs ensure that set goals/targets are achieved,
through persistent and determined efforts, coupled with hard work.
Good Communication Skills
This basically pertains to communicate effectively. An entrepreneur who can effectively
communicate with customers, employees, suppliers and creditors will be more likely to succeed
than the entrepreneur who does not. An entrepreneur must have a good feedback system.
Human Skills
An entrepreneur must have good human relations. The most important personality factors
contributing to the success of any entrepreneur include emotional stability, good inter- personal
relations, consideration and tactfulness. An entrepreneur has to maintain good relations with his
customers so as to encourage them to continue to patronize his business. He must also maintain
good relations with his employees so as to motivate them to perform their jobs with a high level
of efficiency.
Technical skills
An entrepreneur must have the competence and proficiency in the knowledge of the business. It
is the possession of specialized knowledge and understanding in methods, processes, procedures
and techniques in carrying out day-to-day activities. Examples are; coaching, organizing,
monitoring environment amongst others.

Focused
In getting things done and starting and maintaining a business attention has to be paid to a lot of
details. Small things when not handled properly or noticed on time may lead to disastrous
outcomes.
Organizational characteristics
The organizational characteristics that must be taken into consideration includes the goals and
objectives of the organization, it resources, and forms of business ownership (sole-proprietorship,
partnership, limited liability company), types of business (micro, medium, large company), and
the range of products/services provided. These characteristics have important relationship with
the source of finance and determines its sustainability and relevance in a competitive business
environment

Environmental characteristics
The entrepreneur must also take into consideration the environmental characteristics when
starting a business. Since businesses operate within an environment, the environment will surely
affect its activities. The environment must be properly scanned to overcome threats and take
advantage of the opportunities therein. The scanning can be done through a SWOT analysis i.e
analyzing the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. The macroeconomic environment
must be stable and investment friendly. The changes in the socio-economic and political
environment must be identified on time, so that the business can adjust as appropriate,

Process of starting a new venture

The procedures and formalities to be followed in starting a new venture/business may involve
meeting some legal requirements. Depending on the form of business, this may include
registration of business, certificate of incorporation e.t.c. The entrepreneur must study and be
familiar with all requirements, in order for the smooth establishment of the business.

Selected References for Further Reading

BusinessDictionary.Com (2010). “Entrepreneurship”. http://www.businessdictionary.com/
definition/entrepreneurship.html.
Deakins, D., & Freel, M. (2009). Entrepreneurship and small firms.
Gartner (1988). In Putari, Vijith (2006). Re: Evolution of entrepreneurship.
http://www.managementparadise.com
Putari, V. (2006). “Re: Evolution of entrepreneurship”. March, 2nd . http://www.
managementparadise.com/forums/entrepreneurship/1118-evolution
Stevenson, H.H., & Jarillo-Mossi, C. (1986). A paradigm of entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial
management. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-48543-8_7
Wikipedia (2010). “Entrepreneur”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Entrepreneur#cite_ref-0.

Compiled for ENT 211 Lecture Module One

by: David O. Ayeni (2024/2025 Academic Session ENT Coordinator)
4th January, 2025