entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

A person starting a new company who takes on the risks associated with starting the enterprise, which may require venture capital to cover start-up costs.

Copyright © 2012, Campbell R. Harvey. All Rights Reserved.

Entrepreneur

The possessor or owner of a for-profit organization. The term is usually applied to small business owners, who bear the majority of the risk and reap the most benefit from a company. It can also relate to (individual) majority shareholders who are involved in the operation of his/her business. Entrepreneurs are generally accepted as integral to the success of a capitalist system.

Farlex Financial Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All Rights Reserved

entrepreneur

A risk-taker who has the skills and initiative to establish a business.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.

entrepreneur

a person who undertakes the risks of establishing and running a new business. Entrepreneurs are characterized by their initiative and enterprise in seeking out new business opportunities; inventing and commercializing new goods and services and methods of production. See VENTURE CAPITAL, INDUSTRIAL POLICY, INTRAPRENEURIAL GROUP, MANAGEMENT BUYOUT.

Collins Dictionary of Business, 3rd ed. © 2002, 2005 C Pass, B Lowes, A Pendleton, L Chadwick, D O’Reilly and M Afferson

entrepreneur

an individual who assembles and organizes FACTORS OF PRODUCTION to undertake a venture with a view to PROFIT. The individual may supply one or more of the three factors of production (NATURAL RESOURCES, LABOUR, CAPITAL) himself or may hire or buy any or all factors in the expectation of future profits. The entrepreneurial function is sometimes called a . fourth factor of production.

The entrepreneur was seen in the 19th century as an individual proprietor who supplied most or all of the factors of production but especially managerial expertise. The advent of the JOINT-STOCK COMPANY led to the division of management and the supply of capital, so that the term ‘entrepreneur’ became a more hypothetical abstract term attached to any individual or group who performs the risk-bearing and organizing functions above. The traditional THEORY OF THE FIRM suggests that entrepreneurs attempt to maximize profit, but since the 1930s there has been growing awareness that the DIVORCE OF OWNERSHIP FROM CONTROL in large joint-stock companies influences the behavioural attitudes of groups of individuals within organizations, which may lead to corporations following objectives other than PROFIT MAXIMIZATION. See BEHAVIOURAL THEORY OF THE FIRM, MANAGERIAL THEORIES OF THE FIRM, RISK AND UNCERTAINTY.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005

entrepreneur

One who assumes risk in order to combine knowledge, capital, and resources to create a venture that will hopefully return a profit.

The Complete Real Estate Encyclopedia by Denise L. Evans, JD & O. William Evans, JD. Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.