ssive catalyst for change in the business as an independent thinker, daring to be different (Kuratako & Hodgetts, 1998). Kent and Anderson (2003) also recognized that entrepreneurs could act as change agents for creating social as well as material progress. While the conventional view holds that the term entrepreneurship should be reserved only for discussions concerning profit driven start-up businesses, it is argued here that the term also has wide applicability to important social concerns such as public education (Kourilsky & Hentschke, 2003).
Charter school founders are identified as social entrepreneurs since they are catalysts for social change that create a new enterprise for the betterment of children's lives. They provide new opportunities to foster creative activity and independent action, serving as change-agents who apply innovative and creative thinking to fulfill unmet needs within our society. Based on this assumption, for the purposes of this study, entrepreneurship is defined utilizing the key elements of Timmons' synthesis as follows:
the ability to create and build a vision from practically nothing. Fundamentally, it is a human, creative act. It is the application of energy to initiating and building an enterprise or organization, rather than just watching or analyzing. This vision requires a willingness to take creative risks--both personal and financial--and then to do everything possible to reduce the chances of failure. Entrepreneurship also includes the ability to build an entrepreneurial or venture team to complement your own skills and talents. It is the knack for sensing an opportunity where others see chaos, contradiction and confusion. It is possessing the know-how to find, marshal, and control resources often owned by others. (Timmons, 1994)
Entrepreneurship has a role in the founding of new charter schools. The current evolution of school reform is stimulating the adoption of more entrepreneu...