Entrepreneurship is defined by Robbins and Coulter (2007, p. 44) as "the process whereby an individual uses organized efforts to pursue opportunities to create value and grow by finding wants and needs through innovation and uniqueness no matter what resources the entrepreneur currently has." Entrepreneurship is considered to be largely responsible for the continued development of multiple small- to medium-sized enterprises, some of which flourish and grow and others of which exist briefly and then fade away (Burns, 2005; Miles & Covin, 2002). Many different perspectives are advanced on the development of entrepreneurship, including the economic perspective, the personality or trait approach, and the behavioral approach. Overall, Page (1998) suggests that regardless of how one conceptualizes the causal antecedents of the entrepreneurial urge, what is consistent across these differing perspectives is the willingness of an individual or group of people to innovate, to take risks, and to commit to developing ideas and processes or products that ideally meet real market needs.
The functional or economic perspective on entrepreneurship as described by Burnett (2000) derives from theorists such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill and later advanced by Albert Marshall. In this approach, entrepreneurs are regarded as the driving element behind organization, bringing together labor, capital, and land to produce an improved or new commodity.
In the personality traits or characteristics perspective, Endres and Woods (2009), as well as Marino, Strandholm, Steensma, and Weaver (2002) contend that the most successful entrepreneurs in any era tend to be those individuals who have a definitive and observable array of skills and traits that distinguish them from others. For example, these individuals are likely to be more comfortable with risk than non-entrepreneurs. They are also less uncomfortable with uncertainty t...