Conservation and Development Entrepreneurship/Definitions

Definitions

1. Merriam’s Dictionary: en·tre·pre·neur noun

   Etymology -- French, from Old French, from entreprendre to undertake one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise

2. The word entrepreneurship literally is very broad, as defined above, and essentially refers to anyone who operates an enterprise. However, in common meaning there is usually a sense of innovation and speed - as shown by this excerpt from Prof. Bill Rossi of UF’s Center for Entrepeneurship and Innovation
3. Definition of “entrepreneurship” is new and still in construction. Shane (2003) define entrepreneurship as the segment that is creative in generate new opportunities, new processes of organize the production, operational organization chart, new marketing strategies to goods and services. Recently the concept of entrepreneurship was redefined, categorizing entrepreneurship accord the motivations behind the initiative. To Sherman (2006) when “the primary motivation of the entrepreneurship is to catalyze social change and create social value” it denominates as social entrepreneurship, differentiating from entrepreneurship that prioritize profit.

Categories

Entrepreneurial activities are indeed creating the wealth of nations. A recent study of global entrepreneurship concludes that as much as one-third of differences in national economic growth in developed countries can be attributed to entrepreneurial activities.

There is no doubt that the emphasis on entrepreneurship in the United States has led to the prosperity of the past decade. In the United States, 600,000 to 800,000 companies are created each year representing 15 new companies for every existing 100 companies. At any point in time, 6 adults out of every 100 are actively pursuing the formation of a new business. In the past decade, all of the growth in employment has come from new companies that have experienced tremendous growth or from the formation of new companies.

The entrepreneurial sector is unique in its culture and in its ways of doing business. Although the classic rules of economics and business still hold, working in this sector is different. Management structure is flat; work is done in informal teams brought together for opportunities; the focus is on capitalizing on new opportunities; and providing new and better products and services. The essence of the operation is speed- speed to find opportunities; speed to capitalize on opportunities.

Social Entrepreneur

The concept of social entrepreneurship has different applications, depend on the context (Dees 2001) (Peredo and McLean 2006) (Alvord, Brown, and Letts 2004). In general, social entrepreneurship are indentified as organizations that work not-for-profit or with social responsibility. Accordingly Alvord et al. (2004) there are three focuses to considering social entrepreneurship: first combining commercial enterprise with social impacts; second promoting innovating for social impacts; third as able of catalyze social transformation well beyond solutions to the initial problems. It imply the social mission is central to social entrepreneurship, differentiating of other entrepreneurships (Dees 2001; Peredo and McLean 2006).

Ps. The term "Conservation Entrepreneur" has not been widely used, but the term Social Entrepreneur is widely used. See for example: Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship - What is a social entrepreneur?

Annotated References

• Dees, j Gregory. 2001. The Meaning of "Social Entrepreneurship".
• Peredo, Ana María, and Murdith McLean. 2006. Social entrepreneurship: A critical review of the concept. Journal of World Business 41 (1):56-65.
• Shane, S. 2003. A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus. Cheltenham, UK:: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
• Sherman, David A. 2006. Social Entrepreneurship: Pattern-changing Entrepreneurs and the Scaling of Social Impact. In Case Western Reserve University. Cleveland, Ohio: Weatherhead School of Management.

Good Source of Information

1. Entrepreneurship:
2. Social Entrepreneurship:
3. Social entrepreneur:
   • http://www.schwabfound.org/sf/SocialEntrepreneurs/Profiles/index.htm
   • http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2008/index.html
   • Muhammud Yunus of Grameen Bank (see Grameen Bank including the criticism piece at Wikipedia)
   • Bill Drayton of Ashoka Foundation