CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The Concept of Entrepreneurship Throughout the theoretical history of entrepreneurship, scholars and researchers from multiple disciplines such as anthropology (steward, 1991), psychology (shaver and Scott, 1991), sociology (Reynolds, 1991), economic (Kirchho, 1991), management (Stevenson, 1985), and technology (Roberts, 1991), and (Litvak and Maule, 1999) cited in tonge (2002) have grappled with a diverse set of interpretations and definitions to conceptualize this abstract idea. A further search of the literature also reveals that researchers have been inconsistent in their definition of entrepreneurship. There are a minimum of a hundred definitions to explain the concept of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. Their meanings depend on when they were devised and on the society in which the various researchers developed them (Di – masi, 1999). In the last century, many writers have identified entrepreneurship with the function of uncertainty and risk bearing and others with the coordination of productive resources, the introduction of innovation and the provision of technical know – how (Hoselitz, 1952) cited in Izurnet, (2000). During the sixteen century, people who organized and managed military and exploration expeditions in France were called”Entreprendre”. The word entrepreneur originates from the French verb “Entreprendre” and the German word “unternehmen” both of which means to undertake (Afonja, 1999). In the oxford dictionary, an entrepreneur is defined as one who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of a business enterprise. The early 18 century French economist Richard cantillon (Circa, 1755) introduced the term entrepreneurship. In his writings, he formally defines entrepreneur as the agent who buys means of production at certain prices in other to combine them into a new product. He further defines entrepreneurship as self employment of any sort where the entrepreneur is the bearer of the uncertainty and risk. Shortly there after, the French economist jean Baptist sayed (1824) defines the entrepreneur as someone who shift economic resources out of an area of lower to an area of high productivity and greater yield. He added to cantillon definition by including the idea that an entrepreneur is one who brings other people together in order to build a single productive organization.
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