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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

The study covers the European Union (EU) countries, plus Iceland,
Liechtenstein and Norway.

1.2. Definitions

1.2.1. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is a multifaceted concept that manifests itself in many different
ways. This means that various definitions have emerged and no single definition
has been generally agreed upon (OECD, 2009b). Well known academics such as
Richard Cantillon, Jean Baptiste Say, Alfred Marshall and Joseph Schumpeter
have established the following definitions (OECD, 2009b, p. 8):
• entrepreneurs are those persons (business owners) who seek to generate
value through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying
and exploiting new products, processes or markets;
• entrepreneurial activity is enterprising human action in pursuit of the
generation of value through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by
identifying and exploiting new products, processes or markets;
• entrepreneurship is the phenomenon associated with entrepreneurial activity.
The European Commission definition makes a particular reference to
entrepreneurship as a mindset. It has defined entrepreneurship as ‘the mindset
and process to create and develop economic activity by blending risk-taking,
creativity and/or innovation with sound management, within a new or an existing
organisation’ (European Commission, 2003, p. 6).
The term self-employed is often also used to describe entrepreneurs.
However, Eurostat makes a distinction between two different types of
entrepreneurs: ‘self-employed persons’ who do not employ anyone, and
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‘employers’ who have at least one employee ( ):
• self-employed persons not employing any employees are defined as
persons who work in their own business, professional practice or farm for the
purpose of earning a profit, and who employ no other persons;
• employers employing one or more employees are defined as persons who
work in their own business, professional practice or farm for the purpose of
earning a profit, and who employ at least one other person.

( ) Further information about the definitions used by Eurostat in the context of the Labour Force.
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Available from Internet:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/employment_unemployment_lfs/methodology
/definitions [cited 03.09.2010].

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