Two Sides of Entrepreneurship: Towards the Need to Distinguish between a Popular Label

Abstract:     
Entrepreneurship has become a prominent and strategically important issue when talking about the driving forces of prosperity and job creation. However, entrepreneurship seems to be poorly defined. The paper studies central assumptions by questioning what many contemporaries take for granted. The paper shows that it is necessary to define the term "entrepreneurship." Recent arguments should distinguish the difference, sometimes contradictory, between the phenomenon of dynamic fast growing firms and that of the emergence of new microenterprises of the self-employed that have neither the intention nor the possibility of growing. Economic policy debate should specify more precisely what is really meant when talking about entrepreneurship.

Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 28

Keywords: entrepreneurship, self-employment, economic policy, service sector trends, labour market

JEL Classification: D29, J49, L89

Accepted Paper Series