As I am very influenced by Israel Kirzner: 'finding the gap/looking around the corner'=resourcefulness.

One way to answer it is to consider ENT from a teaching perspective and to identify its threshold concepts (See Meyer & Land, 2005). For instance: the difference between risk and uncertainty; entrepreneurial learning from failure ; opportunity belief formation etc. If I had to choose one, it would be risk & uncertainty from prof. Knight.

Bolinger, A. R., & Brown, K. D. (2015). Entrepreneurial failure as a threshold concept: The effects of student experiences. Journal of Management Education, 39(4), 452-475. ,

Meyer J. H., & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher education, 49(3), 373-388.

Thank you for the answer Stephen I. Ternyik

Kirzner is a good starting point. The key words are; 1) find ; 2) gap ; 3) resourcefulness. Resourcefulness applied towards finding a gap. Is that right? We will return to Kirzner later in the thread.

Thank you for an interesting answer Julie Hermans

Risk and uncertainty are interesting concepts. To ensure we are on the same wave-length. Risk is equivalent to chance or probability of an undesirable result or outcome on the downside, but embedded in this, is also chance of an upside, i.e., a desirable outcome. In a normal setting, the upside has to be larger than the downside.

Uncertainty relates to the unknown and being unsure of how things are going to unfold.

If this summation is correct, is it your submission that entrepreneurship is the study of taking commercial chance on unknown ventures?

In terms of entrepreneurship as a discipline - good grasp of one's own, as well as consumer behavior (i.e. human nature in all of its varieties + what causes inconsistencies in it)

In terms of practice - 3 things:

- correct "reading" into currently forming trends in service, or good consumption with expected stable(r) near- to mid-term future (3+ years)

- good, working know-how on the streamlined conversion of primary materials/ secondary goods/ services into desirable (to others) assets to sell/ buy/ resell/ lend

- ensure flexible "tipping point" pricing (i.e. the highest price, consumers are willing to pay for a good/ service) based on target consumer groups and their changing circumstances.

:)

Thank you for the link Vishnu Kumar Gupta

Unfortunately, this is only an abstract and does not give much detail about the key premise. I see that he has as one of main references, Ventakaram. Ventakaram come from a school of thought that is "by and large" similar to Kirzner.

Would you give us the key thrust of your submission or Boris's submission or should we assume that the key thrust is similar to Ventakaram et al?

Kheepe Lawrence Moremi I would rather say that entrepreneurship is about elaborating new business opportunities in situations of risk and uncertainty, and thus being able to adapt your principles of actions accordingly. When facing uncertainty, it's more about reducing uncertainty through commitments for instance (see effectuation theory) than just taking a chance.

Got it Julie Hermans

"Elaborating business opportunities in situations of risk and uncertainty..."

I agree with the de-risking part, but I am intrigued by "elaboration."

Kheepe Lawrence Moremi Elaboration as "working out" things and making it happen. You could also use identifying, creating, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities, but I like how "elaboration" evokes positive action rather than just seeing opportunities

Entrepreneurship encompasses all formal knowledge of management, in addition to several others that are not formal.

Thank you Roberto - Minadeo for your time and participation. Formal knowledge of management may be an "important" component" of entrepreneurship, but I doubt it would be a "differentiating factor" of the field of entrepreneurship. I am open to persuasion.

Thank you Valeria Tananska for your time and participation. You have described the activities that entrepreneurs engage in, but most of the tools used in the activities you have described above, are borrowed from other disciplines and may not be considered "differentiating features" of entrepreneurship as a discipline or field of study.

In general, entrepreneurship is related to other social sciences, such as the economic and management context. Specific examples, can relate to business law, local wisdom and humanities, or others, including technological knowledge. They complement the concepts of entrepreneurial behavior, and business potential.

I agree 100% R. Agus Trihatmoko , but there is still something that Entrepreneurship contributes to the body of knowledge that sets it apart from other disciplines. What is that one thing?

Thank you for engaging deeply with the topic Julie Hermans . I see two catch words in your response. These are; 1) seeing and; 2) Acting on opportunities (the object). Could you outline your view on the type and nature of "these opportunities that truly distinguish entrepreneurship from all other? Thank you in advance.

In my opinion, it is "character". A combination of risk affinity, resilience, creativity, commitment, self control, autonomy, humbleness and pride.

Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

Entrepreneurs do challenge themselves with perseverance and taking calculated risk. Plus, they also have self-commitment and self-confidence. They realized that their selves is of vital importance to stand up and keep go on and on.

Learning entrepreneurship is learning how to recognize your potential and the environment to be realized in business practices. The most important thing is how learning is able to foster entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions. This is very complex because it requires full support from universities to facilitate business practices along with business laboratories and incubators. Good collaboration between universities, government and companies strongly supports this success.

Thank you Wahidmurni Wahidmurni Pyay Oo May Norberto Sainz for your time, participation and insights. I am digesting your points and will engage with your submissions shortly.

It is the risk taking entrepreneurial spirit. That is what absolutely distinguishes it from the rest.

Thank you Joseph Gombawai . I will digest your response and revert soonest.

Kheepe

Dear Kheepe Moremi ,

Although entrepreneurship is a kind of actions, not a strongly defined discipline, I put two things that distinguish entrepreneurial actions from other business actions:

1) novelty (at least for the individual or the firm) of actions

2) personal risks (direct loss of personal fortune (for a person), loss of reputation (for both persons and firms), the increased risk of bankruptcy (for the firm). The second point was mentioned by Joseph Gombawai too.

Thank you for your considered response Igor Gurkov . I agree that the study of entrepreneurship involves the study of; 1) people (entrepreneurs); 2) what the do (actions/activities) and; 3) .....

Novelty relates to the nature of the actions and the outcomes of their activities. Risk is a controversial topic, but it is widely taken as read by most scholars, that it is one of the situations that entrepreneurs find themselves or operate under.

I agree with Igor Gurkov, definitely.

Thank you for your time and contribution Mirna Leko Šimić

Opportunity identification and fearlessness/risk-taking

Spot on Jennifer Vidrine . Entrepreneurship as a discipline or field of study is defined by "opportunity formation" and "opportunity exploitation." Fearlessness and risk taking relates to the characteristics or the disposition of the entrepreneur (the person).

Opportunity identification is an area of debate, but it is central element of opportunity formation and exploitation. It is a central cog in the school of thought postulated by Kirzner, Ventakaram, Shane et al, but it is refuted by Barney et al.

Raising such question one should have a shared understanding of what entrepreneurship is at all. However, this common understanding is not given, see

Bögenhold, D. 2019. Changing Ideas and Contours of Entrepreneurship in the History of Thought: On the Fluidity and Indefiniteness of a Term in: International Review of Entrepreneurship, 17 (2).145-168.

Thank you for your participation Dieter Bögenhold . I have a great deal of respect for economic sociologists. I shall study your work.

Thank you for the question. What distinguishes it is its cross- cutting nature on many disciplines.

What distinguishes an entrepreneur is that he seizes the opportunity that others (the competitors) cannot see.

It's ability to leverage strengths from all other disciplines

Thank you Kaukab Abid Azhar and Andrew Kimwolo . Both of you have one thing in common, cross cutting nature, multi-disciplinary.

Thank you for your contribution Ahmed Abdullah Amanah . Your angle is from the entrepreneur - seize the opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you Alaa Fadhil

Do we mean entrepreneurship as an academic discipline, or as a business domain?

At its best the academic discipline tries to understand entreprensuhip (which in itself has many definitions), and tries to come up with plausible theories that understand and predict all kinds of aspects on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. Ultimately to help develop entrepreneurship for the benefit of the good. At its worst, some academia are more interested in citations and rankings :).

At its best, entrepreneurs have a triple bottomline approach (care for the UN SDG); at its worst they try to make a lot of money in a dishonest way. :)

Thank you Anne Staal

Entrepreneurship as an academic discipline.

Uncertainty and risk

Thank you Nedim Čelebić for your contribution.

It births innovation and creativity across disciplines.

Thank you Edwin Chigozie Nwokorie for your time and contribution.

An entrepreneur to me is ago getter who is inspired by conceptualizing ideas implementing and passionately seeing them growing into bigger things. Once such ideas reaches the apex of their fruition he or she tactfully retreats living them to grow and grow.

Thank you Amboka Asumwa Agustine for your contribution.

Welcome Moremi .

Hi,

You might find some related material related to this question in Cornwall and Morris's (2015) book (esp. Chapter 1) titled "Entrepreneurship Programs and Modern Universities."

Regards,

Sri

Thank you for your contribution Srikant Manchiraju

Thank you to all those that took place in this thread. Srikant Manchiraju Nedim Čelebić Edwin Chigozie Nwokorie Anne Staal Kaukab Abid Azhar Amboka Asumwa Agustine Alaa Hussein Fadhil

Thank you for the insightful perspectives.

Dear Kheepe Lawrence Moremi,

In a recently published paper in the Scandinavian Journal of Management, I try to tackle this exact question.

Specifically, I argue that entrepreneurship is a Wittgensteinian “family resemblance” concept, i.e., a concept that is not amenable to a precise definition in terms of individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions. According to this perspective, the concept of entrepreneurship denotes a fuzzily circumscribed variety of human activities connected by a series of overlapping similarities rather than by a set of defining characteristics in common to all and only all entrepreneurial activities.

You can read the paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956522121000038

Kind regards,

Daniel

This is super interesting Daniel Leunbach

Philosophical problems were conceived by Wittgenstein (1953) as linguistic confusions that arise when “language goes on holiday” (section 28).

Thank you for your kind words. I am glad that you found the paper interesting Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

The pleasure is mine Daniel Leunbach

Thank you for your perspective Stephen X. Zhang

In my opinion, the key feature, the essence of entrepreneurship, is the ability and ability to establish a startup and / or to effectively manage an enterprise and / or to run a business effectively and / or to organize institutions for the implementation of social goals, etc. as part of the acceptance of a specific, optimal level of economic, investment, financial, etc. . and the implementation of business goals and personal success in running and managing an economic entity.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Thank you for your time and perspective Dariusz Prokopowicz . Based on the above response, how would you differentiate entrepreneurship from management?

I think the essence of entrepreneurship is the willingness and ability to be better than others. This can be applied in the business world as an entrepreneur, or a career as anything such as lecturers, doctors, nurses, or other careers but having an entrepreneurial spirit, they will provide the best service as a form of entrepreneurial characteristics. Meanwhile, other sciences can be used as the main basis for the profession being pursued.

Best regards,

Wahidmurni

I agree with you that applicable in a variety of domains Wahidmurni Wahidmurni and I also agree that an entrepreneurial spirit is important, but is the one differentiating factor that you can think of that sets entrepreneurship as a discipline from others, management, strategy ...?

Serendipity. Guts. Passion. (answered based on being married to a serial entrepreneur)

Thank you for your time and perspective Jessica Lichy