Entrepreneurship: Unique Solutions for Unique Environments. Is it Possible to Achieve This with the Existing Paradigm?

Abstract

The paper explores the capacity of the entrepreneurship paradigm to produce unique solutions for unique environments. To achieve this goal the paper argues the need for a wider entrepreneurship paradigm than that which seems to be the convention as taught in business schools around the world. It argues that the existing paradigm has been shaped over the past quarter of century via its pursuit of legitimacy in business school academe and that its true legitimacy must lie in the needs of key stakeholders in society. The key needs in this respect seem to derive from the pressures of globalisation on societies with the creation of greater uncertainty and complexity for individuals in all walks of life and for all kinds of organisations.

The paper explores these sources of uncertainty and complexity and then considers the response via a process of examination of two models of the entrepreneurial person. One, branded as the traditional model is derived from an analysis of what is taught in Europe and North American business schools. The other branded as a societal model is constructed to meet the needs as perceived to arrive from an analysis of societal pressures. A number of different contexts for entrepreneurship are then explored and the needs arising briefly summarised and set against the societal model. The paper concludes by arguing that via a process of institutional transfer the traditional paradigm has become dominant and as such may be standing in the way of the paradigm truly meeting the needs of societies at different stages of development and with different cultures.