Small Business Research: Upon Finding Definitions of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur and Small Firms

Abstract

The study of Entrepreneurship and small business wealth to research. Although small business is recognized for its role of job creation and employment yet it has suffered from lack of common definition from among scholars. This controversial is not only on small business but on entrepreneurship and entrepreneur with a huge confusion of researchers linking small business to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship missing the reality that entrepreneurial activities may start at any level from micro to large firms. Also entrepreneurial behavior can be experienced in the readily existing firm. We aim at finding the definitions of these three items viz. Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and small business. On finding these definitions, we had to go through a number of articles and research published in world class journals which give us a confidence that they are reliable. The definition for small business we adopt the European Community (EC) which concentrate much on head count employees as compared to Bolton Committee definition which has a contradiction of revenue, employees and management. We conclude that, research on these items should be intensified and the contradiction be kept as is useful for widening the knowledge and the field as an area of study.

Key terms: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurs, Small business, Bolton Committee, European Community, job creation