TOWARD A TYPOLOGY OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIES

ABSTRACT This paper suggests a new approach to classification in the field of Entrepreneurship. Prior efforts have attempted to classify types of entrepreneurs or types of entrepreneurial ventures. This paper suggests that classifying types of entrepreneurial activities offers some significant advantages to the other two alternatives. This paper then presents a hierarchial Typology of Entrepreneurial Activities. It identifies several "classification factors" or attributes on which entrepreneurial activities can be classified into archetypes, and identifies ten classes of archetypical entrepreneurial activities. This typology can help empirical researchers include in studies only those entrepreneurial activities they wish to examine. It is also a useful teaching tool, helping students understand the different types of "entrepreneurship. " INTRODUCTION Carland, Hoy, Boulton, and Carland (1987) attempted to differentiate between the small business manager and the entrepreneur. Gartner (1989), in response, suggested that rather than trying to define the entrepreneur, we should, instead, be trying to define types of entrepreneurship. Gartner, Mitchell, & Vesper (1989) used cluster analysis to develop a taxonomy of types of new business ventures. Their analysis developed eight new business venture gestalts, or types of new business ventures, based upon the answers by entrepreneurs to nineteen questions concerning their background, organization structures and strategies of their ventures, the competitive environments in which the ventures were created, and the process used to create the venture. The eight gestalts are: 1) Escaping to something new; 2) Putting the deal together; 3) Roll-over skills/contacts; 4) Purchasing a firm; 5) Leveraging expertise; 6) Aggressive service; 7) Pursuing a unique idea; and 8) Methodical organizing. Although the taxonomy developed by Gartner, et. al (1989), shed light on why and how entrepreneurs set about founding new ventures, it made no attempt to classify types of entrepreneurial activities, including entrepreneurial activities undertaken within existing organizations, sometimes called Corporate Entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, a special issue of the Strategic Management Journal edited by Guth and Ginsberg (1990) left no question that some activities that are carried on within the confines of existing organizations should be considered entrepreneurial activities. One problem with classifying types of entrepreneurs is that a given individual may undertake many different types of entrepreneurial activities and form many different types of ventures during a career. Classifying individuals into classes implies that any individual will utilize the same approach to all ventures over time and will use the same approach to all ventures he/she is founding at any given time. Classifying an individual as a certain type of entrepreneur also implies that he/she is engaged in entrepreneurial activity throughout his/her life--i.e., "once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur. " In actuality, many "entrepreneurs" found businesses and shortly thereafter settle into managerial roles, running their ongoing organizations. Others undertake a series of entrepreneurial ventures, each with different goals and a different approach, based on the learning that took place in earlier spurts of entrepreneurial activity. Still others found a venture, run that business for several years, and then found another venture. In other words, entrepreneurial activity may be undertaken in spurts, with periods of low entrepreneurial activity between them. In the same way, classifying entrepreneurial ventures into classes ignores the fact that a given organization may undergo several types of entrepreneurial activities and rebirth during its organizational life interspersed with periods of low entrepreneurial activity and stability. CLASSIFYING ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIES INSTEAD OF TYPES OF VENTURES OR TYPES OF ENTREPRENEURS This papers suggests a new approach to entrepreneurship classification. …