In this section the terminological position regarding ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘knowledge’ are developed separately, and then ‘knowledge entrepreneurship’ as concept is introduced.

1.3.3.1. What is “Entrepreneurship”?
One classical definition is: "Entrepreneurship is the process of creating or seizing an opportunity and pursuing it regardless of the resources currently controlled" (Timmons, 1994: 7). And the concept of knowledge entrepreneurship is not established in the academia, but even entrepreneurship, which has summed the interest of researchers from the whole spectrum of fields, has (partially because of the variety of research paradigms applied) resisted a clear definition (Davidsson, 2004; Davidsson & et.al., 2001). Davidsson (2001) assessed that the field converged around the view that entrepreneurship is about emergence.

In modern times when the concept of entrepreneurship first appeared (1), it has been understood to be a special characteristic, an exceptional ability of special people. And in fact it was, and still is, often used as a ex post definition that applies only when the venture is successful (Martin & Osberg, 2007, p. 30). To recall the most commonly agreed historic phases, the phenomenon of entrepreneurship is taken by most authors to be first described by French economist Jean-Baptist Say. He coined the following description: an entrepreneur is someone who: “shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into and area of higher productivity and greater yield” (Say quoted in Dees, 2001). The first author who recognized the central role of the entrepreneur in economics was Schumpeter. For him the “creative destruction” through which the entrepreneur pushes innovation and thereby economic progress (Schumpeter, 1947; Schumpeter & Opie, 1934). A new less heroic proposition for an entrepreneurship paradigm is advanced by Drucker. For him “the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity” (Peter F. Drucker, 1985, p. 28). This understanding is complemented nicely by Kirzner, who identifies ‘alertness’ as the key ability of an entrepreneur (Kodera, 2004).

While the themes describing entrepreneurship – especially creative destruction and alertness - are agreed to, the interest of this work lies in entrepreneurship as a mindset (and subsequent practices) and it is understood to be a fundamental human feature. The potential is innate (in varying degree) in everyone (and hence in all organizations). It is an aptitude that can be developed by anyone and not a special trait of the elite, like Bill Gates or Muhammad Yunus, who nevertheless can be seen as role models. Basically success is not accepted as a measure of entrepreneurship. Hence it is defined as: Entrepreneurship is the intrinsically motivated practice to identify, create, develop, evaluate, and realize an opportunity.


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(i) Personal investigation and consultation with history expert Dr. Heiner Lutzman – email exchange on file with the author - have resulted in the following etymological development: According to the Thesaurus linguae latinae there is no verb or variation of ‘interprendere’. In some medieval lexica the word 'interprisa' – somehow a derrivation of a virtual interprendere – with a negative meaning of ‘attack’ especially in the connection with seafaring ‘to be captured’, to ‘break a contract’ and ‘unjust violence’. The connection between ‘interprisa’ and entrepreneur is hence not clear.
When looking at an ancient Greek precursor of entrepreneurship, three terms have been identified that have a conceptual relation with entrepreneurship: 'emporeuomai' means ‘to travel to do business’; 'o en poroo' means ‘mobile trader on a non established marketplace’, and 'pragmateuomai' means of course ‘to take something in one’s hands’ but also to ‘engage in trade’, ‘being an agent of trade’.
() In conclusion it can be stated that in the ancient world neither change nor trade was perceived positively – rather the conservation of traditions and stability was central to the zeitgeist before modernity. The conceptualization of the entrepreneur as positive is therefore a modern phenomenon.

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