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In the exponentially growing economy of the 21st century, the pursuit for entrepreneurship has become a common goal for many. Peter Drucker (1985) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Principles and Practices said “The entrepreneur is often defined as one who starts his own, new and small business. But not every small business is entrepreneurial or represents entrepreneurship.” Drucker should be agreed with as it should be realized entrepreneurship is a branch of business but not all business will be entrepreneurial. Likewise, entrepreneurship is often synonymous with innovation but the two activities should be seen as exclusive terms. Drucker’s statement can therefore be extrapolated to understand why very often the business itself should not be directly correlated to entrepreneurship and being an entrepreneur. It has become apparent that the glorified idea of being an entrepreneur has been the reason why many struggle to actually succeed and grow when it comes to their business. Drucker believes that entrepreneurship is not just creating a new business but that entrepreneurship should have certain characteristics of which are indicators of entrepreneurial activity and therefore he says that not every small business represents entrepreneurship. The goals of entrepreneurs are not to only create a successful business but rather the spirit of entrepreneurship should represent capturing the value that already exists and to find ways that will allow that value to grow constantly in a never-ending process. (Tredgold, 2018) In a recent study, New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (2017) it showed that 97% of the small businesses (499,944 Enterprises) in New Zealand are enterprises that have fewer that 20 employees. Showing that many small businesses struggle to grow and therefore fail to continue in creating or increasing their value. All businesses have to begin from a starting value but for the business to be considered entrepreneurial, the whole firm as a whole has to be able to find a means of growth. Gartner (1990) carried out a study that explored the entrepreneurial concepts of 280 experts and through this study he found eight major themes. When a business does not manage to fulfill majority if not all of these eight major themes it seems very unlikely that they are operating in an entrepreneurial sense but rather are just maintaining the value of the business with very little growth. People who tend to try find the next big idea and create a new start-up business often find that their idea doesn’t succeed in the way that they had envisioned based purely on a failure to recognize and adapt to the needs of the economy which leads to the topic of innovation that many people believe to be the biggest part of entrepreneurship. Not all small businesses are necessarily entrepreneurial because they lack a major factor of innovation. Innovation at a basic level is the activity of creating a new idea or solution. Christensen (1997) suggested the term of “disruptive innovation” referring to ideas or products which are completely unique and therefore is able to ‘disrupt’ a certain market. The reason why innovation and entrepreneurship are mistaken as the same thing is because of how big a part the innovation plays in the equation. But, innovation and entrepreneurship have a co-existent relationship in where the two heavily rely on each other in order to be successful but without finding a balance between the two there becomes a limit to how far the idea will go. When there is too much focused on innovation and not enough value being created or vice-versa then it would mean the business cannot efficiently grow as the capability to create value through innovation isn’t able to be converted in a commercial sense. The common perception of innovation has aligned with only ‘disruptive innovation’

partly due to the high saturation in many markets which become dominated by companies whose success has been a result of a ‘eureka’ moment and idea. Yet, innovation does not only exist in new ideas but also exists in adding value to prior ideas. The entrepreneur is not required to be the person who created the value in the first place but rather they are the person that is able to apply the innovation with the elements of entrepreneurship such as opportunity recognition and alertness to the needs of the consumer. (Schaper, 2014) Being balanced in all areas of the business and becoming aware that innovation is not the only factor of being an entrepreneur. Whether a business be large or small, the goal for most businesses are to create value and this is represented as profits. Many businesses do not aim to be entrepreneurial in the first place which therefore agrees with Drucker’s statement that not all small businesses represent entrepreneurship. However, there are many similarities in businesses that show and do not show entrepreneurial activity such as the goal being to generate revenue and providing a service or product to the consumer. The main difference that will set small businesses that eventually grow into successful companies and small businesses which struggle to grow is what they can do with the resources available and how much value they provide to a customer. It is common to see more start-up companies who provide innovation and then require the help of outside investment from people who can use entrepreneurship to create maximum value. Entrepreneurship should be approached in the that Timmons and Spinelli (2009) say: “Entrepreneurship results in the creation, enhancement, realization and renewal of value, not just for owners, but for all participants and stakeholders. At the heart of the process is the creation and/or recognition of opportunities followed by the will and initiative to seize these opportunities. It requires a willingness to take risks; both personal and financial.” Entrepreneurship is something that businesses become rather than planned as it is through many aspects that will show true entrepreneurship. Drucker’s belief that purely starting a business should not represent that a person does not show entrepreneurial qualities. This has been shown through how entrepreneurs are able to utilize their value and take it to success, the difference between innovation and entrepreneurship and why they are not the same thing rather they are two tools to be used and finally that entrepreneurship is something that should cannot be forced but is rather an approach that has proven successful for many but has not and therefore not all small businesses represent entrepreneurship.

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