Abstract

The topic of entrepreneurship has attracted a lot of attention in academia and industry circles. This paper seeks to explore theories of entrepreneurship as well as its definitions. To this end a model that includes the salient entrepreneurial features, such as non-resource ownership and non-monetary gain, in defining entrepreneurship has been developed. It is now a known fact that no country can do without entrepreneurial activity to boost its economic development as well as the social welfare of its citizenry. Economic constraints, such as resource availability, need urgent addressing for micro enterprise. In spite of their contribution to economic development and job creation, micro entrepreneurs face a challenge of recognition as all the attention is at times given to macro and industry entrepreneurship in most economies and government policy. Micro and social entrepreneurs’ ability to thrive in adverse conditions is captured in the salient features that this article describes. Emphasis of these salient features may enhance stronger policy support as well as inspire a risk-averse atmosphere for aspiring and established entrepreneurs.

Key words: Entrepreneurship, policy, theory, salient features, resource ownership, non-monetary gain.