In the first part of this book, we looked at various perspectives of entrepreneurship, articulated around three broad approaches. Regarding entrepreneurship as a field of research, we examined three currents of thought that we also called ‘paradigms’ (acknowledging the fact that this term may give rise to discussion and controversy). The first paradigm, within which Shane and Venkataraman's vision (2000) emerged, focuses on the notion of opportunity. The second concerns the creation of an organisation and generated another important vision of entrepreneurship, initiated by and largely based on Gartner's work. Finally, the paradigm value creation is at the heart of our perspective on entrepreneurship. However, in our definition of entrepreneurship we do not discard the concepts of opportunity and organisation creation, as they are essential in supporting our thesis. Beyond the simple presentation of the various threads and theories we refer to, we will also endeavour to give a precise definition and semantic clarification of the concepts mentioned.

In order to introduce this part, we will rely on Gartner's research (1990), in which he attempts to answer the following question: ‘What are we talking about when we talk about entrepreneurship?’ With this objective in mind, he used a DELPHI method consisting of three rounds. The objective of the study was to gather experts' opinions about the definition of entrepreneurship. The findings, unsurprisingly, showed that there was no consensus on one definition; everybody seemed to have their own.