The word “entrepreneur” is derived from the French verb ”entreprendre” meaning “to undertake”.  Entrepreneur has been defined in different ways by various scholars and they can be classified as follows:

Scholar	Definition
Richard Cantillon (1723)	It is an individual who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on financial risk to do so.
Bennett & McCoshan (1993)	A person to create profit and wealth through business.
Greve & Salaff (2003)	One who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.
OECD (2008)	Those persons (business owners) who seek to generate value through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes or markets.
ESCAP (2012)	The individual and/or team process of doing something new or different to add value to society through calculated risk-taking behavior for future gains.

 

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of any economy and business incubators are proven models to spur private sector development.