See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at

1.4. Contribution of the Study 
Although the international literature and the institutions 
such as the IMF and OECD, have underlined the importance 
of entrepreneurship for achieving positive growth rates, 
however, the motives to establish a company during an 
economic crisis have to be further explored. This issue is 
crucial for the current economic environment in Greece, 
since it has to be identified whether entrepreneurs are 
establishing their company out of need, due to the fact that 
there are no other alternatives or they are establishing a 
company in order to explore a business opportunity, because 
of a business idea. The study contributes to the academic 
literature, since not only analyses the trends of the “push” or 
“pull” entrepreneurship during a crisis but also identifies the 
factors of entrepreneurship during a crisis. 
1.5. Methodology of the Study 
The methodology of this study is based on quantitative 
primary research and a critical review of the literature. The 
validity of the sources is a key concern of the study; therefore 
all of the articles are from internationally renowned scientific 
journals, and books from well-established international 
publishers, with authors receiving general recognition and 
acceptance. Besides the literature review, the study will 
contain primary research, based on questionnaires. The 
specific research type has been chosen because of the nature 
of the study, since the main research question is about the 
identification of the factors which affect the decision of 
establishing a new company, as stated by the entrepreneurs 
themselves. 
2. Literature Review 
2.1. Conceptual Framework of Entrepreneurship 
The concept of entrepreneurship is already set in the 18th 
century. Specifically, Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) was the 
first scientist who has focused on the concept of the 
entrepreneur and was the first to recognize that there is a 
business function in the economic system. Entrepreneurs 
appeared to economic theory as determinants of the 
economic system. Cantillon recognized the following three 
types of the economic participants: i) the landlords - 
capitalist’s ii) entrepreneurs-speculators and iii) employees in 
paid employment. The perception of the market includes the 
self-regulated network of exchange arrangements. The 
entrepreneur has a central role in this system because he is 
responsible for the entire exchange and circulation in the 
economy. The class of entrepreneurs offers to the economic 
system the balance of supply and demand (Stokes et al., 
2010). 
Shane 
and 
Venkatraman 
(2000) 
have 
defined 
entrepreneurship as a process by which opportunities are 
discovered, evaluated and exploited in order to create future 
goods and services. Several key issues are arising from the 
use of this definition. For example, the definition does not 
imply that the entrepreneur is the founder of the company, a 
common assumption in research on entrepreneurship, and 
highlights the fact that new and innovative ideas for products 
and services can come from anywhere in the hierarchy and 
not necessarily from the top (i.e., business owners or 
founders). Furthermore, it supports the interpretation of 
entrepreneurship as a "process", and not as an isolated event, 
action or decision. For example, the decision to create and 
organize a new business, while important, is only part of a 
series of measures to be taken for the effective discovery, 
evaluation and exploitation of an opportunity. Lastly, the 
definition recognizes that entrepreneurship is based on 
"creativity", which may include not only the discovery of 
new ideas and knowledge, but also the setting of resources in 
new ways. There is no minimum limit on "creativity" to be 
followed in order to qualify as enterprise and the degree of 
creativity involved in entrepreneurship varies depending on 
the types of recombination and reallocation of resources. 
Although there is not a widely accepted definition of 
entrepreneurship, however, there seems to be agreement on 
the view that entrepreneurship is the creation of something 
new (Reynolds, 1991). Some authors have argued that 
entrepreneurship is essentially the creation of new 
organizations (Gartner, 1988), while Davidsson (2004) 
summarize the view that entrepreneurship exists to identify 
and exploit opportunities and the creation of new economic 
activity. 
Another recent definition is given by the European 

---

International Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 2017; 5(2): 36-53 
38 
Commission (2003), which defines entrepreneurship as the 
mentality and the process of creation and development of 
economic activity combining risk-taking, creativity and/or 
innovation with appropriate management, within a new 
and/or existing organization. 
Entrepreneurship is often associated with the dominant, 
reckless and independent trader who either is about to 
establish a company or he/she is aggressively seeking new 
opportunities for wealth creation, but this view of 
entrepreneurship is not universally accepted. Surveys have 
shown that entrepreneurs are presented with many different 
personal characteristics, while in many cases the empirical 
results lead to different conclusions. For example, Webster 
(1977) mentions five different types of entrepreneurs: 
[1] The "Cantillon entrepreneur" which causes the change 
to create a monopoly in the market. This type is the classical 
view for entrepreneurs as people who can take high risks.[2] 
The "market maker", which opens new paths through 
innovations and basically invents his property. This allows 
him to dominate the market. [3] The "administrative 
entrepreneur," which is associated with a company, either as 
a founder, or regarding the company's restructuring. [4] The 
"SME owner" who wants the company to remain small and 
primarily he is having the business activity for his own or for 
the family members. [5] The ‘independent entrepreneur’, 
which creates without taking risks, encouraging others to 
invest in risky business ventures. 
As Ahmad and Seymour (2012) note, the entrepreneurial 
activity includes the creative resources, the innovative 
capabilities and perceiving the opportunity, so according to 
the authors (Ahmad and Seymour, 2012) entrepreneurship is 
directly connected to the concept of innovation and 
creativity.