Abstract:
The current theoretical framing of entrepreneurship includes
several diverse phenomena under the same conceptual umbrella,
yet the terms are often conflated and used interchangeably.
Based on the assumption that anything included under this
conceptual umbrella contributes to economic development
and job creation, entrepreneurship has become appropriated
as a development tool in the Global South, where poverty
and unemployment are rife. This study introduces the term
‘entrepreneurship as a development apparatus’ (EDA) that is
defined as the implementation of entrepreneurship support
interventions (such as training, incubation and funding) in
economically marginalised communities, based on the assumption that these interventions lead to economic development
and job creation. EDA is then taken out from under the
conceptual entrepreneurship umbrella, and placed in a postdevelopment theory context, showing that insight can be
gained when the critical debate on entrepreneurship is moved
beyond the constraints of the mainstream entrepreneurship
paradigm. Drawing from the development debate this article
argues that the current theoretical entrepreneurship paradigm
has proven unable to provide answers to the failure of EDA,
and thus calls for the rejection of the entire notion of EDA as a
form of entrepreneurship.
