How “Entreprenants” are different from ‘Entrepreneurs’

Following up on our post ‘How The Definition of Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Can be Confusing‘, I stumbled upon a new concept in France developed by the Ecole de Paris management school, differentiating between “entrepreneur” and “entreprenant” (enterprising). And there is actually a manifesto, ‘le manifeste de l’entreprenant‘, and even a website Le jardin des Entreprenants – the Enterprising’s garden) showing various stories (all in French only).

The idea is a bit similar to the one developed in my original post. “Entreprenants” combine the invention of solutions and unexpected activities with a commitment to create meaning, thus reinventing the world in a powerful way.

In the manifesto, several recognition traits of those new actors are given, some of which are really differentiating with regard to the standard concept of entrepreneur:

“Entreprenants” are not necessarily entrepreneurs, and their initiatives can grow outside incorporated entities
An entrepreneur can be an “entreprenant” if he/she has a social vision of this initiative
the “entreprenant” is a gardener and not a builder: he grows plants accounting for environmental conditions and stress

I conclude from this that there is a growing awareness that the traditional concept of ‘entrepreneur’, at least as it is being implemented nowadays, is limiting and that alternate concepts should co-exist.