A la recherche du coeur de l'entrepreneuriat : vers une nouvelle vision du domaine

This work presents our thoughts on a new definition of the research object at the heart of the research in entrepreneurship. We therefore propose a conceptual model and a key concept which is the "entrepreneurial situation". An "entrepreneurial situation" is any situation which links a strongly committed individual (use of vital resources: time, money, energy, etc.) to an entrepreneurial action (decisions, behaviours, tasks, etc.) and a project or an organisation. One of the characteristics, or even specificity of our perspective is that we are not looking at just an actor, individual or group, an organisation or company, but rather a subject-object, or individual-project, individual-organisation couple. This couple can not be separated in any scientific approach (observation, analysis) of an "entrepreneurial situation". We therefore think that an "entrepreneurial situation" can be characterised by a subject-object conjunction, and by a level of proximity or distancing index between the two elements. Under such conditions, an "entrepreneurial situation" could be qualified by the "measuring" of a distance or proximity between subject and object involved in it. The object of research at the heart of entrepreneurship corresponds, we feel, to these "entrepreneurial situations" which need describing, explaining and including in their dynamism and evolution, so that from the scientific knowledge produced, the actions of entrepreneurs and accompanying support structures can be made easier and more efficient.