Why is consensus and clarity about the definition of entrepreneurship so elusive? The central premise of this paper is that we can gain a better understanding of the problem of defining entrepreneurship, of what it means to us as a field of research, and what we can hope to achieve by grappling with it, by substituting one question for another. The question we must start with to get a clear view is not “What is entrepreneurship?”, but rather “What sort of concept is entrepreneurship?” This reframing enables us to see that entrepreneurship is a family resemblance concept. It follows from this metacognitive insight, if it is correct, that all attempts to define entrepreneurship will be subject to counterexamples. This perspective is used to therapeutically alleviate emotional and behavioral problems in the field of entrepreneurship, and to offer practical suggestions for how to deal productively with paradigmatic diversity in the field.

为什么关于企业家精神定义的共识和清晰性如此难以捉摸？本文的中心前提是，我们可以更好地理解定义企业家精神的问题，它对我们作为研究领域意味着什么，以及通过解决一个问题，我们可以希望通过解决这个问题而实现什么？其他。我们必须首先清楚理解的问题不是“什么是企业家精神？”，而是“企业家精神是什么样的概念？” 这种改组使我们看到企业家精神是家庭相似的概念。从这种元认知的见解中可以得出结论，如果正确的话，所有定义企业家精神的尝试都将受到反例的影响。这种观点可用于治疗性缓解创业领域的情绪和行为问题，