The entrepreneurial process provided a theoretical framework for the study. Kourilsky's research provided a theoretical framework in which to view the critical components of effective entrepreneurial leadership for charter school founders in order to more fully understand entrepreneurial leadership and its relation to the successful founding of charter schools (Kourilsky, 1998). Sarason's research findings from 1972 provided an additional framework that allows for the understanding of predictable challenges that charter school founders face in their attempts to implement charter school reform and open new schools (Sarason, 1998). A synthesis of these theorists' work provided a theoretical lens for this study. To begin the understanding of the theoretical framework, an introduction to entrepreneurship is provided. The entrepreneurial process as a theoretical framework for the study and application of the framework follows this discussion.
The word entrepreneur is derived from the French word entreprende, which means, "to undertake." Kourilsky (1990) defined entrepreneurship as a natural ability to generate divergent ideas and to integrate those ideas with resources and processes to make things happen in a unique way. Low and MacMillan (1988) suggested that the act of entrepreneurship should be defined as the creation of new enterprise. According to Kataraman (1997), entrepreneurship can include but does not require the creation of a new organization. While entrepreneurship usually involves the creation of new organizations, it can be found within existing organizations as well (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000). This form of innovation is known as intrapreneurship (Pinchot, 1985; Kourilsky, 2000).
Some researchers have linked entrepreneurship to economic development (Schumpeter, 1934), however others link entrepreneurship directly to social change (Kuratako & Hodgetts, 1998). From this perspective, the entrepreneur serves as an aggre...