Approaches and economic realities of entrepreneurship: a study applied to formerly industrial regions: the case of Dunkirk.

Summary Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process that creates wealth (jobs, innovations) and is highly dependent on the environment (local and territorial) from which the entrepreneur emerges. Economists highlight two types of analysis to observe the "entrepreneur" phenomenon. For some, the entrepreneur is the engine of economic dynamics. For others, the entrepreneur is a social construction of capitalism. The entrepreneur draws his investment opportunities from his environment, which is shaped by the initiative of other entrepreneurs, the State, consumers and employees. In an economy undergoing industrial restructuring, where the large enterprise (and the large factory) dominates activities and social representations, what is the place of the small enterprise, of the entrepreneur? The small business is inseparable from the profile of its creator, and the creator appears and asserts himself in a localized economic environment. By studying the Dunkirk economy, an economy with a strong industrial tradition, we show that the economic dynamic is driven by political will, and that the density of relations between local economic actors forms a specific space for entrepreneurship.