**2.1 Definitional elements: entrepreneurship, technology, and technology entrepreneurship**

### *2.1.1 Entrepreneurship*

From the outset, entrepreneurship is a fragmented discipline approached from different angles, including economic, sociological, psychological, and managerial [2, 7]. From an economic point of view, entrepreneurship is part of a functional posture. From the perspective of the culture and sociology, entrepreneurship is based on a list of individual posture. From the manager's perspective, entrepreneurship is part of a process approach. **Figure 1**, developed for synthesis purposes, presents the interaction of entrepreneurship with other disciplines.

*New Perspectives for Technological Entrepreneurship in the Age of Change: Between Success… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109321*

#### **Figure 1.**

*Entrepreneurship and other disciplines. Source: Author, November 2022.*

For researchers in the field [3, 8–10], entrepreneurship is a concept including several types of activities: identification of opportunities, creation or takeover, implementation of a project, etc.

In light of the above, it is accepted that the entrepreneurial is a polysemic concept: different meanings have been associated with it [1–3, 5–9, 11, 12]. Several terms such as value creation, innovation, continuity, recovery, and solvability have been used to designate this phenomenon [13, 14]. Some authors [8, 15] judge it from the continuity of the new company. Others assess it on the basis of the performance, success, and economic resilience of the emerging firm [1, 8, 16]. Despite the conceptual diversity, the most widespread meaning in both theory and practice is that which equates entrepreneurship with the new creation of social and economic value [1, 8, 16]. In this perspective, the success of the entrepreneur is assessed on the basis of economic success criteria, thus favoring a multidimensional analysis of the phenomenon. **Figure 2** is developed for summary purposes.

#### *2.1.2 Technology*

"Technology" is a captivating but confusing concept. It favors a variety of acceptances and is ready to be equivocal. Many definitions have been proposed by theorists and practitioners [17]. Indeed, according to theorists, technology is a body of knowledge with concrete applications. It is based on the results of basic and applied sciences and the cumulative process of experiential learning [18–22]. According to these authors, technology is a multidimensional whole. It consists of equipment, methods and techniques, skills, and knowledge. It concerns basic and applied science outcomes and the experiential learning process [17–19, 21–23]. This definition, relevant, neglects the stakeholders and therefore the network of actors involved in the production of said technology. In contrast, practitioners view technology as the skill needed to identify, create new knowledge in a collaborative and cooperative process, and improve techniques [21–25].

 **Figure 2.**  *Different dimensions of entrepreneurship. Source: Author, 2022.* 

 The difficulty of explicitly defining the concept of technology stems from the very historical evolution of the term because it is intimately linked to human activities. Thus, among the ancient Greeks, "technè" understood "technology" has been metamorphosed several times to designate respectively (i) "manufacture and production", (ii) "all transformative activities carried out by men" [ 21 – 24 , 26 ]. Moreover, still in Greek antiquity, technology or "technè" was divided into two parts, namely "praxi," which refers to purely utilitarian activities, but also "poiesis," which means activities requiring creative talent in the use of instruments. Finally, "technè" consists of these two dimensions and means both "art and craftsman" [ 8 , 17 , 21 , 24 , 27 , 28 ].

 The diversity of definitions often leads to confusion and does not allow the technology to be accurately located in relation with other scientific disciplines. It is sometimes located in the "science" sector, "computer science" the field of programming language, software, or simply in the technical description of computers. These are the limiting apprehensions of the concept [ 4 , 17 , 21 , 27 – 29 ], because it goes beyond the technical field in the strict sense of the expression. In the context of this chapter, it is at the same time science, technology, and art, as shown in **Figure 3** .

In the light of **Figure 3** , technology is defined, in chapter frameworks, as:

 *"a body of scientific, technical, know-how and actionable knowledge, necessary guidelines, generated by the individual, group of individuals, interacting according to an elaborate approach that can be used to meet a specific need of a given organization or community."* 

 This definition highlights four dimensions of technology: science, art, technology, and society. It is a springboard for understanding technological entrepreneurship in its new perspectives. This is the subject of the sequence below.

*New Perspectives for Technological Entrepreneurship in the Age of Change: Between Success… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109321*

 **Figure 3.**  *Technology components. Source: Inspired by November, 1990.* 

### *2.1.3 Technology entrepreneurship*

 Several authors [ 2 , 13 ] define technological entrepreneurship as the mechanism for translating technical and artistic knowledge and knowledge into marketable products. The entrepreneurial opportunity is characterized by this conversion and the search for new relationships between the means offered by technology, and the end, characterized by the satisfaction of needs in the market [ 8 , 16 ]. However, the function of transforming technology into a commodity is central to its success and resilience [ 8 , 16 ]. The inherent value of a technology remains latent until the technology is commercialized.

 According to several authors [ 11 ], entrepreneurship is the creation of a new technological company. For some authors [ 1 , 30 ], these are the coordination efforts needed to achieve technological change. In any case, most of the work [ 1 , 11 , 13 , 16 , 30 , 31 ] reveals that technology entrepreneurship is the search for solutions to problems often related with technology.

Based on the above definitions, technology entrepreneurship is defined as:

 *"the design and deployment of a project that brings together and deploys specialized individuals and heterogeneous assets closely linked to advances in scientific knowledge, artistic techniques with the aim of creating and generating sustainable and resilient value for a company whose mission is to satisfy the needs of society."* 

#### *Entrepreneurship – New Insights*

 This definition highlights art, science, and technology. It thus projects the new perspective of technological entrepreneurship. This is the subject of the sequence below.

#### **2.2 New perspective technological entrepreneurship: artificial sciences**

 The science of the artificial is concerned with theories dealing with "artificial" or "synthetic" phenomena. These are phenomena that are located at the meeting point of nature and culture, including technical culture [ 32 ]. These artificial phenomena range from tools and machines to languages and the arts. Thus, artificial sciences offer new bases for analysis and interpretation in the field of technological entrepreneurship.

 Indeed, the paradigm of artificial sciences highlights the process of technological entrepreneurship as an object to be conceived ( *Conception* stage). This paradigm offers an interesting crucible for the operationalization of this stage [ 33 ]. It symbolizes an entrepreneurial situation shaped by man. In other words, it is the fruit of a relationship that the buyer maintains with the world through his acts of design. The entrepreneur, like any person, cannot dissociate himself from the situation or from his action. This could be called to act located and finalized [ 32 , 33 ]. The design brings out, at the same time, the subject and the artifact by a focus on the development of the action of the entrepreneur. In this respect, Simon points out that " *design* is *a process which is concerned with how phenomena might achieve goals"* [ 34 ]. In addition, artificial science also provides a theoretical foundation for *implementing* entrepreneurship as contingent rules. These are linked to the objectives that have been assigned to the design phase. They also enable the implementation phase to achieve its goal and to develop. Second, they promote understanding of *how, when,* and *why* implementation should be carried out. Moreover, the paradigm of artificial sciences considers that technological entrepreneurship is not designed to be static, but dynamic through recursive adaptation. Finally, the paradigm of artificial sciences considers the *consolidation* phase *(Marketing),* as the ability of a project leader to acquire all the skills and to implement the actions that guarantee the strategic, economic viability and sustainable development of the product.

 Considering the above, the new perspectives of technology entrepreneurship are akin to a process, consisting of the design, implementation, and consolidation (marketing) phase as shown in **Figure 4** . They are based on the foundations of artificial science. Consequently, in the rest of this chapter, technological entrepreneurship is the design and implementation of an evolving situation, adapting, recursively, to its ecosystem.

#### **2.3 Technology entrepreneurship success and resilience model**

 The success of technological entrepreneurship is manifested by the acquisition of artistic and technical advantages, the level of user satisfaction, and the use of new knowledge [ 5 , 7 , 8 ]. It also addresses the added value that manifests itself through new products, processes, and organizational behavior. It is usually broken down

 **Figure 4.**  *Technology entrepreneurship process. Source: Author, 2022.* 

*New Perspectives for Technological Entrepreneurship in the Age of Change: Between Success… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109321*

into management success and investment/organizational success [5, 16]. In contrast, entrepreneurial resilience manifests itself in overcoming adversities and adapting to uncertainty [8]. Similarly, it involves the ability to bounce back from an adverse event; the ability to cope with major disruptive events; the ability to adapt to a challenging environment; the tenacity to survive and succeed [5, 8].

In the light of the above, several authors [2, 8, 12, 16] reveal that the success and resilience of entrepreneurship are the result of intellectual capital [35, 36].

Specifically, several authors [35–37] find a direct relationship between human capital (business experience, training, and motivation) and positive outcomes of technology firms. For structural capital (adaptability to change and the implementation of correct strategies), the author suggests that this factor is associated with the growth and survival of the firm. Other authors point out that the development of business networks, the creation of contacts and knowledge of customers promote marketing operations and resistance to competitive shocks and therefore to the success and resilience of an entrepreneurial project.

Several authors [36–39] argue that the strategic positioning of the technology company in a competitive environment results from its intellectual capital, as it is a better lever for innovation. In their study of several companies in the Turkish automotive industry, a large number of authors found that technological innovation has a positive relationship with human, technological, financial, structural, and relational capital [35–39]. According to the results of some studies [35, 36, 38–40], accumulated knowledge from customers, suppliers, other stakeholders, processes, etc., increases the success and resilience of the business. This knowledge is part of a company's intellectual capital, including financial capital, that it must exploit and explore to improve its performance.

Considering the above analysis, **Figure 5**, developed for synthesis purposes, serves as a model for the success and resilience of technological entrepreneurship.

#### **3. Methodology**

Technological entrepreneurship is a phenomenon less well known to researchers. We have deployed a qualitative exploratory approach. Inductive in nature, it has made it possible to grasp technological entrepreneurship in its finest manifestation. The field of maneuver is for private and public companies. Sampling by convenience was adopted because the goal is not to generalize the results to all contractors. The objective pursued in this research is to construct theoretically, to guarantee internal validity [41]. With the use of a small sample (12 technology entrepreneurs), too large biases would emerge. Data production began with the validation of the interview guide following a pre-test and the consultation of three experts. Then, we sent a letter explaining the research project to each of the 12 identified entrepreneurs. Similarly, a telephone call was made in the same week. A total of 12 semistructured interviews were conducted by a four-member team between September and November 20 22. Interviews average 1 hour in length. They were recorded on a digital medium and then transcribed. The *verbatims* were then codified and analyzed thematically [42] via the NVivo software version 14 by the author of the chapter.

*Portrait of companies* that responded to interviews.

In this research project, several technology companies of different ages, sizes, and sectors were studied, as shown in **Table 1**.

An examination of **Table 1** reveals that five companies work in the sectors in which they work.

**7**

#### **Figure 5.**

 *Technology components. Source: Author, 2022.* 


#### **Table 1.**

 *Technology companies interviewed.* 
