Grishin Viktor Ivanovich, Abramov Ruslan Aharonovich, Sokolov Maksim Sergeevich
Aim of the study: When considering entrepreneurship as a function, small and large entrepreneurs are singled out. On one side are the founders of small firms, often retaining the position of private owners. Their businesses face tough problems of survival, freedom of decision-making is very limited and depends on larger market participants. Innovation, they often cannot afford because of the limitations and lack of resources. Being sandwiched between three major forces - the state, large capital and organized wage labor, this group often simply does not have the ability to be focused on innovation and social change, it remains to try to adhere to the status quo. Methodology: Economic sociologists complement the functional approach with a structural approach, highlighting entrepreneurs as a set of social groups. And in the construction of samples for empirical research, entrepreneurs usually do not include those who implement the entrepreneurial function, since their selection before the study is often difficult, but the creators and leaders of new, primarily non-governmental organizations. Conclusion: This set of entrepreneurs is extremely heterogeneous. Fundamental differences between groups of entrepreneurs are related to the scale and scope of business, property rights, management schemes, the origin of capital, the nature of technological and financial chains in which their enterprises are embedded. The characteristics of different groups of entrepreneurs also include demographic characteristics, such as ethnicity, gender, age.