Abstract
This paper shows that existing theoretical frameworks provide a limited explanation to theentrepreneurial process. The entrepreneur appears as an individual who merely transformsuncertainty into risk, thus reducing the entrepreneurial process to rational economic reasoning. Anew perspective of organization emergence drawing on evolutionary theory is therefore suggested.The entrepreneurial process is characterized by a paradox rooted in the discontinuity implied bythe birth of a new organization. The entrepreneur creates this discontinuity by imagining a businessscenario that does not yet exist for other economic actors. The fundamental role of theentrepreneur consists of bridging the space-time gap that exists from his or her own perspectiveand the perspective of the resource holders which are necessary to rally in order to launch thebusiness venture. Overall, the framework presented suggests that organizations come intoexistence according to a genetic process which needs to be understood on its own