Abstract vs Executive Summary

Abstract Definition

An Abstract is an abbreviated summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject or discipline, and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose.

When used, an abstract always appears at the beginning of a manuscript, acting as the point-of-entry for any given scientific paper or patent application.
       
Executive Summary Definition

An Executive Summary is, basically, anything but a product presentation, and nothing but a persuasive sales pitch. Far more than an abstract merely presenting the rest of the document, it's your unique opportunity to convince the reader that your proposal provides the best value proposition: the best benefit at the lowest cost.

The more technical your proposal, the more critical the executive summary is likely to be, because, unlike the abstract, the executive summary forbids technicalities to instead concentrate on substantiating the benefits for the customer.


Question:
Are executive summary and abstract the same?

Answer:
If you think so, you have just lost your chance to persuade first hand.

Advice:
Make your unique selling point (USP) from your executive summary.

Abstract vs Executive Summary:

The Dilemma

This is the "executive summary vs abstract summary" battle. All so-called experts say that you should write the executive summary when the rest of your proposal is written. Because this part is called the summary of the whole document, logic dictates that you should write the document first in order to be able to summarize it.

There is a significant difference between an executive summary and an abstract.
You said Executive Summary, not Abstract
And that's exactly the pitfall to avoid when writing an executive summary for your proposal: the executive summary is not an abstract. We may even say, paradoxically, that the executive summary, unlike the abstract, is not a summary, it's your value proposition, your best, unique opportunity to sell your solution!

These are the differences between Abstract vs Executive Summary:

As revealed by the side-by-side comparison above, the key difference between an abstract and an executive summary resides on their antipodal purpose, and consequently on the format used to achieve this goal.

Indeed, while the abstract aims at convincing the reader to go through the whole document in order to quash his thirst of information, the executive summary, at the opposite, aims at persuading the reader, who is supposed to be a decision maker, to take of forgo an action, whether usually buying a product, or approving another action.