Abstract
Entrepreneurship is of contemporary interest. The self-employed entrepreneur is an aspirational figure and one that many students in particular wish to emulate. Despite this, there is still relatively little study of entrepreneurship in the era before the rise of the modern corporation. The introduction explains how the book is grounded on two principles. Firstly, that the theory of entrepreneurship needs to be presented in a rigorous fashion which explains why it is valuable to the economy. Secondly, that the study of entrepreneurship needs to be examined over a long historical perspective. The introduction then outlines the methodology used in the rest of the book.
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Further reading
Two standard business history texts that emphasise the large managerial corporation are
Chandler, A. D. Jr. (1977) The Visible Hand (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Wilson, J. (1995) British Business History, 1720–1994 (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
On the contemporary role of small business see
Storey, D. J., and F. J. Greene (2010) Small Business and Entrepreneurship (Harlow: Financial Times).
Early work on entrepreneurial history is described in
Cole, A. H. (1974) The Birth of a New Social Science Discipline: Achievements of the First Generation of American Economic and Business Historians, 1893–1974 (New York: Economic History Association).
On calls for a fresh approach to business history see
Casson, M. and M. Rose (1998) Institutions and the Evolution of Modern Business (London: Cass).
Jones, G. G. and W. Friedman (2011) ‘Business History: Time for Debate’, Business History Review 85, 1–8.
For an insightful overview of the modern economic theory of entrepreneurship see
Ricketts, M. (2006) ‘Theories of Entrepreneurship: Historical Development and Critical Assessment’, in M. Casson, B. Yeung, A. Basu and N. Wadeson (eds) Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 33–58.
For a review of entrepreneurial biography and the role of personality see
Corley, T. A. B. (2006) ‘Historical Biographies of Entrepreneurs’, in M. Casson, B. Yeung, A. Basu and N. Wadeson (eds) Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 138–60.
Chell, E. (2008) The Entrepreneurial Personality: A Social Construction, 2nd edn. (London: Routledge).
For early examples of the historical biography of entrepreneurs see
Smiles, S. (1863) Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers, (London: John Murray).
Hughes, J. R. T. (1966) The Vital Few: American Economic Progress and its Protagonists (Boston: Houghton Mifflin).
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© 2013 Mark Casson and Catherine Casson
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Casson, M., Casson, C. (2013). A New Research Agenda. In: The Entrepreneur in History: From Medieval Merchant to Modern Business Leader. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137305824_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137305824_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45492-1
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