Abstract
This paper is an attempt to build a bridge between the popular and the academic usage of the terms entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, and to identify the raw materials needed to construct an interpretive framework capable of illuminating the nature of entrepreneurship and its role in economic theory. We review briefly the contributions made to this topic by Cantillon, Schumpeter, Schultz and Kirzner. We advance a ‘synthetic’ definition of the entrepreneur as someone who specializes in taking responsibility for and making judgemental decisions that affect the location, the form, and the use of goods, resources, or institutions. We then conclude with some observations on the basic choice confronting economics regarding the place of entrepreneurship in economic analysis.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cantillon, Richard, 1931, Essai sur la nature du commerce en générai, edited and translated by H. Higgs, London: Macmillan.
Casson, Mark, 1982, The Entrepreneur: An Economic Theory, Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble.
Ehrlich, Elizabeth, 1986, ‘America Expects too Much from Its Entrepreneurial Heros’, Business Week (July 28): 33.
Gumpert, David E., 1986, ‘Stalking the Entrepreneur’, Harvard Business Review 64, 32–36.
Hayes, Robert H. and William J. Abernathy, 1980, ‘Managing Our Way to Economic Decline’, Harvard Business Review 58, 67–77.
Hébert, Robert F., 1985, ‘Was Richard Cantillon an Austrian Economist?’, Journal of Libertarian Studies 7, 269–79.
Hébert, Robert F. and Albert N. Link, 1988, The Entrepreneur: Mainstream Views and Radical Critiques, second edition, New York: Praeger.
Hirschman, Albert O., 1958, The Strategy of Economic Development, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Hisrich, Robert D., 1986, ‘Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship: Methods for Creating New Companies That Have an Impact on the Economic Renaissance of an Area’, in R. D. Hisrich (ed.), Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship and Venture Capital, Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.
Kirzner, Israel M., 1973, Competition & Entrepreneurship, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kirzner, Israel M., 1979, Perception, Opportunity, and Profit: Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kirzner, Israel M., 1985, Discovery and the Capitalist Process, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Klein, Burton H., 1979, ‘The Slowdown in Productivity Advances: A Dynamic Explanation’, in C. T. Hill and J. M. Utterback (eds.), Technological Innovation for a Dynamic Economy, New York: Pergamon Press.
Knight, F. H., 1921, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Link, Albert N., 1987, Technological Change and Productivity Growth, London: Harwood Academic Publishers.
Mettler, Ruben F., 1986, ‘Innovation, Job Creation, and Competitiveness’, in The Positive Sum Strategy: Harnessing Technology for Economic Growth, Washington, D.C.: National Acedemy Press.
Mises, Ludwig, 1951, Profit and Loss, South-Holland, Illinois: Consumers-Producers Economic Service.
Rothbard, Murray N., 1985, ‘Professor Hébert on Entrepreneurship’, Journal of Libertarian Studies 7, 281–286.
Schultz, Theodore W., 1975, ‘The Value of the Ability to Deal with Disequilibria’, Journal of Economic Literature 13, 827–846.
Schultz, Theodore W., 1980, ‘Investment in Entrepreneurial Ability’, Scandinavian Journal of Economics 82, 437–448.
Schumpeter, Joseph A., 1928, ‘The Instability of Capitalism’, Economic Journal 38, 361–386.
Schumpeter, Joseph A., 1934, The Theory of Economic Development, translated by R. Opie from the 2nd German edition [1926]. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Schumpeter, Joseph A., 1950, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 3rd ed. New York: Harper & Row.
Schumpeter, Joseph A., 1954, History of Economic Analysis, edited by E. B. Schumpeter, New York: Oxford University Press.
White, Lawrence H., 1976, ‘Entrepreneurship, Imagination and the Question of Equilibration’, manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hébert, R.F., Link, A.N. In search of the meaning of entrepreneurship. Small Bus Econ 1, 39–49 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00389915
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00389915