Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Law and Economics pp 1–7Cite as

Entrepreneurship

Definition

While one could search in vain for a definition of entrepreneurship acceptable to all entrepreneurship scholars, dominant approaches share a number of characteristics. Typically, an entrepreneur is portrayed as an agent of change who operates in a world of incomplete and dispersed knowledge while facing uncertainty about the future. What differs in the various conceptualizations is the mechanism of overcoming uncertainty and knowledge problems. The three leading approaches portray entrepreneurs as dealing with these challenges through either alertness, creativity, or judgment, with new streams of literature adding hypothesis testing and effectuation to the list. While disagreements on the particulars of what entrepreneurship is and what role it plays in economic theory continue, economists now agree on the strong relationship between entrepreneurship and institutions. In particular, it is now well accepted that whether entrepreneurship produces economic growth depends on the...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Aghion P, Howitt P (1990). A model of growth through creative destruction. National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w3223

  • Baumol WJ (1990) Entrepreneurship: productive, unproductive, and destructive. J Polit Econ 98(5):893–921

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blanchflower DG (2000) Self-employment in OECD countries. Labour Econ 7(5):471–505. doi:10.1016/S0927-5371(00)00011-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaug M (1998) Entrepreneurship in the history of economic thought. In: Boettke PJ, Ikeda S (eds) Advances in Austrian economics. JAI Press, Stamford, pp 217–239. https://ideas.repec.org/p/exe/wpaper/9515.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Boettke PJ, Coyne CJ (2003) Entrepreneurship and development: cause or consequence? Adv Austrian Econ 6:67–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boudreaux D (1994) Schumpeter and Kirzner on competition and equilibrium. In: Peter J. Boettke (ed) The market process: essays in contemporary Austrian economics. Elgar, Aldershot

    Google Scholar 

  • Brouwer MT (2002) Weber, Schumpeter and Knight on entrepreneurship and economic development. J Evol Econ 12(1–2):83–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cantillon R ((1755) 2015) Essay on the nature of trade in general. Liberty Fund. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/41671

  • Casson M (1982) The entrepreneur: an economic theory. Rowman & Littlefield. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vo-0aXjiLcoC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&ots=3-PE11FJXM&sig=G2-othMw9CbJWjZe9zAWx9jNU1g

  • Choi YB (1995) The entrepreneur: Schumpeter vs. Kirzner. Adv Austrian Econ 2(Part A):55–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowen T (2003) Entrepreneurship, Austrian economics, and the quarrel between philosophy and poetry. Rev Aust Econ 16(1):5–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dacin PA, Tina Dacin M, Matear M (2010) Social entrepreneurship: why we don’t need a new theory and how we move forward from here. Acad Manag Perspect 24(3):37–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demsetz H (1970) The private production of public goods. J Law Econ 13(2):293–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elkjaer JR (1991) The entrepreneur in economic theory. An example of the development and influence of a concept. Hist Eur Ideas 13(6):805–815

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foss NJ, Klein PG (2012) Organizing entrepreneurial judgment: a new approach to the firm. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Harper DA (1996) Entrepreneurship and the market process: an enquiry into the growth of knowledge. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hayek FA (1937) Economics and knowledge. Economica 4(13):33–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayek FA (1945) The use of knowledge in society. Am Econ Rev 35(4):519–530

    Google Scholar 

  • Hébert RF, Link AN (1988) The entrepreneur: mainstream views & radical critiques. Praeger Publishers, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirzner IM (1973) Competition and entrepreneurship. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirzner IM (1999) Creativity and/or alertness: a reconsideration of the Schumpeterian entrepreneur. Rev Aust Econ 11(1–2):5–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knight FH ((1921) 2012) Risk, uncertainty and profit. Dover Publications, Mineola

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuchař P (2016) Entrepreneurship and institutional change. J Evol Econ 26(2):349–379. doi:10.1007/s00191-015-0433-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loasby B (1989) The mind and method of the economist. Books. Edward Elgar Publishing. http://econpapers.repec.org/bookchap/elgeebook/288.htm

  • Manne HG (2014) Resurrecting the ghostly entrepreneur. Rev Aust Econ 27(3):249–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pacheco DF, York JG, Dean TJ, Sarasvathy SD (2010) The coevolution of institutional entrepreneurship: a tale of two theories. J Manag 36(4):974–1010

    Google Scholar 

  • Podemska-Mikluch M, Wagner RE (2017) Economic coordination across divergent institutional frameworks: dissolving a theoretical antinomy. Rev Political Econ. January 29(2):249–266. doi:10.1080/09538259.2016.1269425

  • Sarasvathy SD (2001) Causation and effectuation: toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Acad Manag Rev 26(2):243–263. doi:10.5465/AMR.2001.4378020

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarasvathy SD (2008) Effectuation: elements of entrepreneurial expertise. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sarasvathy SD, Venkataraman S (2011) Entrepreneurship as method: open questions for an entrepreneurial future. Entrep Theory Pract 35(1):113–135. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00425.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sautet F (2005) The role of institutions in entrepreneurship: implications for development policy. Policy Primer No.1, Mercatus Policy Series

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumpeter JA ((1911) 2008) The theory of economic development: an inquiry into profits, capital, credit, interest, and the business cycle. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumpeter JA ((1943) 2013) Capitalism, socialism, and democracy. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackle GLS (1972) Epistemics and economics: a critique of economic doctrines. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • van Praag CM (1999) Some classic views on entrepreneurship. De Economist 147(3):311–335. doi:10.1023/A:1003749128457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Venkataraman S (1997) The distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research. Adv Entrep Firm Emerg Growth 3(1):119–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner RE (2009) Property, state, and entangled political economy. In: Schafer W, Schneider A, Thomas T (eds) Markets and politics: insights from a political economy perspective. Metropolis, Marburg, pp 37–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner RE (2010) Mind, society, and human action: time and knowledge in a theory of social economy. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Wennekers S, Thurik R (1999) Linking entrepreneurship and economic growth. Small Bus Econ 13(1):27–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics, Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, MN, USA

    Marta Podemska-Mikluch

Authors
  1. Marta Podemska-Mikluch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marta Podemska-Mikluch .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Dept DiGSPES, Univ del Piemonte Orientale Dept DiGSPES, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Podemska-Mikluch, M. (2017). Entrepreneurship. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_700-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_700-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7883-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7883-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Entrepreneurship
    Published:
    18 March 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_700-2

  2. Original

    Entrepreneurship
    Published:
    19 June 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_700-1

Search

Navigation