The Entrepreneur in Economic History






Kuva Margit Mannila


1. The entrepreneur is the person who assumes the  risk associated with uncertainty (e.g. Cantillon,  Von Thünen, Mill, Hawley, Knight, Von Mises,  Cole, Shackle)

2. The entrepreneur is the person who supplies  financial capital (e.g. Smith, Böhm-Bawerk, Pigou,  Von Mises)


 3. The entrepreneur is an innovator (e.g. Bentham,  Von Thünen, Schmoller, Sombart,Weber, Schum- peter, Shakle) 

4. The entrepreneur is a decision maker (e.g. Cantillon, Menger, Marshall, Wieser, Amasa, Walker, Francis Walker, Keynes, Von Mises, Cole, Schultz)

5. The entrepreneur is an industrial leader (e.g. Say, Saint-Simon, Amasa Walker, Francis Walker,  Marshall, Wieser, Sombart, Weber, Schumpeter)

6. The entrepreneur is a manager or superintendent  (e.g. Say, Mill, Marshall, Menger)

7. The entrepreneur is an organizer and coordinator  (e.g. Say, Wieser, Sombart, Weber, Clark, Davenport, Schumpeter, Coase)

8. The entrepreneur is the owner of an enterprise (e.g. Quesnay, Wieser, Pigou, Hawley)

9. The entrepreneur is an employer of factors of by the entrepreneur  production  (e.g. Amasa Walker, Francis Walker, Wieser, Keynes)

10. The entrepreneur is a contractor (e.g. Bentham)

11.The entrepreneur is an ‘arbitrageur’ (e.g. Cantillon, Walras, Kirzner)

12. The entrepreneur is an allocator of resources  among alternative uses (e.g. Cantillon, Schultz).

Entrepreneurship is a multi-faceted phenomenon that can be viewed from different angles.
  •  the position of the entrepreneur both in the surrounding ecomomic system and within his/her own corporate organization
  • the identification of the economic tasks of the entrepreneur
  • the financial remuneration of the entrepreneur for his/her risk-takin activities, based on his/her economic motives
  • the dynamics in (local and global) markets, seen from the perspective of the entrepreneur.

Nijkamp (2003, 401) highlites that entrepreneursihp menas also the management of business network constellations. The local environment (ingluding its culture, knowledge base and business attitude) appears to act often as a critical success factor for new forms of entrepreneurship. In the Schumpererian view entrepreneur is seeking  for new combinations while destroying in a creative way existing constellations. It seems as though the modern entrepreneurial hero is largery a 'network hero'.

Source 
Nijkamp, Peter. (2003). Entrepreneurship in a Modern Network Economy. Regional Studies, Vol 37(4), 395-405. Online 2010. www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0034340032000074424 (PDF). (25.1.2016).



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