Entrepreneurs: Drivers of Economic Change

11 Pages Posted: 23 Sep 2010

See all articles by Tatiana Zalan

Tatiana Zalan

IGSB - University of South Australia

Date Written: September 23, 2010

Abstract

In today’s ‘celebratory culture’ there is a tendency to mythologise people who have succeeded in business, particularly where new technologies are involved. This clouds our understanding of entrepreneurship as a vital economic process whereby at a particular point in time certain individuals harness exogenous change to create new economic value in society. The purpose of this note is re-establish the role of the entrepreneur as the driver of capitalist process, progress and globalisation of markets. We suggest that it is more useful to see entrepreneurship as a function and the entrepreneur as (1) a specialist intermediary between external opportunities and factors of production; (2) an agent of broad-based economic change that shapes society, and (3) a technological ‘system-builder’. In this note we discuss the differences between entrepreneurs and small business owners, entrepreneurs and managers, and entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy. We then discuss entrepreneurship in the context of established firms.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Economic change, Schumpeterian entrepreneur

JEL Classification: L26

Suggested Citation

Zalan, Tatiana, Entrepreneurs: Drivers of Economic Change (September 23, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1681737 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1681737

Tatiana Zalan (Contact Author)

IGSB - University of South Australia ( email )

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Australia
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+ 618 8276 7669 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?Name=Tatiana.Zalan

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