In the study of entrepreneurship there has been little interaction between economic theory and history. For the first time a single volume combines analyses of leading specialists from both disciplines. It examines the ways theory and historical evidence can be linked, how economic theory can contribute to improving the historical interpretation of entrepreneurship, and significant thematic aspects of the history of entrepreneurship. Conceptual analyses are fused with historical archive-based work, reflecting the current state of the art and new directions in research.
'An important new addition, by one of the entrepreneurship field's broadest and most important scholars, Entrepreneurship: Theory, Networks, History will be required reading for anyone interested in truly understanding entrepreneurship.' - Scott Shane, Case Western Reserve University, US
The Theory of Entrepreneurship examines the interiors of the entrepreneurial value creation process, and offers a new unified and comprehensive theory to afford empirical investigations as well as delineate a broader view of the entrepreneurial contextual milieu.
Throughout the history of economic thought, the entrepreneur a wide variety of roles. Once cast as a fundamental agent in production, distribution and growth theories, he has now surprisingly disappeared from economic theory. This volume accounts for this disappearance, exploring how and why such a fundamental explanatory variable disappeared from economic theory. Barreto provides a concise review and classification of the many entrepreneurial theories put forward throughout the history of economic thought. The author illustrates that the decline of the entrepreneur in economic theory coincides with the rise of "the firm" as an organizing principle and considers how the replacement of the human element with a mechanistic one has led to disenchantment with microeconomic theory. This fascinating book will interest economists from a range of disciplines including the history of economic thought, microeconomics and entrepreneurship.
Firm growth. This concept has interested researchers for generations. Economists have sought to predict and measure firm growth using a host of different variables, while strategic management scholars depict growth as the result of clever analyses and rational resource exploitation. Entrepreneurship scholars - ever engrossed by successful start-ups - have pondered why growth sometimes comes fast and sometimes never at all, while the field of business history has given countless examples of growing firms in a range of different settings. Yet despite research across fields, our knowledge of how growth in a firm actually comes about is limited and we still know little about the process. This book offers a new reading of economist Edith Penrose’s The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. The bold statement is that although Penrose’s work - across fields and generations - is amongst the most quoted on firm growth, the basic points of her work have yet to be realized and explored empirically. Essentially, growth is created by a dynamic interrelation between the firm’s self-conception and its image of context. Based on these two subjective categories, the firm makes decisions and its actions lead it to develop along a particular path. To Penrose this is the basic engine that drives the growth and development of firms. This book discusses how the engine of firm growth can be captured in empirical analysis using interpretative theory and narrative methods inspired by recent streams of research in business history.
This beautifully written and thoroughly modern core textbook provides a strong bridge between entrepreneurship theory and practice and looks at the entire life cycle of a business, including the often neglected area of business closure. Underpinned by strong academic rigour, the text takes a critical approach, yet is also highly accessible and readable, explaining complex concepts clearly and succinctly. Research-led yet practice oriented, it examines the latest evidence-based thinking in the field and applies this to the practice of entrepreneurship through a plethora of practical examples, global cases, useful tools, and engaging, multi-faceted pedagogy. Written by a recognised expert on entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice is the ideal textbook for undergraduate, postgraduate, and MBA students taking modules on entrepreneurship that blend theory and practice. It requires no prior knowledge of entrepreneurship.
Austrian Subjectivism and the Emergence of Entrepreneurship Theory comprises several of Kirzner's previously published papers on the subjects of methodological subjectivism and the history of entrepreneurship theory--topics of primary importance in Kirzner's economic thought because one cannot fully understand entrepreneurship theory without considering subjectivism. The volume includes Kirzner's seminal paper "Methodological Individualism, Market Equilibrium, and Market Process," in which "Kirzner conceptualized the role of the entrepreneurial function in the market process for the first time in his work." According to the editors, that paper "opened the door to Kirzner's research on the market process, leading six years later to the publication of Competition and Entrepreneurship. In doing so, it paved the way to the modern Austrian theory of the market process." Israel M. Kirzner is a leading economist in the Austrian School and Professor Emeritus of Economics at New York University. Peter J. Boettke is University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University and the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center. Fr d ric Sautet is an economist and a specialist in Austrian market process theory. He has taught at The Catholic University of America, George Mason University, New York University, and the University of Paris Dauphine.
This book summarises Mark Casson’s recent research on the multinational enterprise. This work is firmly rooted in history and examines the evolution of the internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise over the past forty years and, in the light of this, considers its potential for further development. The book also explores internationalisation theory in respect to marketing and brands, the supply chain, risk management as well as methodology.
During our lifetime we experience any number of business cycle crises which undermine our confidence and lead many to their ruin. We also experience the ‘happy days’ when our faith in the future becomes almost limitless, and when we forget that tides always turn again. So how can we better understand and predict these cycles? To answer these questions Lars Tvede takes us through a story that moves back in time to the Scottish gambler and financial genius, John Law, and then on to the distracted Adam Smith, the stockbroker Ricardo, the investment banker Thornton, the extrovert Schumpeter, the speculator Gould and many others to trace the theory and reality of business cycles, as it has evolved over 300 years. Gradually we reach the computer jugglers of the modern day who, with giant networks of equations, try to solve the same questions that have attracted the attention of classical economists throughout the centuries. Lars Tvede concludes this historical journey with a summary of what the core of the problem is and how modern understanding of business cycles can be used to forecast economic fluctuations. The final sections of the book provide detailed studies and explanations to of how stocks, bonds, hedge funds, private equity funds, gold, diamonds, exchange rates, real estate, commodities, art and collectibles, and numerous sub-sectors of some of these markets each behave over different categories of business cycles.
