Nature and Growth of Entrepreneurship
Introduction to the Origin and Concept Entrepreneurship Theoretical Perspectives What is Entrepreneurship? A Look at Theory People use the terms "entrepreneur" and "entrepreneurship" interchangeably. The entrepreneur is the person who starts his own business. The exact definition of "entrepreneurship" still remains a vague concept, though various entrepreneurship theories have defined the concept. Early Theories of Entrepreneurship Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) was the first of the major economic thinkers to define the entrepreneur as an agent who buys means of production at certain prices to combine them into a new product. He classified economic agents into landowners, hirelings, and entrepreneurs, and considered the entrepreneur as the most active among these three agents, connecting the producers with customers. Jean Baptise Say (1767-1832) improved Cantillion’s definition by adding that the entrepreneur brings people together to build a productive ...