Entrepreneurial Innovation: Beyond Schumpeter

Abstract

Entrepreneurial innovation is generally understood as product innovation not only by the layman but by entrepreneurs themselves, even though in practice the latter are innovative in several other areas. Researchers and scholars have attempted to capture the essence of the concept of entrepreneurial innovation. In a study of 138 Indian entrepreneurs, the author found that entrepreneurs acquire competitive advantage for their ventures through innovations in other areas also such as finance, personnel, organization structure, culture, R&D management, and government relations. A factor analysis of these different types of innovation brought out four major categories of innovation, namely (i) operations innovation, (ii) market/marketing innovation, (iii) organizational innovation and (iv) boundary management innovation. This broader perspective compares with, and extends a view of innovation originally suggested by Schumpeter.