The entrepreneur in economic change

Abstract

It has been recognized by economists that economic change and development depend in large part on social change. But the difficulties of constructing a model of social change that is comprehensive enough, yet detailed enough, to be a useful tool for analysis seem almost insurmountable. One way out of the difficulty is to focus on a particular type of change. Such variables as child-rearing practices, motives, and social values and attitudes shape the personality of the entrepreneur and thus have important, if indirect, effects on economic change and development. The present paper traces the changes in these “intervening variables” and the consequent changes in American business practices during the past 150 years, as contrasted to social and economic changes in Europe and Latin America during the same period.