Who is the Entrepreneur?

Abstract

There is no supreme authority in economic science to define once and for all the precise meaning and content of its concepts. But unless a concept is entirely new, there is usually attached to it a scientific tra? dition enforcing certain restraints upon the investigator when he shapes his definitions. Within the limits set by accepted terminology he is free, however, to define his concepts in such a manner as will serve best the specific program of investigation on hand. The notion of entrepreneur ship, dating back to Cantillon, is any? thing but new. Hence, I have endeavored to turn out a portrait of the entrepreneur which contains the essential features attributed to this concept by the tradition of economic doctrine. Furthermore, I have in? terpreted my task primarily as one of description, calling for an account of the multiplicity of forms which entrepreneurship assumes in the economic life which surrounds us. To state it in the negative, I did not consider it my business to discuss the role of the entrepreneur in the economic theory of past or present times.1