Schumpeter, Joseph Alois, 1939, Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process, New York and London, McGraw – Hill Book Company Inc

Abstract

Joseph Schumpeter’s economic thought is indissolubly linked to the study of entrepreneurship and innovation. In Business Cycles, the book planned to be ‘the crown of his work’, Schumpeter carefully crafted a theoretical framework in which both concepts are presented as the main engines of the cyclical economic evolution. This paper aims to offer a different view on this complex combination of economic theory, historical and statistical applied analyses which are today largely forgotten. Schumpeter’s theories of entrepreneurship and innovation are discussed within the general framework of his main intellectual legacy. Re-reading Schumpeter’s Business Cycles in the light of its scholarly reception, this study pays a special attention to some of the key reviews that critically addressed this book. The novelty of our approach lies in revealing the systematic emphasis placed upon the elements introduced by Schumpeter’s Business Cycles to his theories of innovation and entrepreneurship