The Entrepreneur Myth 1 [1924]

The entrepreneur of the pure theory—the regulator of production according to the economic maxim—is merely an algebraic symbol. What the writer has ventured to call the Entrepreneur Myth forms the pivotal point of this social philosophy. Few could quarrel with economists when they show that the more the entrepreneur function is operated efficiently, and the more price and profit as economic measures regulate production, the more the economic maxim of greatest economic welfare is fulfilled. But there is, perhaps, a more important case of divergence between the undertaker and the ideal entrepreneur. At present the entrepreneur of theory is more like the abstract projectile of the first approximation than the real object. The conclusion seems fairly clear that for purposes of applied economics the implied association of the capitalist undertaker with the entrepreneur function is a source of considerable error.