ABSTRACT

Cantillon (1755) is often associated with the term ‘entrepreneur’. He suggested that entrepreneurs react to profit opportunities, bear uncertainty and continuously serve to bring about a (tentative) balance between supplies and demands in specific markets. Entrepreneurs undertake activities, and the entrepreneur is the pivotal figure who operates within a set of economic markets. Unlike Cantillon, Knight (1921, 1942) does not believe everyone can become an entrepreneur. Knight suggests entrepreneurs are ‘calculated risk takers’ who assemble resources and co-ordinate scarce resources to exploit business opportunities.