ABSTRACT
To the extent that the introduction of modern industrial technology depends on the size of the market, successful entrepreneurship owes as much to a grasp of commercial opportunity as it does to a capacity to apply and develop a new technology. The fact that the basic entrepreneurial function tended to change over time has had obvious repercussions on the nature of the demand for entrepreneurial talent, particularly in those countries that were latecomers to industrialisation. A purely economic explanation of entrepreneurial supply, by emphasising only the demand side of the situation, ignores the fact that social and political obstacles to the performance of the entrepreneurial function may well exist on the supply side. The argument that entrepreneurial activity is not simply a matter of personal motivation alone is further modified by the fact that the supply of entrepreneurial services is also influenced to some extent by the prevailing social attitudes to such activities.
