ABSTRACT
This chapter presents and extends the concept of 'constrained entrepreneurship'. It provides an alternative to the view of entrepreneurship as an atomized, profit driven activity, which proceeds in an unfettered manner. Entrepreneurship, despite being constrained, retains an elemental dynamism that can both take advantage of and create opportunity. Constrained entrepreneurship supplies a broad underpinning notion that simultaneously moves away from the optimizing free rein of the neoclassical economic actor. A significant feature of constrained entrepreneurship is that it provides a bridge between transaction cost economics and challenges to rationality constructs from outside the discipline of economics. Ritzer, G. pointed out that the essence of contemporary capitalism, at least in the advanced, mature capitalist economies, 'may not be so much maximizing the exploitation of workers as the maximization of consumption'. The nature, complexity, paradoxes and demands of this contemporary consumer society, is the general environment that running a business must take account of, either explicitly or implicitly.
