ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces the main lines of previous theoretical and empirical analysis of entrepreneurship and identifies the points of departure of this text. This covers the main theories of entrepreneurship, innovation and self-employment, historically and in modern literature, patterns of entrepreneurship and policy implications, and the relation to theories of endogenous growth. The chapter provides the theoretical basis for the rest of the book as a focus on choices: between entrepreneur and worker status, between employers and own account and between directorship and employer status. The sector is also identified as a key frame for analysis. Substantial assessment is made of the historical basis of entrepreneurship, showing how the concepts developed by early writers were relevant to the historical period and to the present. Major assessments are made of Cantillon, Say, Mill, Marshall, Knight, Schumpeter, Keynes and Mises; the location theories of von Thünen, Weber and Lösch; and modern endogenous growth theory. The chapter re-positions entrepreneurship studies to whole-population analysis rather than special cases.