ABSTRACT
Proto-entrepreneurs acted in an early, simple and straightforward way but their counterparts today in the Silicon Valley or in the Chinese Zhongguancun, Haidian, area in Beijing are a very different creation. The origins of entrepreneurship are as diverse as they are as ancient. Innovative entrepreneurs will create tradable new goods and services where there are incentives, including engaging in criminal activities. In the classical economic sense, the factors of production are the resources that enable man to produce goods and services, perceived as the building blocks of any industrialized or industrializing economy. From a Classical School perspective, the central characteristic of entrepreneurial behaviour is innovation. However, from the Management School perspective, entrepreneurs are perceived as organizers of an economic venture; they are the people who organize, own, manage and assume the risk. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
