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In trying to paintbrush background and scientific "environs" when Schumpeter`s visionary "Theory of Economic Development" (1912) came out, classical and neoclassical thought as well as Marx' "Capital" had been exposed already for some time to scholarly scrutiny by the learned community. In neither classical-neoclassical nor Marxist visions, the entrepreneur explicitly figures. It is Schumpeter`s truly seminal interpretation of the capitalist process, wherein the entrepreneur as such takes centre stage as the "pioneering" and driving force in a dialectic sense as, in fact, sort of a villain, as the "antithesis" to the market system. As indeed an element constantly striving to outmanoeuver constraining competition, to "trick" given market conditions and, thereby, challenging the "system" itself; or more pointedly still: when and wherever possible to be, or to become, a monopolist. When relating this to modern entrepreneurship, its pivotal role in a regional and global or, more specifically so, in a structural as well as developmental context, Schumpeter`s vision, nowadays, in times of dynamic change may serve as a guide for any entrepreneurially oriented policy formulation.
About the author
Born 1936. Austrian. 1960 Doctorate Vienna University of Economics and Business. 1965-74 Senior Economist/Resident Representative, World Bank Group. 1973-2004 professor, chair: Political Economy and International Development. Senior Schumpeter Fellow, Center for European Studies/Harvard University. Numerous int¿l scientific awards and honours.
