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Schumpeter’s entrepreneur – A rare case

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Abstract

In this paper we investigate Schumpeter’s description of an entrepreneur as an actor challenging conventional wisdom to overcome social resistance and skepticism along psychological, sociological and economic dimensions. We analyze motivational and contextual predictors of intentions to become an entrepreneur within a framework based on the theory of planned behavior, social identity theory, and self-categorization theory. Relying on survey data of scientists, our analysis finds that, among those scientists who indicate entrepreneurial intentions, a rather low, but non-negligible share shows entrepreneurial intentions based on a Schumpeterian attitude – i.e., acting against all odds – whereas the rest of the potential entrepreneurs seem to choose an entrepreneurial career in order to comply with the expectations of their social environment – they seem to follow the crowd. By additionally taking into account the Five-Factor model of personality, our finding that entrepreneurial intentions are determined by cognitive and social factors rather than by basic psychological traits leaves room for policy intervention to foster technology entrepreneurship.

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Notes

  1. Alternatively, we preferred a mean split over a median split of the group identification variable to produce the two groups of low and high identifies. The results remained the same.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support by the Thuringian Ministry of Education (Thüringer Kultusministerium) and the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung within the research project “Success and Failure of Innovative Start-Ups – A Process-Oriented Analysis of Economic and Psychological Determinants” is gratefully acknowledged. Maximilian Goethner thanks the German Science Foundation for financial support with the doctoral program DFG-GRK 1411 “The Economics of Innovative Change”. We thank the participants of the SCHUMPETER AND SCHUMPETERIANS ON ECONOMIC POLICY ISSUES - 80 years after the publication of the Theory of Economic Development (1934), held at the Université de Picardie – Jules Vernes, Amiens, May 19–20, 2014, for their valuable comments and suggestions, especially Emmanuelle Fauchart, the official discussant. We also thank two anonymous reviewers of the journal for their advice and the editors of this special issue for the careful editing. Charles McCann did a magnificent job in getting the English right. The usual caveats apply.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Business Administration, DFG Graduate School “Economics of Innovative Change” (DFG-GK-1411), Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Carl-Zeiss-Straße 3, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Uwe Cantner & Maximilian Goethner

  2. Center for Applied Developmental Science, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Semmelweisstr. 12, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Rainer K. Silbereisen

  3. Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark, I2M Group, Campusveij 55, DK-5230, Odense M, Denmark

    Uwe Cantner

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  1. Uwe Cantner
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  2. Maximilian Goethner
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Correspondence to Uwe Cantner.

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Cantner, U., Goethner, M. & Silbereisen, R.K. Schumpeter’s entrepreneur – A rare case. J Evol Econ 27, 187–214 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-016-0467-3

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