Abstract
This paper offers “ten theses on entrepreneurial thinking” to highlight personal, institutional, social, and methodological aspects that characterize an entrepreneurial approach to economic and social problem-solving. Ranging from the self-evident to the more challenging, the ten theses claim that entrepreneurial thinking (ET) is (or should be) characterized by the following attributes:
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1.
ET is hopeful thinking.
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2.
ET is melioristic thinking; it wants to make something better.
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3.
ET is holistic thinking, in the sense of connective thinking.
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4.
ET is action-oriented and team-oriented; it has a multiplier effect.
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5.
ET enables leadership, by embracing possibility.
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6.
ET is emancipatory thinking – a force against alienation.
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7.
ET is social and ethical thinking.
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8.
ET is heuristic and dialectical thinking; it rejects the hubris of certainties.
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9.
ET is utopian thinking.
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10.
ET is about connective problem-solving.
Expanding beyond the confines of business and economics, ET can become a transformative force for the common good.
An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, on October 4, 2009. Keeping the tone of the original presentation, rather than constructing a more conventional academic paper, has been a conscious decision. I thank Katrin Fischer for her critical comments on this revised and expanded version.
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Notes
- 1.
Among the many summaries available, one of the most concise is given at the beginning of Speth’s book (1-2), where we also find an illuminating sample “of the ‘collapse’ books” (5) on the market in 2008. Since then, the number has increased dramatically, as we struggle to comprehend what we have done and what lies ahead. Among the most incisive are Guterl, Hamilton, Kolbert, and McKibben (2010 and 2014). There is also an abundance of blogging on the subject, the best of which is to be found at www.grist.org.
- 2.
In recent years, the concept of emancipation has been developed and critically examined in a number of studies within the discipline of academic entrepreneurship (see, in particular, Rindova et al., and Verduijn et al.). Not surprisingly, Verduijn et al. caution us “that entrepreneurship’s emancipatory quest is anything but self-evident; it will constantly be challenged, contained and co-opted by different obstacles and forces” (106). By focusing on aspects of alienation and agency, rather than claims of efficacy, I emphasize the sense of potential immanent in my notion of entrepreneurial thinking.
- 3.
“In einer höheren Phase der kommunistischen Gesellschaft, nachdem die knechtende Unterordnung der Individuen unter die Teilung der Arbeit, damit auch der Gegensatz geistiger und körperlicher Arbeit verschwunden ist; nachdem die Arbeit nicht nur Mittel zum Leben, sondern selbst das erste Lebensbedürfnis geworden; nachdem mit der allseitigen Entwicklung der Individuen auch ihre Produktivkräfte gewachsen und alle Springquellen des genossenschaftlichen Reichtums voller fließen - erst dann kann der enge bürgerliche Rechtshorizont ganz überschritten werden und die Gesellschaft auf ihre Fahne schreiben: Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen!” (Kritik des Gothaer Programms, Part I.) All original German texts are given here in footnotes; English translations or paraphrases are mine.
- 4.
“Nach meiner Theorie ist ein Mensch entfremdet, dessen Selbst- und Weltbezug gestört ist. Er fühlt sich fremd seinem eigenen Leben gegenüber, seinen Handlungen oder seinen Wünschen gegenüber, er ist beziehungslos gegenüber der sozialen, aber auch der dinglichen Welt, die ihn umgibt.”
- 5.
“Nicht entfremdet zu sein … bezeichnet eine bestimmte Weise des Vollzugs des eigenen Lebens. Es wäre ein Leben, in dem man selbstbestimmt seine Projekte verfolgt, die man sich dabei zu eigen macht und mit denen man sich identifizieren kann.”
- 6.
“Nicht-Entfremdung ist weder ein harmonisch-konfliktfreier Zustand noch ist es identisch mit dem, was manche Menschen als ‘Glück’ bezeichnen, aber vielleicht ist es das Einzige, was wir über das gute Leben sagen können oder sollten.”
- 7.
In her honors thesis, “Redefining Success: Towards a Philosophy of Entrepreneurship,” in which she connects interviews with entrepreneurs to key philosophical concepts taken from such thinkers as Aristotle and John Stuart Mill, Dana Pansen has concluded that those entrepreneurs “who are successful do consider the effect of their actions on the entire community, even if that stretches as far as the entire world” (Pansen 24).
- 8.
In a 1912 commencement speech at Brown University entitled “Business - A Profession,” Louis D. Brandeis (later known as Justice Brandeis and the man after whom Brandeis University is named) said, “Real success in business is to be found in achievements comparable … with those of the artist or scientist, of the inventor or the statesman. And the joys sought in the profession of business must be like their joys …”
- 9.
Because he criticized the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956, he was forced to retire from his chair at the University of Leipzig in 1957 and left East Germany in 1961.
- 10.
“Die Wurzel der Geschichte aber ist der arbeitende, schaffende, die Gegebenheiten umbildende und ueberholende Mensch. Hat er sich erfasst und das Seine ohne Entaeusserung und Entfremdung in realer Demokratie begruendet, so entsteht in der Welt etwas, das allen in die Kindheit scheint und worin noch niemand war: Heimat.”
Not surprisingly, Wendell Berry, in our own time, has also emphasized the concept of home; see, among other places, his essay “Major in Homecoming” in What Matters” (pp. 31–36) and his magnificent novel Jayber Crow (2000).
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Fleischmann, F. (2018). What Is Entrepreneurial Thinking. In: Faltin, G. (eds) Handbuch Entrepreneurship. Springer Reference Wirtschaft . Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-04994-2_2
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