A Theory of Entrepreneurship and Its Application to the Study of Business Transfers

Abstract

The authors formalize a view of entrepreneurship in the spirit of Theordore W. Schultz. In this view, entrepreneurs are those individuals who respond to the opportunities for creating new products (and the like) that arise because of technological progress, for example. The theory has implications for entry and exit, specialization of labor, and business transfers. These business transfers correspond to, among other things, individuals changing jobs and sales of firms. Transfers are seen as a mechanism facilitating division of labor. The authors also discuss evidence on business transfers that occur through sales of firms. Copyright 1990 by University of Chicago Press.