The Social Science View of Entrepreneurship: Introduction and Practical Applications

Abstract

The social sciences are a source of new andfresh ideas about the theory and practice of entrepreneurship.Althoughsocial scientists participated very little in the revival of entrepreneurshipstudies that emerged in the 1980s, many noted thinkers have contributed to thesocial science literature on entrepreneurship. A review of economists' contributions is offered, and particular attentionis paid to the work of Joseph Schumpeter, who argued that entrepreneurship ismore about entrepreneurial behavior than about the individualentrepreneur.The contributions of mainstream economists such as FrankKnight and Ludwig von Mises are then summarized. What follows is a brief discussion of the corpus produced by socialscientists other than economists.This discussion focuses on the work ofMax Weber, whose theory of entrepreneurship is often identified with his studyof the positive influence of ascetic Protestantism on attitudes towards theentrepreneur.Following a review of literature produced by sociologists,anthropologists, psychologists, and economic historians, the power of thesocial sciences to integrate theoretical and practical knowledge ofentrepreneurship is reiterated.A union of practical entrepreneurship anduniversity-based social science research would be most productive.(SAA)