Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Schumpeter Revisited

Abstract

In a large part of the literature on Scbumpeter one finds that attention is paid to either his early contributions, with reference to the role of the entrepreneur as the personification of innovation, or to his later contributions, stressing the role of large companies as main drivers of innovation. This paper complements some recent contributions to the assessment of the influence of Schumpeter on economics and social sciences in general. It demonstrates that a careful reading of his writings reveals that there is no simple dichotomy between the 'old' and the 'young'. Entrepreneurial activities play an active role in understanding the dynamics of innovation throughout Schumpeter's theory.