Entrepreneurship and Heterogeneous Capital

Nicolai Juul Foss, Peter G. Klein

    Research output: Working paperResearch

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    Abstract

    Entrepreneurship is ultimately about the arrangement of resources into productive activities. Much of the entrepreneurship literature, however, has focused on the demand side of the market. While resource heterogeneity is a feature of many theories of the firm, such theories are not built on a systematic theory of capital. We show how the approach to capital developed by the Austrian school of economics provides a natural bridge between theory of entrepreneurship and the theory of the firm. We refine Austrian capital theory by defining capital heterogeneity in terms of subjectively perceived attributes, the functions, characteristics, and uses of capital assets. Such attributes are not given, but have to be created or discovered by means of entrepreneurial action.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationFrederiksberg
    PublisherCenter for Strategic Management and Globalization
    Number of pages35
    ISBN (Print)9788791815164
    Publication statusPublished - Jan 2008
    SeriesSMG Working Paper
    Number3/2008

    Keywords

    • Austrian capital theory
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Heterogeneity
    • Attributes

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