The foundations of the theory of entrepreneurship in austrian economics - Menger and Böhm-Bawerk on the entrepreneur
Abstract
The contributions of Austrian Marginalists Carl Menger (1840-1921) and his first disciple, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914), to the analysis of business practice and entrepreneurship reached beyond a mere by-product of the building of the so-called ‘Austrian School of economics’ as an alternative paradigm to the well-known ‘German Historical School’. Menger’s and Böhm-Bawerk’s multifaceted views on business and analysis of entrepreneurship rapidly emerged among their concerns in their writings and deeds (at Imperial Austria’s government). Menger’s and Böhm-Bawerk’s works raise the issue of which traits entrepreneurs and capitalists share, how to differentiate them and observe a new type of economic agent in the bud. As we put their seminal works in the context of the late period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, we disentangle their views on the entrepreneur and show how they paved the way for ideas later for Schumpeter to popularize.