IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/jeehcn/v12y2002i1n6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Entrepreneurship, Exogenous Change and the Flexibility of Capital

Author

Listed:
  • Horwitz Steven

    (St. Lawrence University)

Abstract

This paper applies Israel Kirzner's theory of entrepreneurship and the Austrian theory of capital to the theory of the firm. In particular, it explores why some firms are better able to react to exogenous change than others, especially when that change is negative. The argument is that firms that have structures of physical and human capital that are more "flexible" are better able to adapt to exogenous change. In this context, flexibility is understood in terms of Lachmann's notions of the substituability and complementarity of capital. Flexible capital structures are ones in which elements can be more easily substituted for. Such flexibility carries a trade-off in terms of lost productivity from using less specific (and less highly complementary) capital, but it is argued that this trade-off might be worthwhile in an environment of heightened structural uncertainty.Cet article applique la théorie entrepreneuriale d'Israel Kirzner et la théorie Autrichienne du capital à la théorie de la firme. Plus particulièrement, il explore pourquoi certaines entreprises sont plus à même de réagir face à des changements exogènes que d'autres, spécialement quand ces changements sont négatifs. L'argument est que les firmes qui possèdent des structures de capital physique et humain plus "flexibles" sont plus aptes à s'adapter à des changements exogènes. Dans ce contexte, la flexibilité est comprise au sens lachmanien de substituabilité et de complémentarité du capital. Les structures de capital flexibles sont celles dans lesquelles la substitution entre les composantes est plus aisée. Une telle flexibilité entraîne un compromis en termes de perte de productivité découlant d'un usage de capitaux moins spécifiques (et moins complémentaires), mais il est suggéré que ce compromis en vaut la peine dans un environnement encore plus structurellement incertain.

Suggested Citation

  • Horwitz Steven, 2002. "Entrepreneurship, Exogenous Change and the Flexibility of Capital," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:jeehcn:v:12:y:2002:i:1:n:6
    DOI: 10.2202/1145-6396.1048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1048
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1145-6396.1048?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Israel M. Kirzner, 1996. "Essays on Capital and Interest," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1009.
    2. Roger Koppl, 2002. "Big Players and the Economic Theory of Expectations," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-62924-0, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mikayla Novak, 2023. "The Emancipatory Liberalism of Steven Horwitz: The Case of Women’s Economic Status," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 38(Winter 20), pages 55-71.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicolás Cachanosky, 0. "Microfoundations and macroeconomics: 20 years," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 0, pages 1-10.
    2. Nicolás Cachanosky, 2021. "Microfoundations and macroeconomics: 20 years," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 279-288, June.
    3. Loïc Sauce, 2017. "Market process(es) and (un)knowledge," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 305-321, September.
    4. Foss Kirsten & Foss Nicolai & Klein Peter G. & Klein Sandra K., 2002. "Heterogeneous Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Organization," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Koppl, Roger, 2010. "Some epistemological implications of economic complexity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 859-872, December.
    6. Glenn L. Furton & Alexander William Salter, 2017. "Money and the rule of law," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 517-532, December.
    7. Salter, Alexander William & Tarko, Vlad, 2017. "Polycentric banking and macroeconomic stability," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 365-395, June.
    8. Anders Liljenberg, 2005. "The Austrian Tertius Gaudens: A Revisit of Competition Theory in Light of Georg Simmel," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 18(2), pages 195-218, June.
    9. Félix-Fernando Muñoz & María-Isabel Encinar, 2019. "Some elements for a definition of an evolutionary efficiency criterion," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 919-937, July.
    10. James Caton & Richard E. Wagner, 2015. "Volatility in Catallactical Systems: Austrian Cycle Theory Revisited," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: New Thinking in Austrian Political Economy, volume 19, pages 95-117, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    11. Robert F. Mulligan, 2015. "Roger W. Garrison and the Integration of Austrian and Mainstream Macroeconomics," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 30(Winter 20), pages 59-79.
    12. William Butos, 2003. "Knowledge Questions: Hayek, Keynes and Beyond," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 16(4), pages 291-307, December.
    13. Bagus, Philipp & Howden, David, 2011. "Unanswered Quibbles with Fractional Reserve Free Banking," MPRA Paper 79594, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Mulligan, Robert F., 2017. "The multifractal character of capacity utilization over the business cycle: An application of Hurst signature analysis," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 147-152.
    15. Stephen G. Zimmer, 2023. "Rethinking the role of human Capital in Growth Models," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 567-588, December.
    16. Steven Horwitz, 2016. "Introduction: Money, Cycles, and Crises in the United States and Canada," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Studies in Austrian Macroeconomics, volume 20, pages 1-12, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    17. Mark Pennington, 2021. "Hayek on complexity, uncertainty and pandemic response," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 203-220, June.
    18. Lewin, Peter & Cachanosky, Nicolás, 2018. "Substance and semantics: The question of capital," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 423-431.
    19. Zanotti, Gabriel J. & Cachanosky, Nicolás, 2015. "Implications Of Machlup’S Interpretation Of Mises’S Epistemology," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 111-138, March.
    20. David Emanuel Andersson, 2014. "Cities and planning: the role of system constraints," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Stefano Moroni (ed.), Cities and Private Planning, chapter 2, pages 19-37, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:jeehcn:v:12:y:2002:i:1:n:6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.