IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/entthe/v24y2000i3p25-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Social Dynamics of Entrepreneurship

Author

Listed:
  • William Bygrave
  • Maria Minniti

Abstract

We present a framework describing the interdependence between entrepreneurial decisions at the individual level and the local amount of entrepreneurial activity. We view the entrepreneur as someone who has the ability to perceive and exploit previously unrecognized profit opportunities. His behavior, we argue, produces the conditions for new markets to develop and, as a consequence, new entrepreneurial opportunities are created. Thus, entrepreneurs act as catalysts of economic activity for the entire economy. In other words, we introduce a distinction between the microeconomic effects of entrepreneurial activity within a specific market and its effects at the aggregate level. Specifically, the goal of this paper is to show that the actual rate of entrepreneurship creates a network externality that, by favoring the concentration of a significant quantity of economic activity and by encouraging alertness, also promotes growth. If, indeed, entrepreneurship creates a network externality, then its effect on the aggregate level of activity exceeds the value of each individual entrepreneurial action, and the contribution of the entrepreneurial sector to economic growth is more than proportional to the relative size of the sector itself.

Suggested Citation

  • William Bygrave & Maria Minniti, 2000. "The Social Dynamics of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 24(3), pages 25-36, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:entthe:v:24:y:2000:i:3:p:25-36
    DOI: 10.1177/104225870002400302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/104225870002400302
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/104225870002400302?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arthur, W Brian, 1989. "Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(394), pages 116-131, March.
    2. Maria Minniti & William Bygrave, 1999. "The Microfoundations of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 23(4), pages 41-52, July.
    3. Costas Azariadis & Allan Drazen, 1990. "Threshold Externalities in Economic Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(2), pages 501-526.
    4. Neil Churchill & William D. Bygrave, 1989. "The Entrepreneur ship Paradigm (I): A Philosophical Look at Its Research Methodologies," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 14(1), pages 7-26, October.
    5. Brian Arthur, W. & Ermoliev, Yu. M. & Kaniovski, Yu. M., 1987. "Path-dependent processes and the emergence of macro-structure," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 294-303, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Maria Minniti & William Bygrave, 2001. "A Dynamic Model of Entrepreneurial Learning," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 25(3), pages 5-16, April.
    2. Minniti, Maria, 2004. "Entrepreneurial alertness and asymmetric information in a spin-glass model," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 637-658, September.
    3. Fontanelli, Luca & Guerini, Mattia & Napoletano, Mauro, 2023. "International trade and technological competition in markets with dynamic increasing returns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    4. Brozynski, Max T. & Leibowicz, Benjamin D., 2022. "A multi-level optimization model of infrastructure-dependent technology adoption: Overcoming the chicken-and-egg problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(2), pages 755-770.
    5. Paolo Zeppini & Koen Frenken & Roland Kupers, 2013. "The complexity of transitions," Working Papers 13-04, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies, revised Mar 2013.
    6. Luigi Marengo & Paolo Zeppini, 2016. "The arrival of the new," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 171-194, March.
    7. Zeppini, Paolo & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2020. "Global competition dynamics of fossil fuels and renewable energy under climate policies and peak oil: A behavioural model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Tatsuhiro Shichijo & Emiko Fukuda, 2019. "A dynamic game analysis of Internet services with network externalities," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 86(3), pages 361-388, May.
    9. Sanjit Dhami & Paolo Zeppini, 2024. "Green Technology Adoption under Uncertainty, Increasing Returns, and Complex Adaptive Dynamics," GREDEG Working Papers 2024-20, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    10. Heinrich, Torsten, 2016. "The Narrow and the Broad Approach to Evolutionary Modeling in Economics," MPRA Paper 75797, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Mangematin, V. & Callon, M., 1995. "Technological competition, strategies of the firms and the choice of the first users: the case of road guidance technologies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 441-458, May.
    12. Egidi, Massimo & Narduzzo, Alessandro, 1997. "The emergence of path-dependent behaviors in cooperative contexts," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 677-709, October.
    13. John S. Earle & Klara Sabirianova Peter, 2006. "Complementarity and Custom in Contract Violation," Upjohn Working Papers 06-129, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    14. Paolo Zeppini & Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh, 2010. "Competing Recombinant Technologies for Environmental Innovation," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-107/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    15. Elvio Accinelli & Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2012. "The Evolutionary Game Of Poverty Traps," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 80(4), pages 381-400, July.
    16. Zeppini, Paolo, 2015. "A discrete choice model of transitions to sustainable technologies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 187-203.
    17. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    18. Paul Windrum, 2003. "Unlocking a Lock-in: Towards a Model of Technological Succession," Chapters, in: Pier Paolo Saviotti (ed.), Applied Evolutionary Economics, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Kretschmer, Tobias, 2004. "Upgrading and niche usage of PC operating systems," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(8-9), pages 1155-1182, November.
    20. Steven N. Durlauf, 1997. "The Memberships Theory of Inequality: Ideas and Implications," Research in Economics 97-05-047e, Santa Fe Institute.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:entthe:v:24:y:2000:i:3:p:25-36. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.