Promotors and champions in innovations — development of a research paradigm

Abstract

Josef Schumpeter can be credited with being the first person to draw attention to the central role played by the entrepreneur in innovation processes, in a book published in 1912 (Theory of Economic Development, Leipzig). This entrepreneur creates new combinations on a discontinuous basis, in totally new forms, in an act of creative destruction. He brings forth new products, introduces new production methods, opens up new markets, conquers new sources of supply or re-organizes (Schumpeter 1931, p. 100). The “dynamic entrepreneur” was thus characterized and described. This was apparently sufficient to incorporate him into the economic models. To understand him as a real person or even to analyze him in further detail seemed superfluous.