The Entrepreneur

5Towards a Socioeconomics of the Entrepreneur: An Overview

5.1. The 13 keywords of the economics of the entrepreneur

The economics of the entrepreneur can be summarized in 13 keywords. They belong in part to the field of industrial economics, because the entrepreneur’s calling is to create a business and to innovate, initiatives that lead to constructing markets. In doing so, he creates new markets. The object of industrial economics is to study the strategies of firms in a context of imperfect competition, in a situation of information asymmetry. The entrepreneur takes risks, because he is placed in a context of uncertainty. He takes risks when he innovates, because he does not know in advance if the consumer will accept his innovations. He is in a state of constant alert in order to detect the often-unexpressed needs of the consumer. Moreover, the economics of the entrepreneur focuses increasingly on the entrepreneur’s behavior and motives. Why create a business? To exploit an idea, conquer a new market, increase one’s income, create one’s own job, or escape from the salary straightjacket? Economists have listed some motives that explain the entrepreneur’s behavior. However, according to the industrial economics paradigm, it is no longer a question of the individual, but of organization or, as John K. Galbraith puts it, of “technostructure”. Businesses are no longer directed by individuals, but by organizations that rely on routines and in which innovation becomes (paradoxically) ...