Conflicting Views of the Entrepreneur in Turn-of-the-Century Vienna

Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of the entrepreneur is the most well-known approach to be developed in continental Europe at the turn of the century, and has exercised considerable influence on the literature. However, this paper shows that alternative theories of the entrepreneur were developed by scholars close in time and space to Schumpeter’s The Theory of Economic Development. First, the contribution of Rudolf Hilferding is unknown in the literature on entrepreneurship and is important due to the absence of entrepreneurial theory in the Marxist literature upon which Hilferding built. Second, while the later contributions of Ludwig von Mises to entrepreneurial theory have been discussed, the early comments of his 1912 treatise are often passed over, and are a significant foil to Schumpeter’s views. Discussing the early writing of Mises on entrepreneurship also helps show the ambitious scope of Mises’ first book, and furthermore, allows us to properly position his writings in the history of economic thought.