Entrepreneurship: theory, institutions and history. Eli F. Heckscher Lecture, 2009

This paper reviews the modern economic theory of the entrepreneur. It argues that the study of entrepreneurship acts as a bridge between key disciplines – economics, sociology, management studies and economic and business history. It introduces the notion of disputable knowledge and argues that societies that recognise the disputability of both philosophical and practical knowledge are most likely to incubate successful entrepreneurs.