Entrepreneurial Action: Casting the Entrepreneur in the Market Process

The entrepreneur has been cast in many different roles in economic theory.Studies have highlighted the various roles and functions of the entrepreneurwithin the economic system, leaving entrepreneurial behaviour largelyunexplored. This work examines entrepreneurial action in more detail,focusing on the decision-making process informing the entrepreneurial act:constructing the ends-means framework.An Entrepreneurial Decision-making Cast (EDC) is developed from theoreticalwork in four areas: i) contextualism; ii) the Kirznerian entrepreneur; iii)rationality and decision-making; iv) Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). Abehavioural approach to entrepreneurial action, located within a contextualistframework, offers the opportunity to extend the Kirznerian notion of alertnessand elucidate distinctive aspects of entrepreneurial decision-making.An Entrepreneurial Decision-making Model (EDM) is constructed drawing onthe theoreticalfoundations of PCP and illustrative empirical research. lt isestablished that profit opportunities are not discovered. The entrepreneursubjectively construes an opportunity for gain based on a store of knowledge,as represented by a construct system. Furthermore, entrepreneurs adoptmethodological pluralism when assessing constructed opportunities. Anychange in knowledge, any revision of a constructed opportunity, is equivalentto learning. The EDM draws-out dimensions of entrepreneurial action,illustrating how endogenous change may occur in the market process.Entrepreneurial action transcends the traditional type cast role of theentrepreneur in economic theory. The entrepreneurial act unfolds in themarket process and potentially arises from action taken by any of the fourtraditional categories of economic actor. The EDC extends our knowledge ofentrepreneurial behaviour, casting entrepreneurial action as a central featureof the market process.