Entrepreneurship and the competitive market process in the Austrian school of economics and in the work of J. A. Schumpeter

The aim of this paper is to introduce the market process as a central concept of Austrian economics as opposed to the general-equilibrium approach of the neoclassical school. In the first part the author shortly reviews the theme of entrepreneur and understanding of entrepreneurial function in the history of economic thought. In the second chapter the formation of the Austrian view of the market as an entrepreneurially driven process and simultaneous emergence of criticism of mainstream theory is explained. The chapter three describes the Austrian understanding of the market process based upon twin concepts of sheer ignorance and entrepreneurial discovery. The last chapter introduces the entrepreneurial market process theory of Schumpeter. Schumpeter's theory is subsequently compared with Kirzner's approach. The author also surveys and compares modern discussions about market process within the Austrian school of economics.