Entrepreneurship, Evolution andthe Human Mind

The objective of this paper is to relate entrepreneurship to a theory of the humanmind, setting both within an evolutionary perspective. The first requirement,therefore, is to indicate what this perspective implies. As a generic concept, I takeevolution to be the self-transformation of a system through the internal production anddiffusion of novelty (Witt 2003, p. 280). The production of novelty may be initiatedas a response to external events, but this response, and indeed the perception of theexternal events, is internally generated. This distinction is made explicit inSchumpeter’s account of ‘development from within’ (Schumpeter 1934, p. 63).Changes in technology and consumer preferences are treated as changes in the data towhich the economy adapts (Schumpeter 1934, p. 65); such adaptations are to beexplained by co-ordination theory, and are contrasted with entrepreneurial action toinduce changes in preferences and (especially when entrepreneurship is located inlarge firms) changes in technology...