The roots of entrepreneurship and labour demand: individual ability and low risk aversion

The topic of entrepreneurship currently experiences a revived interest as is shown by the research agenda of today’s empirical researchers. There are few issues in economics which are backed up by such a rich historical knowledge base as is the case with entrepreneurship. This paper aims to give an overview of some important classic contributions relating to today’s and tomorrow’s empirical research subjects. The overview consists of answers to six research questions by six historical contributors to entrepreneurship research. Together, these questions give some insight into the determinants of successful entrepreneurship. The classic contributors considered are Cantillon, Say, Marshall, Schumpeter, Knight, and Kirzner. Their views are compared to each other as well as to some recent results of empirical research into the determinants of successful entrepreneurship.