Combines Schumpeter's theory and modern economics to give a new view of innovation in small and large firms

This book provides the groundwork for a general theory of modern capitalism by reinterpreting Max Weber’s work on the origins and institutional underpinnings of modern capitalism, and Joseph Schumpeter’s thought on the mechanisms and functioning of the capitalist economy. Focusing on the lesser-known works of both figures, particularly in the case of Weber, whose writings on economics and economic history are frequently overlooked, the author contends that a combination of Schumpeter’s and Weber’s theoretical schemas, incorporating their many valuable insights, provides the basis of a unified, overall theory of modern capitalism that is comprehensive, coherent and persuasive. With attention to the important theoretical connections between Weber and Schumpeter and the respective contributions of both with regard to the nature and workings of capitalism, the author explores the compatibility of the two approaches, arguing that the full significance of the contributions of the two writers has not been adequately appreciated. A systematic and sympathetic comparison and synthesis of the contributions of two of the central figures in social and economic theory, which highlights the enduring relevance of their work in times of political and economic crisis, Weber, Schumpeter and Modern Capitalism will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in social and economic theory, classical sociology and economic history.

Pan Am, Gimbel’s, Pullman, Douglas Aircraft, Digital Equipment Corporation, British Leyland—all once as strong as dinosaurs, all now just as extinct. Destruction of businesses, fortunes, products, and careers is the price of progress toward a better material life. No one understood this bedrock economic principle better than Joseph A. Schumpeter. “Creative destruction,” he said, is the driving force of capitalism. Described by John Kenneth Galbraith as “the most sophisticated conservative” of the twentieth century, Schumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. His vision was stark: Nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril—to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter’s view, the general prosperity produced by the “capitalist engine” far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind. During a tumultuous life spanning two world wars, the Great Depression, and the early Cold War, Schumpeter reinvented himself many times. From boy wonder in turn-of-the-century Vienna to captivating Harvard professor, he was stalked by tragedy and haunted by the specter of his rival, John Maynard Keynes. By 1983—the centennial of the birth of both men—Forbes christened Schumpeter, not Keynes, the best navigator through the turbulent seas of globalization. Time has proved that assessment accurate. Prophet of Innovation is also the private story of a man rescued repeatedly by women who loved him and put his well-being above their own. Without them, he would likely have perished, so fierce were the conflicts between his reason and his emotions. Drawing on all of Schumpeter’s writings, including many intimate diaries and letters never before used, this biography paints the full portrait of a magnetic figure who aspired to become the world’s greatest economist, lover, and horseman—and admitted to failure only with the horses.

For as long as one can remember, the edifice of the neoclassical economic syn thesis has been under attack. Critiques have focused on the extreme unreality of the assumptions that underpin the Arrow-Debreu theorems of welfare economics. They have queried the excessive formalism of the edifice, and the lack of practical significance of many of the results.They have castigated the neoclassical synthesis for its internal incoherence (lacking an independent theory of capital, for example, one of the favorite topics of the Cambridge school), its lack of a dynamic element, its non-evolutionary character, its lack of any conception of "market process" and so the list could be continued (Blaug, 1997). Through all this, the neoclassi cal synthesis remains as strong as ever, impervious it seems to these or any other attacks. In this paper a different tack is taken. The neoclassical edifice is left alone, standing as a representation of what goes on in a certain kind ofeconomy- namely the economy wheregoods and services are producedand exchanged. The paper then introduces another kind of economy, namely an economy of productive entities called "resources"- that are needed to produce the economyofgoods and services.

The book investigates the relationship between the economic and political writings of four seminal authors: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Joseph A. Schumpeter, and John M. Keynes. It underlines how in their works the nexus between ethics, economics, and politics has produced four exemplary solutions. They represent the most relevant modern formulations of the idea of 'political interest', to which the philosophical and political debate constantly returns, as the thought of Carl Schmitt, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault demonstrates. The author discusses the different interpretations by considering economic science not as a natural, but as moral and political science.

This book presents an economic framework that addresses the motivation of the innovative entrepreneur.

Schumpeter was interested in dynamic economics rather than the economics of stagnation; in the economics of the creation of wealth rather than the economics of the redistribution of wealth; in the economics of technological innovation rather than the economics of industrial management. The major thrust of the volume, then, concerns studies of industrial change with emphasis both on analysis of the impact of innovation and on the interrelatedness of industries viewed through the process of innovation.