2023 Spring Colloquium Series
2023 Spring Colloquium Series
The Entrepreneur’s Indispensable Function in Economics
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Dr. Charles Adelberg, Senior Adjunct Professor of Economics
- April 19, 2023, Brawner Boardroom & Zoom
- Summary: Common knowledge attributes modern technology-driven economic growth to entrepreneurship,
but no economic theory does, regardless of how often the entrepreneur was mentioned by famous
economists. Reasons for this include incorrectly perceiving that the entrepreneur must have a
function in a firm when the entrepreneur actually can be defined and identified by playing a
central, observable and indispensable function in the innovation process. All innovation
processes may be described as having an in-process intangible under development which gets to
a point of needing further investment of capital to continue the process of innovation. The
entrepreneur is the person who finds the means to connect the inventor or the persons in charge
of the ongoing innovation process with a capitalist (an angel or a venture capitalist) who will
fund further development and makes sure the transaction is completed. Dr. Charles Adelberg
will describe entrepreneurs who gain their identity when the transaction leading to the sale or
licensing of the in-process intangible is carried out in full, show how these examples comprise
the market for research outcome, and further show how the conception of the entrepreneur not
only advances microeconomic theory but also could lead to improvement in macroeconomic
measurements of economic change due to innovation.