Thanks David – precisely the point, that there can be no ‘theory’ of the second, as we presently use the term ‘theory’. Entrepreneurship, like the rest of business (and managing) is an art form. The widespread attempts to ‘theorize’ it are ludicrous, showing the way the ‘theorists’ misunderstand the phenomena of interest (economic value-creation). At the same time the ‘art of value-creation’ is constrained by many limits or boundaries. As an ex-engineer I normally mention the 2nd Law of thermodynamics (the one that ensures that even if we can imagine perpetual motions machines we cannot build them). We would do better to focus our research on such constraints to the entrepreneurial art form.

Thanks for your kind comment Erhard. Yes, it is all about freedom, especially in the socio-economic sphere. We know centralized authority does not work too well if economic growth is the aim. But just as most of us are deeply committed to liberty and democracy’s political aims – and we know that means setting up laws and other constraints on what individuals can do (and say), so entrepreneurial activity only becomes a social good when similarly constrained. How are we to organize this as the necessary complement to encouraging entrepreneurial activity?