Panelists
Saras
Sarasvathy (Chalmers honorary doctor and Professor of Entrepreneurship,
University of Virginia)
Anders Broström
(Managing Director,
Swedish
Entrepreneurship Forum)
Time and Place
The
seminar takes place in the Vasa
A auditorium at Chalmers, June 9th 13.00-15.00.
Free of charge, no pre-registration required.
Topic of discussion
To
set the stage, consider these three quotes by economist of innovation and
entrepreneurship Joseph Schumpeter:
“For actions which
consist in carrying out innovations we reserve the term Enterprise; the
individuals who carry them out we call Entrepreneurs.”
”The function of
entrepreneurs is to reform or revolutionize the pattern of production by
exploiting an invention or, more generally, an untried technological
possibility for producing a new commodity or producing an old one in a new way,
by opening up a new source of supply of materials or a new outlet for products,
by reorganizing an industry and so on.”
Reflecting on the development of
railroads:
“The entrepreneurial
function consisted not so much in visualizing possibilities—everyone saw them
and speculated on them—or in the solution of technological problems—the
locomotive functioned sufficiently well by that time and was thenceforth
improved almost automatically by a series of typically “induced” inventions,
and no major problems impeded the building of the lines—as in the leadership of
groups, in successfully dealing with politicians and local interests, in the
solution of problems of management and of development in the regions the roads
opened up. It was ‘getting things done’ and nothing else , a variety of pure
entrepreneurship stripped of all accessories. But this entrepreneurship was
often split between several individuals and is not always easy to attribute to
any single one.”
As we can see, Schumpeter defines innovation as a
function, separate from invention, that is carried out by entrepreneurs. Still,
Swedish policy tends to focus on “research and innovation”, with little
attention to entrepreneurship. This may partly be explained by the fact that
entrepreneurship is commonly defined and measured in terms of occupational
status (i.e. self-employment)
or firm/industry structure (e.g. many new, young or small firms)
rather than its economic and societal functional (i.e. ‘carrying out innovation’ and
‘getting things done’).
Fixing a rather penetrating gaze on what entrepreneurs
do and what constitutes entrepreneurial expertise, professor Sarasvathy’s
research suggests that we can (partly) codify and teach an ‘entrepreneurial
method’ in much the same way as we can (partly) codify and teach a ‘scientific
method’. See here for a short video and here
for an interesting
chapter from the recent volume “Questioning the
Entrepreneurial State”, which is currently
being debated
in Dagens Nyheter.
In
light if these observations, the panel will discuss the following questions:
1) Should Swedish “research and
innovation” policy be complemented with entrepreneurship?
If so, what should such policy look like? Is there value in an integrated
“entrepreneurship, research, and innovation” policy, or should such an
entrepreneurship policy be kept separate? Should it add support or subtract
barriers?
2) Is entrepreneurship something that
should be taught?
If so, what should be taught? How, where, when, and to whom?
Welcome!
Kategori
Öppen föreläsning; Föreläsning; Seminarium
Plats:
Vasa A, lecture hall, Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, Vasa Hus 2-3 entréhall
Tid:
2022-06-09 13:00
Sluttid:
2022-06-09 15:00