Entrepreneurship ― A Philosophical Investigation

Entrepreneurship: A Philosophical Investigation is ground-breaking in the sense that it is the first attempt in the discipline at developing a philosophy of entrepreneurship. It builds on a curious sympathy between entrepreneurship and philosophy: whereas philosophy takes thinking to the limit of thought, one could imagine entrepreneurship as taking (commercial and social) action to the limit of established practice.

Both are driven by an urge to create the conditions for newness to emerge by understanding the nature of current conditions; they work from within not without. Newness, which in the case of entrepreneurship is often understood as new value, is central for both philosophy and entrepreneurship; especially for a philosophy concerned with entrepreneurship.

The philosophy invoked is that of ordinary language and social philosophy, interested in language, force, time, openness and potentiality. The book will not keep philosophy and entrepreneurship separate, rather it establishes a conversation with entrepreneurship research via the key concepts that have animated the establishment of entrepreneurship as a new field or discipline in business schools, policy circles (and beyond) during the last three decades.

Aimed at researchers and academics in the fields of both Entrepreneurship and Philosophy, Entrepreneurship: A Philosophical Investigation illustrates the result of such rethinking in relation to the discussion of value and the creation of such through production and trade. The latter part of the books is therefore a study of value and entrepreneurial value, philosophically re-thought.

• Daniel Hjorth is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Organisation at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.
• Robin Holt is Professor of Organisation and Management at Liverpool University, UK