Page 15 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

4 Norman Walzer and Adee Athiyaman

3. Combination of Factors of Production. Entrepreneurs deploy equipment
to gain the highest productivity and least cost per unit.
4. Shifting of Entrepreneurial Activity from One Industry to Another. An en-
trepreneur will shift into new businesses or industries to improve the
prospects for profit.
5. Attitudes toward the Supply of a Product. Entrepreneurs expand produc-
tion and supply more at higher prices in an attempt to maximize prof-
its.
6. Bases of Entrepreneurial Expectations. Entrepreneurs assume that the
most recently realized results will continue, except when there are def-
inite reasons to expect change.
7. Actions Associated with Different Phases of the Business Cycle. When busi-
ness is slack, entrepreneurs sell surplus goods outside of a specific
market at prices that little more than cover basic costs, while within
that market still try to sell at prices that nearly cover both basic and
supplementary costs.

In closing, Evans (1949) claims that entrepreneurial research focuses mini-
mally on the following domains with a view to generating rules that guide
entrepreneurial action: choice of products, methods of production, size and
location of plant, mobility of investments, relations with competitors, mar-
keting procedures, and relations with government. The following pages ex-
plore developments in these areas since the mid-twentieth century.

RECENT ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEMES

Economics is only one discipline in which entrepreneurship research is
conducted but even a cursory examination of research in the past several
decades shows the diversity of topics and issues studied (Low 2001). A lit-
erature search was conducted using EconLit: the American Economic Asso-
ciation database that references 750 publications (see www.econlit.org).
The period from January 1969 to January 2007 was chosen to provide a rep-
resentative sample of publications pertaining to the latter half of the twen-
tieth century. A simple keyword search using the term “entrepreneur” re-
sulted in 1,388 records (table 1.1). Since the interest is in generalizations
about entrepreneurial behavior, the search was limited to one macro key-
word (entrepreneurial orientation) and several micro or specific keywords
suggested by Evans (1949).
Of the 49 hits resulting from the keyword entrepreneurial orientation, 19
studies focused on entrepreneurial traits or culture. For entrepreneurs, the
stable traits include innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking (Todor-