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Technological flexibility, financial fragility and the recent revival of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Alessandro Vercelli
Alessandro Vercelli*
Affiliation:
Università di Siena
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Summary

The technological stagnation of large bureaucratic organizations in the seventies led to a revival of “Schumpeterian” entrepreneurship. This is explained as a consequence of the search for flexibility induced by an increase of structural uncertainty. The role of credit in promoting technological flexibility is also considered. Its basic function today is seen to consist not so much in a rapid redistribution of productive resources, as Schumpeter maintained, but rather in a proper reallocation of technological risk.

Résumé

Résumé

La stagnation technologique des grandes organisations bureaucratiques dans les années soixante-dix a mené à un regain d'intérêt pour la fonction de l'entrepreneur schumpeterien. Cette évolution est la conséquence d'une recherche de flexibilité, elle-même induite par l'accroissement des incertitudes structurelles. Le rôle du crédit dans la promotion de cette flexibilité technologique est également analysé; aujourd'hui sa fonction primordiale ne consiste plus tellement en une redistribution rapide des ressources, comme l'a défendu Schumpeter, mais plutôt en une réallocation des risques technologiques.

Keywords

131311621131311621
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , 1988 , pp. 103 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1988 

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Footnotes

*

The author gratefully acknowledges financial support by C.N.R.

References

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