(Yet Another) Schumpeter quote
"Viewed in this light, the entrepreneur and his function are not difficult to conceptualize: the defining characteristic is simply the doing of new things that are already being done in a new way (innovation). It is but natural, and in fact only an advantage, that such a definition does not draw any sharp line between what is and what is not 'enterprise'...It should be observed that the 'new thing' need not be spectacular or of historical importance. It need not be Bessemer Steel or the explosion motor. It can be Deerfoot sausage." – Chapter 10 of Joseph A. Schumpeter: The Economics and Sociology of Capitalism, Richard Swedberg (ed).
Note to self: read the works on Schumpeter by Swedberg. One of the challenges of my research is defining what exactly constituites "dynamic efficiency;" or entrepreneurship. There are a lot of metaphores but a notable lack of anything empirically measurable (an important thing to have for a PhD in economics). How exactly does one measure or compare how differing institutional structures impact innovation? How can we know that institution (a) snuffed out an innovation that may have taken place if institution (b) was in place? How do we see the unseen, the "lost potential"?
I suppose that's my job.