Joseph Schumpeter
Creative destruction, entrepreneurship theory
Most quoted
"In capitalist reality as distinct from its textbook picture, it is not that kind of competition which counts but the competition from the new commodity, the new technology, the new source of supply, the new type of organization which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their foundations and their very lives."
— from Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942
"The function of the entrepreneur 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."
— from The Theory of Economic Development, 1934
"The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one."
— from Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942
All quotes by Joseph Schumpeter (318)
Knowledge is the most revolutionary force in history.
The problem that is usually visualized is how capitalism administers existing structures, whereas the relevant problem is how it creates and destroys them.
The entrepreneur is the man who 'gets things done.'
The entrepreneur, in fact, is not a capitalist, but a man who bears the risk of the enterprise and who, in return for this, receives the profit.
The capitalist process, not by coincidence but by virtue of its mechanism, progressively raises the standard of life of the masses.
The first thing an economist has to do is to get rid of the idea that there is a 'normal' state of things.
The history of capitalism is a history of innovation and change.
The problem of economic development is not merely a problem of capital accumulation, but also a problem of innovation.
The entrepreneur is not a manager; he is a leader.
The capitalist system is not a stationary one; it is in a constant state of flux.
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
The capitalist process, by its very nature, tends to destroy its own institutional framework.
The entrepreneur is the man who sees the opportunity and acts on it.
The history of capitalism is a history of economic revolutions.
The entrepreneur is the agent of change in the economic system.
The capitalist process is incessantly revolutionizing the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.
The capitalist system is not a perfect system, but it is the most dynamic system we have ever known.
The entrepreneur is the man who introduces new goods, new methods of production, new markets, new sources of supply, new organization of industry.
The capitalist system is not a static system, but a dynamic one.
The capitalist process is a process of incessant innovation.
Contemporaries of Joseph Schumpeter
Other Economicss born within 50 years of Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950).