Entrepreneur et croissance économique : développements récents

The objet of this article is to present the important literature that developed on the border of economic sciences and management around the role of the entrepreneur in the economic growth, and to discuss its main conclusions. The message of these works is simple: without entrepreneur, no or less economic growth. The first section shows why the entrepreneur is at the origin of growth. The heart of the process of creation of wealth is the individual who identifies a profit, i.e. a mutually advantageous exchange. This profit can be a profit of innovation, arbitration or speculation. In all the cases, it is the act of identification that carries growth. The second section shows that innovation is indeed an important cause of the growth of the developed countries but that this model of growth from the top should not be generalized to all countries. Imitation is also a source of growth. The third section presents various empirical tests that accredit the majority of the theoretical proposals exposed in the preceding sections.