Is There a Pilot in the Evolutionary Firm?

The evolutionary theory of the firm operates on the traditional distinction between entrepreneurs (agents in charge of creating resources) and managers (agents in charge of allocating resources). The evolutionary perspective would be consistent, and stronger, if it recognized the entrepreneur's involvement in both the creation and the allocation of resources. Entrepreneurs play a role in matching the internal with the external environment of the firm, shaping the learning processes at stake, and selecting the organization's core competence.The entrepreneur is, in other words, a sort of "manager/entrepreneur."Following a discussion of the major characteristics of the evolutionary theory of the firm, the relationship between the "evolutionary entrepreneur" and the entrepreneur described by Joseph Schumpeter in his theory of innovation is examined. Whereas the Schumpeterian entrepreneur introduces novelty by breaking the circular flow, the evolutionary entrepreneur shapes the cognitive processes, leading to novelty by building new business conceptions and by managing the evolution of the firm's knowledge base. The evolutionary entrepreneur is fundamentally different from the entrepreneur described in other theoretical approaches. Rather than dealing with pure information, the entrepreneur in the evolutionary theory deals with the distribution and creation of knowledge. (SAA)