Entrepreneurship in a Theory of Capital and Finance: Illustrating the Use of Subjective Quantification

Abstract

In order to identify and evaluate an entrepreneurial opportunity calculation is required. The entrepreneur must do more than simply perceive an opportunity to do something new to create value in the marketplace. Insofar as alternative possible actions exist, the entrepreneur must choose between them. And even as the chosen opportunity is pursued, he must choose between alternative modes of production and organization in the ongoing combination of resources. It has been pointed out that this requires monetary calculation. Little beyond this has been said in the entrepreneurial literature. The details of the kind of calculation required have been left mostly implicit. This article borrows from the finance literature to suggest a general and universal framework for such calculation and to offer one possible more specific method for using that framework for ongoing entrepreneurial judgment calls.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, subjective calculation, capital theory, finance