Entrepreneurship and Crisis Mutation in Greece: A Neo-Schumpeterian Approach

Abstract

This article attempts an analysis of entrepreneurship by taking into account the socio-economic development/crisis dipole under the prism of the experience of the Greek crisis. After presenting a neo-Schumpeterian and evolutionary perception of development, it discusses the present crisis of entrepreneurship in Greece. Based on the “Stra.Tech.Man approach” (strategy-technology-management synthesis) it distinguishes the central “physiological” types of the firms operating in Greece. After identifying the “monad-centered” type as the “dominant” and idiosyncratic type of entrepreneurship in Greece, it discusses the implications. This type of firm bases its strategy on a peculiar “business instinct,” uses technological options in a sporadically way, and implements managerial decisions based solely on its practical experience. This discussion also lays the ground for possible policy implications. The “Institutes of Local Development and Innovation” are a policy proposal aiming at boosting the physiological mutation of the locally active firms and enhancing the innovative local entrepreneurial potential in Greece.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Development-Crisis Dipole, Greek Socio-Economic Crisis, Firm Physiology, Stra.Tech.Man Approach, Institutes of Local Development and Innovation