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Entrepreneurial Capitalism. Past, Present and Perspectives: Revista Economică January 2013
Entrepreneurial Capitalism. Past, Present and Perspectives: Revista Economică January 2013
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ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPITALISM.
PAST, PRESENT AND PERSPECTIVES
Abstract:
Until now, the capitalist system proved to be the most efficient one from an
economic, technological, and social perspective. The purest form of capitalism is
entrepreneurial capitalism, where small and medium enterprises play the leading role.
In a post crises economy, SMEs seem to be the key element in ensuring the economic
recovery of nations worldwide. Thus, Governments try to adapt the market to the
SMEs needs and help them develop. However, in some parts of the world,
entrepreneurial capitalism seems to have lost the battle against other types of
capitalism: corporative capitalism and state capitalism.
1
Ph.D. student, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration / Department of Political Economics /
Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, www.ubbcluj.ro, cristina.paguba@yahoo.com
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long process, attained with high sacrifices, but once it reached maturity, its
contribution to the wellbeing of society was tremendous.
People’s desire to get rich has nothing to do with capitalism
„capitalism is identical with profit pursuit, a constant renewed profit, with the
help of the rational and capitalist enterprise” (Weber, 16). In his work „The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, Max Weber writes about the
„capitalist spirit”, which characterizes the innovative entrepreneur, and
enabled capitalism to arise. In took a lot of time for the entrepreneurs to play
an important part in history and this was due to a couple of significant events
that took place in time.
Firstly, the great geographical discoveries, especially the discovery of
the New World in the 15th-16th centuries, generated a strong inflow of precious
metals and an intensive commercial activity on the continent. Wealth came to
Europe but the main religion of the inhabitants, Catholicism, didn’t encourage
its followers to take advantage of it. The Catholic belief stated: „let the
unbelievers follow the gain” (Weber, 71). The ones who took advantage of the
wealth were the monarchs, the Catholic Church, but also the Jews, whose
religion encouraged them to get rich. Inspired by Weber, the German
economist Werner Sombart, believed that people’s religion is the expression
of their soul, and that Jews religion, Judaism, had the same principles with
Capitalism, the same spirit. Thus, having a rational spirit and a burning desire
for wealth, the Jews contributed to the rise and promotion of: “international
trade, modern finance, the Stock Exchange and the commercialization
generally of all economic activities; supporting unrestricted intercourse and
free competition, and infusing the modern spirit into all economic life. …all
these activities are summed up in the word “capitalism.”” (Sombart, 111). The
social classes placed on the top of the social hierarchy, accumulated great
wealth, while the vast majority of population lived in poverty. All this
dissatisfaction led to the Reform of the Catholic Church in the 16 th century,
movement which led to the rise of the Protestant doctrine that had a lot of
adepts. The doctrine stated that gaining wealth and profits is the obligation of
individuals to God, as long as the wealth is gained throw a permanent ascetic
effort. The man must get rich not for himself but to fulfill the Divine
command.
In this historical, economical, political and social context, the
individual’s desire to get rich grew stronger and stronger, and a new social
class emerged – bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie had a decisive contribution to
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In USA the employees limit for a SME is 500, in other countries 200
etc.
the course of time, bankruptcies were seen as a disgrace, but in our present
economic environment, things have changed. The entrepreneurs who have
gone bankrupt must be sustained to start over, must have the courage and
motivation to start a new business and not be ashamed of this experience for
the rest of their lives.
Governments are aware that the small scale of the SMEs is a barrier
for them to become global. Enterprises that activate on the international
markets grow faster than the ones who activate within the state borders.
Efficient policies are needed to help and assist SMEs to grow their
competence and skills to compete successfully on the global market.
Governments will give information about the evolution of the foreign markets,
about export opportunities, will encourage SMEs to advance on new markets
and will sustain the development of the human resource that can work at
exports. Because of the new means of communication, SMEs have become
more involved worldwide through strategic alliances, joint ventures,
partnerships with multinational companies etc.
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Capitalism made remarkable progress in the last 100 years, the living
standard rose all over the world, poverty was reduced and life expectancy has
doubled. Thomas Malthus’s pessimistic theory elaborated at the beginning of
the 19th century, about demographic growth, was contradicted by the capitalist
system. Malthus drew attention to the population rapid growth in comparison
with the means of subsistence. He suggested that mankind should take rapid
measures to keep under control the population growth. “The main idea of
Malthus’s population theory is that through uncontrolled breeding, mankind
condemns itself to misery and worsening of its economy” (Popescu, 266). The
annual population growth estimated by the English professor of 3% was
realistic in England in the 1800s, but unrealistic according to the tendencies of
rate growth decrease in the civilized world. Population grew approximately 7
times since Malthus elaborated his demographic theory, with a medium annual
growth rate of 0, 92%. Society was able to bear this growth thanks to
technological progress, which led to productivity growth and the development
of the agrarian science.
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dominates the market’s activity. Until now, the capitalist system proved its
supremacy over all other economic systems. However, history has proved to
us that no social organization is everlasting and that mankind in its
evolutionary process will always try to replace it with a superior one.
According to this logic, the present form of organization risks to be surpassed
one day.
5. References
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European Union (2011), Thinking Big for Small Businesses - What the EU
does for SMEs, available at http://ec.europa.eu
The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, Outline of SME Policies,
available at http://www.chusho.meti.go.jp
The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency (2010), Small and Medium
Enterprise Charter, available at http://www.chusho.meti.go.jp
The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency (2012), White paper on small
and medium enterprises in Japan, available at
http://www.chusho.meti.go.jp
United Nations Statistics Division (2010), Small and Medium - Sized
Enterprises: Characteristics and Performance, available at
http://unstats.un.org
United Nations Statistics Division (2010), Small and Medium - Sized
Enterprises: U.S. and EU Export Activities, and Barriers and
Opportunities Experienced by U.S. Firms, available at http://unstats.un.org
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