Mises defined entrepreneurship as universal human choice-making, not elite innovation

Evidence

For Mises, the entrepreneur was literally everyone. In Human Action, Mises defined the entrepreneur as “acting man in regard to the changes occurring in the data of the market.” At the center of his entrepreneurial function is the anticipation of the future demand of the consumer. Unlike Schumpeter’s focus on innovation and change, for Mises the entrepreneur needs nothing but market relations to perform his or her role in the economy and society. The performance earns profit for the entrepreneur, which is nothing but the acknowledgment of the capacity for making the price function work. This is why Mises reacted with hostility when profits were considered expressions of malfunctioning markets to be overcome by equilibrium. He saw the defense of profit (and loss) opportunity as central to a free economy and society. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 273

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes Mises’s universal entrepreneurial action from Schumpeter’s elite innovator — a key genealogy point for mapping neoliberal thought.
• XREF: Directly contrasts with Schumpeter’s entrepreneur-as-doomed-class framing; feeds the reader’s map of internal debates among liberal economists. — connects to: Entrepreneurship is a perpetual alertness function, not a rare talent. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 298; Kirzner redefined entrepreneurship as equilibrating action, not Schumpeterian disruption — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 277; The human race is constituted by free individual choices, not vice versa — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1222 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Kirzner redefined entrepreneurship as equilibrating action, not Schumpeterian disruption #corroborates (0.82) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 277
• The human race is constituted by free individual choices, not vice versa #expands (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1222