From Theories of the Entrepreneur to the Marginalist Theory of the Firm
The “entrepreneur” was a central figure of the works by Richard Cantillon (1755) - “undertaker” in the English translation - and Jean-Baptiste Say (1803). From Cantillon’s farmer to Karl Marx’s industrial capitalist, from Adam Smith’s (1776) manufacturer to Say’s innovator, different functions of the entrepreneur are identified: he refrains from consuming and engages capital (where the entrepreneur is also the capitalist), takes some risks, organizes the production, buys and sells, and also innovates.
The nature and determination of the remuneration of these different activities are discussed: wage, interest or profit (residual or not). Regarding the firm, it is conceived as the locus of the division of labour (for Smith or John Stuart Mill (1848)) and of exploitation (for Marx).