Schumpeter’s twins: entrepreneur and intrapreneur

The existing literature considers entrepreneur and intrapreneur differ profoundly in their roles, the nature of their influence, and the type of analysis their role requires. This paper argues that such misdirection might have a potential result of limiting the understanding of the entrepreneurship phenomena. By returning to the Schumpeter’s concepts, the need for definitions over and over again might diminish, leading into fruitful research agenda. As entrepreneur makes new combinations regardless of where it takes place, entrepreneur and intrapreneur should be considered as twins. Once confusion about definitions is solved, research focusing on the question of “who is entrepreneur?” might transform into the question of “what is the entrepreneurial context and process?”. Then, CE can be measured on the basis of entrepreneurial functions/activities. This, in turn, helps to see the linkages between CE and its impact on firm performance that might help to develop sound policy conclusions for firm strategies and economic development. Schumpeter and recent literature indicate the importance of the interactions taking place with internal and external environments, particularly interactions among different social actors. Thanks to the developments in complexity research, agent-based modeling, and innovation literature, the role of social interaction in bringing about new combinations might be understood. The dynamic entrepreneurial process still waits to be undiscovered to form a strong theory of entrepreneurial firm. In this endeavor, Schumpeter promises to be the starting point.