We are looking for papers that explore the roles of entrepreneurs and managers in the business history of Europe, the United States, and Asia in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Entrepreneurs and managers are two of the fundamental actors in the modern, developed economies of the world. In the classical Schumpeterian perspective, entrepreneurs are the great moving force of capitalism insofar as they provide the vision that guides innovation; they raise and invest the capital their organizations need; and they organize and control the workers who provide and distribute the goods or services their firms make. Managers, by contrast, are seen as persons who have developed sophisticated technical know-how through a long apprenticeship, theoretical and/or practical, and become part of the business bureaucracy that ultimately impedes innovation. The entrepreneur and the manager in this paradigm are two polarities in the development of capitalism. Historical research on business in the second and third industrial revolutions has, however, seriously questioned the relevance of these pure types. Where large bureaucratic enterprise has been dominant, both entrepreneurs and managers have contributed to the on-going success of the firm. Where small, innovative start-up enterprises have been successful, they too have developed managerial hierarchies that contribute creatively to the development of their firms and of the economic system. One crucial element in the success or failure of an economic system appears to be its ability to achieve the proper balance between effective managerial entrepreneurship and effective entrepreneurial management.

Louis Galambos and Franco Amatori, Co-editors of the issue.