Entrepreneurship & Firm Creation

9th century · more than 1,100 years ago

Islamic commercial law developed the mudarabah profit-sharing partnership

One party supplied capital and another supplied labour and expertise, sharing profit by agreement while the financier alone bore any loss, a structure that shaped trade across the Islamic world and beyond.

• Indian Ocean trade networks carried the same risk-sharing principle

12th century · more than 800 years ago

Merchants in Venice and Genoa financed voyages through commenda partnership contracts

An investor supplied capital for a trading voyage and shared the profit with the travelling merchant while bearing the capital risk, letting people without seafaring skill fund commercial expeditions.

1602 · 424 years ago

The Dutch East India Company issued tradable shares to fund its voyages, becoming the first joint-stock company

Pooling capital from many investors who bore limited risk in exchange for a share of profit created a durable template for financing large, long-distance ventures still recognisable in modern company law.

1723 · 303 years ago

Jacques des Bruslons published the first dictionary entry for "entrepreneur"

The word first appeared in the French Dictionnaire Universel de Commerce compiled by des Bruslons. In Britain the term "adventurer" was often used for the same meaning, marking an early stage in the vocabulary of enterprise.

late 17th–early 18th century · 326 years ago

Richard Cantillon first defined the entrepreneur in Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général

The Irish-French economist Cantillon gave the earliest formal definition of the entrepreneur as one who buys at a certain price and resells at an uncertain one, thus bearing risk. He separated the function of the risk-bearing entrepreneur from that of the owner supplying the money, a distinction foundational to classical economics and to later study of entrepreneurial activity.

18th century · 326 years ago

Josiah Wedgwood pioneered modern marketing techniques in British pottery

The potter and entrepreneur devised direct mail, money-back guarantees, travelling salesmen and "buy one get one free" while meeting the demands of the consumer revolution behind Britain's Industrial Revolution. Historians have ranked him among the most innovative retailers ever, illustrating entrepreneurship as a driver of commercial method as well as product.

early 19th century · 226 years ago

Jean-Baptiste Say defined entrepreneurship as shifting resources to higher productivity

The French economist described entrepreneurship as moving economic resources out of areas of lower yield and into areas of higher productivity. He identified entrepreneurs as drivers of economic development and as a collecting factor of production.

1860s · 166 years ago

Joseph Malin opened the first fish and chip shop in London

Jewish entrepreneurs initiated the UK fish and chip industry, with Malin's London shop the first. Samuel Isaacs later opened the first sit-down fish restaurant in 1896, expanding it into a chain of 22 restaurants.

1870s · about 150 years ago

Japan's Meiji government encouraged the formation of the great zaibatsu business groups

Former samurai and merchant families built diversified conglomerates, including Mitsubishi and Mitsui, as the state pursued rapid industrialisation after the Meiji Restoration, fusing entrepreneurship with national policy.

1871 · 155 years ago

German Reich introduced freedom of trade (Gewerbefreiheit)

The German Reich removed guild-era restrictions on operating as an entrepreneur, opening business formation to a wider group. This liberal interval preceded the reintroduction of competence requirements in the early twentieth century.

1881 · 145 years ago

Ralph and Albert Slazenger founded the sports brand Slazenger

The Jewish brothers established a sporting goods firm that went on to hold the longest-running sporting sponsorship, supplying tennis balls to Wimbledon from 1902. It exemplifies durable brand-building by nineteenth-century entrepreneurs.

1884 · 142 years ago

Michael Marks and the Gluckstein brothers co-founded Marks & Spencer and Lyons

Marks co-founded the retailer Marks & Spencer while Isidore and Montague Gluckstein founded Lyons, whose teashop chain became a British high street staple. Lyons went on in 1951 to pioneer the use of computers in business.

1902 · 124 years ago

lexicographers recorded first use of the terms "entrepreneurism" and "entrepreneurship"

Both words entered English in 1902, well after the 1762 loan of "entrepreneur" itself. The coinages mark the point at which the activity became a named subject rather than merely a described role.

1908 · 118 years ago

Germany introduced the small proof of competence for craft entrepreneurs

The Kleiner Befähigungsnachweis restricted the training of apprentices to craftspeople holding a Meister certificate, reviving guild-style regulation after the freedom of trade period. Proof of competence was not yet required merely to start a business.

1930s · 96 years ago

Joseph Schumpeter theorised the entrepreneur as agent of creative destruction

Schumpeter argued that entrepreneurs convert new ideas or inventions into successful innovations, destroying old industries while creating new products and business models. His 1934 work held that changing environments continuously reveal new information, which some individuals exploit for entrepreneurial profit, shifting the production-possibility curve upward.

1935 · 91 years ago

Germany reintroduced the greater proof of competence for new businesses

The Großer Befähigungsnachweis required craftspeople to obtain a Meister apprentice-training certificate before being permitted to set up a new business. The requirement was reasserted again in 1953, constraining entry into craft entrepreneurship.

late 20th century · 126 years ago

Russia and China saw a flowering of entrepreneurial activity after political change

Changes in politics and society in Russia and China permitted large-scale private enterprise where it had been suppressed. The result was the emergence of Russian oligarchs and Chinese millionaires, a decisive shift in where entrepreneurial activity occurred.

1951 · 75 years ago

Lyons pioneered the use of computers in business

The catering entrepreneurs behind the Lyons teashop chain applied computing to commercial operations, an early instance of enterprise IT adoption. It shows established entrepreneurial firms driving technological diffusion.

1956 · 70 years ago

The World Bank Group created the International Finance Corporation to invest directly in private firms

The new arm extended development finance beyond loans to governments, backing private enterprises directly in developing economies and establishing a template later followed by regional development banks.

late 1970s · 56 years ago

business and economics research underwent a profound empirical resurgence in entrepreneurship study

Having been largely ignored theoretically until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, entrepreneurship became a major empirical field from the late 1970s. This resurgence built the measurement base for treating entrepreneurial activity as a national capability.

1972 · 54 years ago

Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital were founded in California, establishing professional venture capital

The two partnerships formalised the practice of funding new technology companies in exchange for equity and board involvement, creating the institutional model that later spread worldwide.

1977 · 49 years ago

management scholars surveyed and ranked the pioneers of management ideas

A 1977 survey of management scholars named Frederick Winslow Taylor, Chester Barnard, Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr., Elton Mayo and Lillian Moller Gilbreth as the top five pioneers. Such rankings reflect the codification of managerial knowledge underpinning enterprise formation.

1978 · 48 years ago

China began its reform and opening-up policy, permitting small-scale private enterprise

The Communist Party's shift toward household responsibility farming and township and village enterprises allowed private economic activity for the first time in decades, seeding the entrepreneurship that later drove China's growth.

1983 · 43 years ago

Muhammad Yunus formalised Grameen Bank as a lender to poor, mostly women, borrowers

The Bangladeshi bank lent small amounts without collateral to people excluded from formal credit, demonstrating that very small-scale entrepreneurship could be financed reliably at large scale outside conventional banking.

1991 · 35 years ago

India dismantled much of its License Raj and opened the economy to private enterprise

Facing a balance-of-payments crisis, the government scrapped much of its industrial licensing system and welcomed foreign investment, ending decades of restrictions that had confined entrepreneurship to a narrow, permitted list of activities.

• The information technology sector became the clearest beneficiary

21st century

governments of nation states tried to promote entrepreneurship and enterprise culture

Governments pursued policies to stimulate business creation in the hope of raising economic growth and competition. Support structures included specialised government agencies, business incubators, science parks and non-governmental advocacy bodies.

January 2026 · 7 months ago

India marked a decade of its Startup India programme

The initiative, launched in January 2016, has recognised a large and growing number of start-ups for tax and regulatory benefits, though funding for new ventures remained well below the peak reached in 2021.

• Start-up funding stayed short of its 2021 peak

Early 2026 · 6 months ago

Saudi Arabia's SME authority, Monsha'at reported further progress toward its Vision 2030 target for small business

Riyadh has been trying to lift small and medium enterprises' share of GDP toward roughly a third by 2030, using streamlined licensing, funding guarantees and dedicated industrial zones to encourage new company formation.

Early 2026 · 6 months ago

Nigeria extended formal startup labelling under its 2022 Startup Act to more states

Further states signed compacts offering tax breaks and regulatory support to labelled start-ups, building out an initiative originally intended to formalise Lagos and Abuja's technology sectors nationwide.

• Additional states pursued the same designation

June 2025 · last year

Renewed anti-government protests in Kenya again disrupted small trading activity in Nairobi

A fresh wave of demonstrations, echoing the 2024 tax protests, closed markets and shops in the capital for days at a time, underscoring how recurring unrest can interrupt the informal and small-enterprise economy that employs most working Kenyans.

May 2025 · last year

Vietnam's Communist Party adopted a resolution elevating the private sector to a key driver of growth

Resolution 68 set a target of roughly two million active enterprises by 2030 and directed reduced red tape and easier access to land and credit for new firms, marking a shift in official doctrine on private business.

• Local authorities were told to cut registration steps

2025 · 1 year ago

a 2025 study found founders follow their father's industry

Almost 75% of male entrepreneurs were found to start a firm in the same or a related industry as their father. The result highlights family transmission as a mechanism of entrepreneurial activity.

2025 · last year

Bangladesh's investment authority, BIDA expanded its one-stop digital portal for registering a new company

The online system, intended to cut the number of separate agency visits needed to start a business, added further licences and approvals, part of a broader effort to simplify company formation ahead of graduation from least-developed-country status.

Late 2025 · 8 months ago

China added further cohorts to its 'little giant' programme for specialised small manufacturers

The scheme, which certifies smaller firms with strong niche technology positions for preferential financing and procurement, continued adding cohorts even as broader new business registration growth slowed amid weaker domestic demand.

Mid-2025 · last year

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor published its latest cross-country comparison of start-up rates

The annual survey again found early-stage entrepreneurial activity running highest in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, where necessity-driven start-ups are common, and lowest in several high-income East Asian economies with strong corporate employment.

Mid-2025 · last year

Brazil saw its simplified microentrepreneur scheme, MEI, keep expanding

The MEI category, which lets very small businesses formalise for a flat monthly fee, has grown past fifteen million registered microentrepreneurs, extending a formalisation drive underway since the late 2000s.

2024 · 2 years ago

Clark, Covin and Pidduck developed the Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation scale

The 17-item validated instrument measures entrepreneurial behaviour at the individual level, addressing the gap between firm-level and personal measurement. It extends the five-dimension Entrepreneurial Orientation framework to individuals.

Late 2024 · 2 years ago

Indonesia's government pushed on with its drive to bring millions of small enterprises onto digital platforms

The programme aimed to move a large share of the country's roughly sixty million micro, small and medium enterprises onto e-commerce and digital payment platforms, treating digital onboarding as a route into the formal economy.

2022 · 4 years ago

researchers linked trait victimhood negatively to enterprising tendency

Research published in 2022 found enterprising tendency negatively associated with a persistent tendency to see oneself as a victim. Among people with lower self-efficacy, lower trait victimhood predicted founding at least one business initiative.

2015 · 11 years ago

Rea and Volland classified three types of cultural entrepreneur

Their book The Business of Culture identified cultural personalities, tycoons and collective enterprises as distinct forms of cultural entrepreneurship. The typology broadened analysis of enterprise beyond conventional industry.

2014 · 12 years ago

ETH Zürich researchers found distinctive frontopolar cortex activation in entrepreneurs

A 2014 study found entrepreneurs showed higher decision-making efficiency and stronger activation in brain regions associated with explorative choice compared with typical managers. Research the same year also reported links between entrepreneurship and historical sea piracy.

2012 · 14 years ago

Schoon and Duckworth completed a study on early identification of future entrepreneurs

The researchers examined traits that could potentially identify who may become an entrepreneur at an early age. Such work supports policy aimed at cultivating entrepreneurial capability through education.

2011 · 15 years ago

Academy of Management published an Input-Process-Output model of strategic entrepreneurship

A 2011 article set out a three-step framework for strategic entrepreneurship. It contributed to the formalisation of entrepreneurship as a manageable, teachable process.

2008 · 18 years ago

organisers of Global Entrepreneurship Week launched an annual global entrepreneurship event

From 2008 an annual Global Entrepreneurship Week aimed at exposing people to the benefits of entrepreneurship and prompting participation in entrepreneurial activities. It institutionalised promotion of enterprise culture across many countries.

2007–14 · 19 years ago

Census Bureau and MIT researchers found the average successful founder is 45 years old

Compiling 2.7 million company founders who hired at least one employee between 2007 and 2014, the study established the average age of a successful start-up founder at founding as 45. The finding countered assumptions about youth-driven entrepreneurship.

2005 · 21 years ago

Edward Lazear identified varied education and work experience as the entrepreneurial trait

The Stanford economist's study found that breadth of education and work experience was the most important characteristic distinguishing entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs. Later work in 2013 by Backes-Gellner and Moog added diverse social networks as a predictor.

2002 · 24 years ago

business history professors ranked the greatest American entrepreneurs

A survey of 58 business history professors placed Henry Ford first, followed by Bill Gates, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison. The exercise reflects scholarly consensus on which entrepreneurs most shaped American industrial capability.

2000s · 26 years ago

the field of entrepreneurship extended the concept to social and political entrepreneurship

Usage of the term expanded beyond for-profit business to include social entrepreneurship, political and knowledge entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship within existing firms. The decade also saw growing focus on how individuals identify, evaluate and exploit opportunities, and the rise of story-telling in cultural entrepreneurship.

1999 · 27 years ago

Babson College and the London Business School launched the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

The two business schools created an annual survey measuring the rate at which adults start businesses across dozens of countries, establishing the standard reference data set for entrepreneurial activity worldwide.