Entrepreneurship as a non-profit-seeking activity

Matthias Benz

No 243, IEW - Working Papers from Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: It is typically assumed that people engage in entrepreneurship because there are profits to be made. In contrast to this view, this paper argues that entrepreneurship is more adequately characterized as a non-profit-seeking activity. Evidence from a broad range of authors and academic fields is discussed showing that entrepreneurship does quite generally not pay in monetary terms. Being an entrepreneur seems to be rather rewarding because it entails substantial non-monetary benefits, like greater autonomy, broader skill utilization, and the possibility to pursue one�s own ideas. It is shown how incorporating these non-monetary benefits into economic models of entrepreneurship can lead to a better understanding of the phenomenon.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; self-employment; wage and return differentials; non-monetary work benefits; job satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J31 J32 M13 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-evo and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (66)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:iewwpx:243

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