Accounting for Entrepreneurship: A Knowledge-Based View of the Firm

Analyzes the interplay between accountability andentrepreneurship with specific focus on the British industrial revolution. Amodel of entrepreneurship is proposed that includes tacit knowledge, publicgood knowledge, private rent, profit, and monitoring cost. Based on this model,a knowledge-based typology of entrepreneurship is presented, which plotsdifferent modes of accountability with value creation through control of labor,and suggests four generic modes of entrepreneurship: venturers/cooperators,intrapreneurs, arbitrageurs, and serial entrepreneurs. Each of the four frameworks is discussed with respect to the Britishindustrial revolution. This analysis highlights the use of knowledge byentrepreneurs, both legally and illegally, to create and accumulate wealth,noting that a knowledge-based economy is not new. In examining theseentrepreneurs, their attitudes toward networking and political lobbying arealsoevaluated. (SRD)