Human Capital in the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

Since Smith (1776) took consideration to human capital as an asset of economic value, academic interest has focused on the economic effects of human capital. In 1931, Schumpeter called for a focus on the individual entrepreneur or the creative destructor with his/her motives, wishes, aspirations and activities when dealing with entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. Along these lines, this paper focuses on an in-depth investigation of the domain of human capital in Isenberg’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. It captures the entrepreneurial mindset of the highly complex individual as a requisite for entrepreneurial success and ultimately, for business growth and development. The increasing literature debating human capital confirms the relevance of locating and refining the factors for entrepreneurial success. Consequently, this paper improves the roadmap of entrepreneurship ecosystems by adding the innate skills and conceptualising four generic archetypes, the local entrepreneur, the global entrepreneur, the incremental entrepreneur, and the radical entrepreneur, based on the combination of short/long education and narrow/broad labour.