Economic Theory on Role and Place of Entrepreneur in Social Production

We consider the evolution of the views of prominent economics researchers of different generations on the role, place and functions of an entrepreneur in the production process. The article covers a significant time period – from the end of the XVIII century to the middle of the XX century. The starting point of the problem is the "economic man" introduced by A. Smith as the embodiment of the steady power of the market economy, driving economic and social prosperity. However, A. Smith's thesis did not get immediate recognition in economics facing serious competition from alternative views of the problem. Only at the end of the XX century, due to the contribution of the most outstanding representatives of the economic science, A. Smith's great guess took its rightful place in economic treatises.