Enterprising Elite or Lucky Merchants?

Entrepreneurs are the core of business innovation; they destroy old-fashioned techniques and business practices and replace them with pioneering advances in the world of industry. This creative destruction allows them to replace outdated conventions with modern, and frequently risky, behavior. Robert Dalzell's book Enterprising Elite portrays the Boston Associates not as innovators and true entrepreneurs according to modern standards since their motivations were not related to innovation or the destruction of convention; nevertheless, they did affect changes in the business world and their effect on the economic development of the United States cannot be ignored. The Boston Associates were not interested in creating a society of modernity; they just wanted to create stability during the chaotic post-war period after the American Revolution. Also, their economic practices did not contribute to the growth of their companies; rather, these practices contributed to many of the weaknesses of the mill system after its initial rapid growth. Entrepreneurs are modernists and must be committed to the process of economic growth and modernization of their company, not a blend of modern and traditional, creative and risk averse.