The entrepreneur has a particular and indispensable role to play in the evolution of liberal economic systems. Whether entrepreneurs are self-employed or working for organisations (as employees), they are often at the origin of radical innovations. Entrepreneurs create companies and jobs, they participate in the renewal of the economic fabric. Entrepreneurs are innovators who bring ‘creative destruction’ (Schumpeter 1934). An economic dynamic of change is only possible if there is a revolution, that is to say a complete upheaval of the established order. Schumpeter highlights and glorifies the disturbing role of the entrepreneur; he even argues that only individuals with a capacity to innovate deserve to be called entrepreneurs. This vision is also put forward by Octave Gélinier, renowned French consultant who insisted, as early as the late 1970s, on the importance of what the entrepreneur could bring to the economy: ‘Countries, professions, firms that develop and innovate are those which practise entrepreneurship. Statistics of economic growth, international exchanges, patenting, licensing and innovations for the past 30 years clearly establish this point: it is very costly to do without entrepreneurs’ (Gélinier 1978).

In this perspective, entrepreneurship represents a real engine of economic development. The role of entrepreneurship, however, is not limited to economic development; it also disrupts traditional organisation and functioning patterns. We even believe it can give rise to new organisational configurations.