Entrepreneurs in spite of themselves? Economic and non‐economic motives of booksellers in Germany
Abstract Entrepreneurship has been analyzed not only in terms of economic but also in terms of non‐economic goals (Starbuck, 1965 or Introductory Chapter). This is, because of the very high degree of uncertainty of the economic outcome of the decision whether to be employed or to set up a business of one's own one; there are non‐economic goals which may dominate economic ones. Although the attempt to translate these non‐economic goals into economic ones has not been very convincing, there have only been a few attempts to fit this into the approach of alternative economic theory which offers a more appropriate framework for analysis. But this framework does promise—and this will be shown in this case study of booksellers in FR Germany—first solutions to the difficulties which emerge from the objective of achieving non‐economic goals.