CONCEPTUAL AND CATEGORICAL CONTENT OF INNOVATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP FROM THE EVOLUTION OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The article seeks to explore the key categories that characterize the phenomenon of innovative entrepreneurship. It is specified that from the conceptual and categorical perspectives, the innovative activity of business entities is considered as a complex characteristic with a range of complementary definitions which demonstrate ambiguity and contradiction in their interpretation. The domestic and foreign economic literature review has revealed that there is neither a common conceptual framework in this field of scientific knowledge, nor a harmonized definition of even such basic categories as innovation, novelties, invention, entrepreneurship, innovation activity, etc. among modern scholars and practitioners. The primary sources in the history of economic thought in the area of innovative entrepreneurship can be traced back to remote past, found in the works of foreign economists and political economists who developed a number of theories and concepts revealing the nature, forms and specific features of innovative activity, as well as suggesting methods and pathways to enhance its development. The study offers a more specified definition of innovative entrepreneurship viewing it as a complex category which entails such notions as innovation, entrepreneurship, innovation process, innovation activity, innovation environment, etc. The research findings provide argument why innovative entrepreneurship is critical for effective development of the national economy. The suggested methodological approach argues for the need to explore the innovative entrepreneurship concept both at the micro- and the macrolevels.