Is there a future for entrepreneurship in the current market economy?

On the 3rd of October 2017 our very own Bas van Bavel gave the King Willem 1 lecture. This was for a gathering of senior figures from the corporate world, as well as the royal couple who were brought together for the announcement of the winner of the Koning Willem 1 prize, the national prize for entrepreneurship. His title was Is there a future for entrepreneurship in the current market economy? He points out himself that this is in some senses an obsolete question as, of course, there will always be room for entrepreneurs. However he makes the point that pure market economies, which use the market as the sole means of allocation of resources are rare from a historical as well as contemporary perspective. Historically entrepreneurship has blossomed when mixtures of systems coexist and he argues that this is what we should be striving for.

Click here to download the full speech (in Dutch).