Creativity and innovation are considered to be constitutive of entrepreneurship. Imitation as a
theoretical concept has engaged few scholars, while creativity has met with great interest.
Ricoeur argues that imitation is the base of human action and that innovation is a necessary
part of making sense of human action. Based on Riceurs threefold mimesis it is argued in this
paper that entrepreneurship can be understood as creative imitation, the base is imitation but
there is also always a creative component in emplotment, whereby meaning is created. It is
argued that creative imitation is an everyday phenomenon and that entrepreneurship therefore
is accessible to ordinary people and not just a few. Further a reading of Ricoeur encourages
the temporal characteristics of entrepreneurship to be taken seriously. |