What factors of production did the entrepreneur use to organize? Entrepreneurship as a factor of production in the modern economy. Intermediary business activity

13.05.2020

Entrepreneurship is an essential attribute of a market economy, the main distinguishing feature which is free competition. It is a specific factor of production, firstly, because, unlike capital and land, it is intangible. Secondly, we cannot interpret profit as a kind of equilibrium price, by analogy with the labor market, capital and land.

The modern understanding of entrepreneurship was formed during the formation and development of capitalism, which chose free enterprise as the basis and source of its prosperity.

The views of the classics were one of the starting points of the Marxist concept of entrepreneurship. K. Marx saw in the entrepreneur only a capitalist who invests his capital in own enterprise, and in entrepreneurship - an exploitative essence. Only much later, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, did economists recognize its crucial importance for economic progress. A. Marshall added to the three classical factors of production - labor, land, capital- fourth - organization, and J. Schumpeter gave this factor its modern name - entrepreneurship and defined main functions of entrepreneurship:

- the creation of a new, not yet familiar to the consumer material good or the former good, but with new qualities;
- the introduction of a new method of production that has not yet been used in this industry;
- the conquest of a new market or the wider use of the former;
- use of a new type of raw materials or semi-finished products;
- introduction new organization cases, for example, a monopoly position or, conversely, overcoming a monopoly.

To characterize entrepreneurship as an economic category, the central problem is the establishment of its subjects and objects. Subjects Entrepreneurship can be, first of all, private individuals (organizers of sole, family, as well as larger industries). The activities of such entrepreneurs are carried out on the basis of both their own labor and hired. Entrepreneurial activity can also be carried out by a group of persons linked by contractual relations and economic interests. Joint-stock companies, rental collectives, cooperatives, etc. act as subjects of collective entrepreneurship. In some cases, the state represented by its relevant bodies is also referred to as business entities. Thus, in market economy There are three forms of entrepreneurial activity: state, collective, private, each of which finds its own niche in the economic system.

Entrepreneurship object- the most efficient combination of factors of production to maximize income. "Entrepreneurs combine resources to produce a new good unknown to consumers; discover new methods of production (technologies) and commercial use of an existing product; develop a new market and a new source of raw materials; reorganize the industry in order to create their own monopoly or undermine someone else's" - J. Schumpeter.

For entrepreneurship as a method of managing the economy, the first and main condition is independence and independence of business entities, the presence of a certain set of freedoms and rights for them to choose the type of entrepreneurial activity, sources of financing, the formation of a production program, access to resources, marketing of products, setting prices for it, disposing of profits, etc.

The second condition for entrepreneurship is responsibility for decisions, their consequences and associated risks. Risk is always associated with uncertainty and unpredictability. Even the most careful calculation and forecast cannot eliminate the unpredictability factor; it is a constant companion of entrepreneurial activity.

The third condition of the entrepreneur - commercial success orientation, the desire to increase profits.

Under profit entrepreneur is the difference between the income received by the enterprise from the sale of goods, and the costs that were incurred by him in the process of production and marketing activities. Thus, in contrast to wages, interest and rent, profit is not a kind of equilibrium price of a contractual nature, but acts as a residual income. This view was not established in science immediately. Profit for a long time was not distinguished from wages and from interest on capital.

Modern economists interpret profit as a reward for the function of the entrepreneur, i.e. as income from the entrepreneurial factor.

Profit as the difference between total revenue and total costs has two forms: accounting and economic. Accounting profit is calculated by subtracting from the income received the so-called external, or accounting, costs (this cash expenses firms for raw materials, materials, wages, equipment, etc.). The firm pays this money to external suppliers by buying the inputs it needs from the market.

However, in addition to accounting, explicit costs, there are also implicit, hidden costs, which the firm must also take into account when evaluating the economic results of its activities. These are payments for resources owned and used by the firm. They got the name opportunity cost, i.e. opportunity cost. Although the firm does not pay these costs, in fact they exist, since in an alternative use these resources could generate income. Therefore, these hidden costs also need to be subtracted from the total income to determine the profit of the firm. In this case we will get economic (clean) profit.

In conditions perfect competition, i.e. in a static economic system functioning in a vicious circle, there is no room for economic profit. The entrepreneur does not make a profit and does not suffer losses, the opportunity cost of the entrepreneur's services, which will be included in the full costs, will be the payment for his work in organizing and doing business. Such income is the management fee in economic theory was named normal profit. The size of this profit is determined by the income that the entrepreneur could receive by working for hire. This is the lower limit of the income of the entrepreneur, since below this limit the entrepreneur will be inclined to abandon his activity and accept the most favorable offer of employment for him.

But the entrepreneurial factor is rewarded not only from normal profit, which is included in economic costs, but also from a possible excess of income that exceeds explicit and implicit costs, i.e. from economic profit. These surpluses are formed as follows. Market structures are distinguished by a certain imperfection of competition: lack of information, concentration of production in the hands of a few firms, release of new, previously unknown products - in a word, the economy is in a state of continuous development, dynamic transformation, which gives it a certain uncertainty. Basically this condition economic system due to the actions of entrepreneurs looking for their niches in the market and using them to their advantage. This leads to a disruption of the existing market equilibrium, and for some period some entrepreneurs find themselves in a more advantageous position than others, their competitors, and seek to realize this benefit for their own benefit. But this benefit is far from obvious, not obvious in advance. An entrepreneur always takes a risk when he decides to start a new business, to carry out some innovations, to buy someone's securities, to put his products on an unknown market, etc. This creates a state of uncertainty in which one has to look for right decisions etc.

But entrepreneurship is not always associated with making a profit; losses are also possible. The threat of losses and bankruptcy also serve as a powerful incentive for efficient management, as well as making a profit.

Formation of demand for factors of production

The demand for resources is derived (dependent) from the demand for products manufactured using these resources. Resources satisfy needs not directly, but through finished products. Consequently, the change in demand for resources is also a dependent value - primarily on changes in demand for finished products.

Labor productivity also affects the movement of demand for resources: if it grows, more of them are required. Each additional unit of resources gives an increment of the product - marginal product (in monetary terms - marginal income). At the same time, additional resources cause an increase in the firm's costs - marginal cost. But firms tend to reduce production costs. Therefore, they will increase resources until the marginal revenue from their increase is equal to the marginal cost of them. If marginal revenue is greater than marginal cost, the demand for resources increases; otherwise, it decreases.

The change in demand for these resources depends on the dynamics of demand for other resources, i.e. from a change in the price of substitute resources (for example, labor is replaced by capital) and additional ones (for example, resources for the production of film and software are additional to those that go respectively to the manufacture of the camera and computer).

When substituting inputs are introduced into production, firms experience two types of effects. The first - the substitution effect - is due to the fact that the replacement of one resource by another changes the price and demand (say, the replacement of labor with capital leads to a drop in the demand for labor and an increase in the demand for capital). The second - the effect of the volume of production - is expressed in an increase in the cost of capital, causing a fall in the volume of production, opposite in direction. Therefore, in practice, the demand for a replacement resource depends on the ratio of these two effects: if the substitution effect is greater than the output effect, the demand for the replacement resource increases, and vice versa. If an additional resource is introduced into production, a change in its price affects the change in demand for the main resource in the opposite direction.

Thus, the derived demand for resources increases if the demand for the product increases, the productivity of labor in output increases. finished products, the price of replacement resources falls or rises, the price of additional resources decreases.

Understanding the characteristics of demand for resources allows us to determine the specifics of its elasticity.

The characteristic of the elasticity of demand for resources is revealed through its derivative character. The sensitivity of demand, its reaction to changes in the price of resources is determined by three factors. The first is the elasticity of demand for finished products: the higher it is, the more elastic the demand for resources will be. When an increase in the price of a good causes a significant drop in demand for it, the need for resources decreases. In the case when, on the contrary, the demand for products manufactured with the help of these resources is inelastic, the demand for resources is also inelastic. The second factor is the substitutability of resources. The elasticity of demand for them is high if, with an increase in price, there is the possibility of replacing them with other resources (for example, gasoline - diesel fuel) or the introduction of more advanced technology (due to which, for example, the need for gasoline decreases). The third factor that determines the elasticity of demand for resources is their share in total costs. The elasticity of demand depends on the share of these resources in the total production costs of finished products. If such specific gravity is large, and the price of resources increases, this leads to a drop in demand for these resources. The greater the share of resources in total production costs, the higher the elasticity of demand.

Although resources are limited, but for some this moment their total supply is a quite definite value (for example, in such and such a year, the labor force amounted to so many million people, the sown area - so many thousand hectares, so many million tons of oil were produced, etc.) Therefore, the amount of resources not strictly fixed; moreover, the value of resources can change and very often actually changes under the influence of certain efforts of people. Thus, elements of physical capital can be produced (equipment, machines) and built (buildings); by changing the length of the working day and the size of wages, it is possible to influence the supply of labor. Even the natural supply of land, which differs from other factors of production, can also be increased through, for example, land reclamation. However, insufficiently thought out agrotechnical measures can contribute to the destruction of soil fertility and thereby reduce its arable area.

Having revealed the features of the demand for resources and their supply, we will consider the features of the operation of the law of supply and demand in the resource markets.

The operation of the law of supply and demand for resources, as for other goods, depends primarily on market conditions. The supply of resources is based on marginal cost, and the demand for resources is based on the marginal money product.

Under perfect competition, firms do not influence the prices of inputs and the prices of products; that's the job of the market. The demand for resources depends on how efficiently they are used, what they bring in money income, what is their marginal money product. Firms increase their use until the marginal money product they generate equals the marginal cost of resources. If each subsequent unit of resources adds more to the total income of firms than to their total costs, then further attraction of additional resources is stimulated. In this case, firms appropriate additional profits. When the marginal cost of resources exceeds the marginal money product, firms-producers incur losses and are forced to reduce the use of resources.

In conditions of imperfect competition, an increase in demand for resources occurs along with a decrease in their price, and an increase in supply - with its increase. Firms seek to limit the demand for resources and ensure that the marginal monetary product over the marginal monetary cost of the product. As a result, additional profit is extracted. By supplying less product to the market, an imperfect competitor also makes less demand for resources.

The most important consequence of the law of supply and demand in the resource market is a high income for scarce resources that are urgently needed for the production of consumer goods; and, conversely, a fall in income on resources that are in abundance, or on emerging substitutes for them.

The operation of the law of supply and demand in the resource market can be violated not only by market conditions, but also by the policy and practice of the state. The resource market is influenced along with spontaneously market-oriented consciously targeted regulators. Thus, in the labor market, labor force pricing ( wage) is regulated by trade unions and the government using various methods.

Entrepreneurship is an essential attribute of a market economy, the main distinguishing feature of which is free competition. It is a specific factor of production, firstly, because, unlike capital and land, it is intangible. Secondly, we cannot interpret profit as a kind of equilibrium price by analogy with the labor market, capital and land.

The modern understanding of entrepreneurship was formed during the formation and development of capitalism, which chose free enterprise as the basis and source of its prosperity.

The views of the classics were one of the starting points of the Marxist concept of entrepreneurship. K. Marx saw in the entrepreneur only a capitalist who invests his capital in his own enterprise, and in entrepreneurship - an exploitative essence. Only much later, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. economists have recognized it as crucial to economic progress. A. Marshall added to the three classical factors of production - labor, land, capital - the fourth - organization, and J. Schumpeter gave this factor its modern name - entrepreneurship, and defined the main functions of entrepreneurship:

Creation of a new material good, not yet familiar to the consumer, or the former good, but with new qualities;

The introduction of a new method of production that has not yet been used in this industry;

The conquest of a new market or the wider use of the former;

Use of a new type of raw material or semi-finished products;

The introduction of a new organization of business, for example, a monopoly position or, conversely, overcoming a monopoly.

To characterize entrepreneurship as an economic category, the central problem is the establishment of its subjects and objects. Business entities may be, first of all, private individuals (organizers of sole, family, as well as larger productions). The activities of such entrepreneurs are carried out on the basis of both their own labor and hired. Entrepreneurial activity can also be carried out by a group of persons linked by contractual relations and economic interests. The subjects of collective entrepreneurship are joint-stock companies, rental collectives, cooperatives, etc. In some cases, the state represented by its relevant bodies is also referred to as business entities. Thus, in a market economy, there are three forms of entrepreneurial activity: state, collective, private, each of which finds its own niche in the economic system.

Entrepreneurship object is the most efficient combination of factors of production to maximize income. “Entrepreneurs combine resources to produce a new good unknown to consumers; discovery of new production methods (technologies) and commercial use of existing goods; development of a new sales market and a new source of raw materials; reorganization in the industry with the aim of creating one's own monopoly or undermining someone else's,” said J. Schumpeter.

The third condition for an entrepreneur is commercial success orientation, the desire to increase profits.

But the entrepreneurial factor is rewarded not only from normal profit, which is included in economic costs, but also from a possible excess of income that exceeds explicit and implicit costs, i.e. from economic profit. These surpluses are formed as follows. Market structures are characterized by a certain imperfection of competition: lack of information, concentration of production in the hands of a few firms, release of new, previously unknown products - in a word, the economy is in a state of continuous development, dynamic transformation, which gives it a certain uncertainty. Basically, this state of the economic system is due to the actions of entrepreneurs who are looking for their niches in the market and using them to their advantage. This leads to a disruption of the existing market equilibrium, and for some period some entrepreneurs find themselves in a more advantageous position than others, their competitors, and seek to realize this benefit for their own benefit. But this benefit is far from obvious, not obvious in advance. An entrepreneur always takes a risk when he decides to start a new business, to carry out some innovations, to buy someone's securities, to put his products on an unknown market, etc. This gives rise to a state of uncertainty in which one has to look for the right solutions, and so on.

But entrepreneurship is not always associated with making a profit; losses are also possible. The threat of losses and bankruptcy also serves as a powerful incentive for efficient management, as well as making a profit.

Issues for discussion

1. Define production.

2. What do you understand by a factor of production?

3. Distinguish between the Marxist interpretation of the factors of production and modern Western theory.

4. Define capital.

5. Describe the factors that limit the length of the working day.

6. Under the influence of what factors do changes occur in the content and nature of labor?

7. Why is land allocated from a material factor of production to a special, natural factor?

8. Give a description of entrepreneurial activity.

9. Name general principles formation of demand for factors of production.

10. What determines the supply of labor and capital in the market for factors of production?

11. How do you understand the "equilibrium price" for factors of production?

Literature

1. Vasiliev G.D. The theory of factors of production. M., 2007.

2. Emtsov R.G., Lukin M.Yu. Microeconomics: textbook. M.: Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov: Publishing House "Business and Service", 2004.

3. Ivashkovsky S.N. Economics: micro- and macroanalysis: studies.-pract. allowance. M.: Delo, 2001.

4. Course of economic theory / ed. M.N. Chepurina, E.A. Kiseleva. K .: Publishing house "ASA", 2004.

5. McConnell K.R., Brew S.L. Economics: principles, problems and politics: textbook. in 2 vol. M.: Respublika, 2005. Vol. 2.

6. Microeconomics: textbook / ed. E.B. Yakovleva. M.; St. Petersburg: "Search", 2003.

Entrepreneurial ability as a factor of production is one of the economic resources, which consists of entrepreneurs and the country's entrepreneurial infrastructure (institutions, laws, regulations, etc.). It is the organizing factor of production that makes it possible to rationally combine the other three factors of production to create goods and services. It differs from such a factor of production as labor (L) in that the decisions made by the entrepreneur are of great importance in realizing the goal (far-reaching consequences). The entrepreneur bears financial responsibility for them. He is not just a performer.
The term "entrepreneurship" is found in the General Dictionary of Commerce, published in Paris in 1723. It was used in the 18th century. English economist Cantillon. He noted that an entrepreneur is a person with uncertain, non-fixed income, for example, a peasant, an artisan, a merchant, and even a robber, a beggar, etc. He buys goods at one price and sells them at another. At the same time, he risks, because the sale price that he assumed may not be such. Entrepreneur performs important function: By saturating the market with goods, it brings supply and demand into line.
In modern economic literature, entrepreneurship is considered in three aspects (from three points of view): as an economic category, as a method of managing and as a type of economic thinking.

Entrepreneurship as an economic category is a system of relations between entrepreneurs in their economic activity which take place in a competitive environment and are aimed at finding new ways to combine factors of production in order to generate income and increase property. Everyone wants to win and keep competitive advantages.
Entrepreneurship as a method of managing the economy is characterized by such features as autonomy and economic independence, commercial risk, responsibility for decisions made, including risk, orientation towards success, creativity (innovation), initiative.

Forms of entrepreneurship as a way of doing business: private (small-scale and capitalist), collective (joint-stock companies), state.
Functions of entrepreneurship: 1) transformations in the economy aimed at increasing its efficiency, at establishing market equilibrium; 2) adaptation to the economic environment, i.e., the desire to ensure maximum output at minimum cost and increase assets; 3) contributing to the growth of the welfare of the population, the democratization of management, etc.
Entrepreneurship is motivated by material interest expressed in the form of income. The peculiarity of the nature of this income is that it is the result of a better use of resources, a better combination of factors of production. Therefore, income from property, as well as rent, rent, interest on capital, wages, cannot be considered as income from entrepreneurship. This income is business profit.

Entrepreneurship as a special type of economic thinking is a set of original views and approaches to decision-making that are implemented in economic life. The main role, in this case, is played by the personality of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is not only an occupation, but also a mindset, a property of nature. To be an entrepreneur, you need to have a special imagination, a gift of foresight, a talent that no more than 5-10% of the working population is endowed with.

We can highlight the most important personal qualities of a successful entrepreneur:

search for opportunities and initiative (changes the intended course of action in order to achieve the goal);
willingness to take risks (prefers a situation of moderation of risk, takes actions to reduce the risk or control the results);
focus on efficiency and quality (find ways to improve quality and reduce costs);
involvement in work contacts (takes full responsibility and makes personal sacrifices for the performance of work, takes up the matter together with employees or instead of them);
purposefulness (clearly expresses goals, has a long-term vision);
the desire to be informed (personally collects information about customers, suppliers, competitors);
systematic planning and monitoring economic indicators and uses them to make decisions).
ability to persuade and establish business and personal connections;
independence and self-confidence (strives for independence from the rules and control of other people, believes in his ability to perform difficult tasks).

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What factors of production did the entrepreneur use to organize? Entrepreneurship as a factor of production in the modern economy. Intermediary business activity

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