Transduction and entrepreneurship: A biophilosophical image of the entrepreneur

Abstract

The concept of the entrepreneur is problematic because by definition it aims to capture what is on the move and in a process of continuous change. This paper examines the concepts of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur from the perspective of the French philosopher Simondon's concept of transduction. Transduction denotes the individuation of the subject on the basis of productive relationships between the individual and the environment. Simondon speaks of the ontogenesis of metastable transductive unities, that is, an individuation which is transient and temporal and based on the continuous exchange of information with the environment. A biophilosophical image of entrepreneurship provides good opportunities for conceiving of entrepreneurship as something that is always already multiple, diverse, and distributed, recursively being constituted within specific settings and milieus. The work of Thomas Alva Edison and Louis Pasteur is used as empirical examples of how Simondon's framework can influence entrepreneurship theory and research. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.