Economic innovation and transformation are future-oriented fields where financial risk-return and economic growth considerations permeate with visions of technological progress and cultural determinants of human behavior. This case study about the evolution of the entrepreneurial persona in the history of economic thought demonstrates how narrative research can contribute to understanding the growth dynamics of economic ecosystems. Rather than being indicators of flaws in otherwise rational economic processes, narrative twists and turns reflect the institutional and cultural preconditions of economic growth and innovation.

Since the early days of industrialization, economic thought takes recourse to the institutional persona of the entrepreneur to explain dynamics of innovation and transformative growth. The descriptions of the entrepreneur in the works of Robert Cantillon, Joseph Schumpeter and Frank Knight show how the parameters of innovation, cristallized in the features of entrepreneurial activity, change along the trajectories of, and reflect, industrial and economic development. What these descriptions have in common are the fundamental features of innovative activity in otherwise steady economic ecosystems: the ability to embrace the uncertainty of a future venture through an informed view about future market demand; the stamina to impose change to incumbent structures and processes; and the acumen to mobilize ample financial funding to realize an innovative venture.

The current debate around artificial intelligence and its potential to generate unprecedented future growth goes along with a messianic turn in the discourse about entrepreneurial activity. In the current debate about AI-led innovation, the entrepreneurial narrative, unchanged at its core, takes on a quasi-spiritual dimension. Entrepreneurs appear as saviour-like personae, able to break through a state of general stagnation and decline in order to enable not less than a new, technology-fuelled chapter for humanity. While the jury is out whether this scenario will unfold, the messianic turn of the entrepreneurial discourse shows that the instruments of mainstream economics do not seem to be suited to assess the growth dynamics of AI-led innovation. To assess this messianic turn of the entrepreneur and its bearings for future economic growth trajectories, a narrative turn in economic research appears warranted.