Hello Comrades, I hope you are doing well today.
I would like to ask what is the relation between entrepreneurship and innovation in the economy, and in terms of what a company itself may develop—from a Marxist perspective. Also, what influences the leaders of companies to make decisions related to or bolstering innovation?
This is related to coursework in a Chinese university, so the more detailed the better!
WRT innovation following the economic need, that’s sort of universal and logical. It wouldn’t make sense for the startup Google to begin writing a search algorithm for the Internet if there’s no Internet. The development of the Internet created new possibilities but then created brand new problems: how we going to find all this new content?
WRT capitalism’s different natures at different times, this is NOT STRESSED ENOUGH by leftists! In the early days of capitalism, it was a massively progressive, innovative and yes, even positive force in the world! It no longer is. What changed? What changed was exactly what you said: when it’s goal was to supplant the old system and establish a new one (aka revolutionary), it was a positive force. Now that it’s goal is to specifically STOP any and all revolutionary changes globally, it became a negative force.
The key is technology. As technology moves humanity from scarcity to abundance, in each area, one after the other, we have two choices: 1) accept this and allow ALL people access to the things or 2) build artificial scarcity (paywalls, patents, military conquests, coups, etc) so that this new abundance can be monopolized and controlled. This is the very heart of what is being fought against.
The important thing here is not just that capitalism changed from a positive to a negative force in the world, but to also note that so will socialism. Socialism, after it fully supplants capitalism, will fight against changes towards communism. It will betray its own objective. Indeed, all socialist projects already have this tendency. The struggle will always continue.