JOSEPH SCHUMPETER’S THEORY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AS A CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION OF THE ADAPTIVE ECONOMY IN THE BANI WORLD

Abstract

The article substantiates the conceptual significance of Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of economic development as a universal analytical tool for understanding the dynamics of the modern economy operating under BANI conditions-characterized by brittleness, anxiety, nonlinearity, and incomprehensibility. Unlike neoclassical equilibrium models, the Schumpeterian approach interprets development not as gradual growth within predetermined parameters but as a process of disrupting stability through innovation and “creative destruction.” In the BANI context, where stability is the exception rather than the rule, innovativeness, entrepreneurship, and financial support for breakthrough projects become key factors of economic viability. The article analyzes the fundamental components of Schumpeter’s theory: the concept of circular equilibrium as a baseline analytical condition, innovation as a radical recombination, the entrepreneur as an agent of structural disruption, credit as a mechanism for generating new purchasing power, and the cyclical nature of development as a sequence of breakthrough and adaptation phases. Special attention is paid to comparing Schumpeterian dynamics with BANI-related challenges: economic fragility aligns with the logic of creative destruction; anxiety is addressed through strategic entrepreneurship; nonlinearity resonates with wave-like development logic; and informational fragmentation demands scenario-based, flexible governance. In such a context, the entrepreneur acts as a mediator of change, capable of transforming uncertainty into opportunity. The article concludes that Schumpeter’s theory remains not only relevant but also serves as a methodological foundation for constructing an adaptive economic development model in the 21st century—capable of enabling systemic renewal through innovation, entrepreneurial initiative, financial inclusion, and institutional flexibility under global turbulence. Schumpeter’s ideas remain timeless because they are not based on technological or statistical modeling that requires constant variable updates, but rather on a high-level conceptual theory that allows for interpreting new realities through the lens of structural development logic.