Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), innovator and entrepreneur: an experiential report of Van Gogh guides in Nuenen

摘要

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was an innovator and an entrepreneur. This paper analyses letters of the 19th century and reports observations of Van Gogh experts as well as Vincentre guides. Furthermore 25 students specialising in innovation and entrepreneurship were asked to give their opinion about Van Gogh and his entrepreneurial skills. Using a questionnaire we asked expert and non-expert respondents to rank order five aspects of innovativeness and ten characteristics of entrepreneurship. The findings show that the innovative and entrepreneurial potential of Van Gogh highly reflect his imagination, creativity and analysing capabilities. Based on his quantitative work he was a hard worker. Taking his financial successes into account we can only say with hindsight that he was artistically far ahead and not recognized by his audience. Future research might investigate mood analysis in his letters and further explore the characteristics of innovation and entrepreneurship we used in this study.