Frederic Sautet

Frederic Sautet is an Associate Professor and Director of Strategy, Management & Operations at the Busch School of Business, Catholic University of America. He specializes in market process theory, entrepreneurship, and political economy. Sautet earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Paris and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at New York University under notable economists Israel Kirzner and Mario Rizzo. His research focuses on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, institutional impacts on economic development, and the Austrian School of Economics.

As Director of the Entrepreneurship Program, Sautet oversees the co-specialization and minor in entrepreneurship, while leading the Röpke-Wojtyła Fellowship and the Ciocca Scholars Conference through the Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship. He teaches courses like Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital (ENT 372) and The Spirit of Entrepreneurial Capitalism (ENT 476).

His scholarly work bridges classical economic thought with modern entrepreneurship theory, emphasizing the role of alertness, decentralized knowledge, and institutional frameworks. Key publications include An Entrepreneurial Theory of the Firm (2000) and contributions to the Research Handbook on Entrepreneurial Opportunities (2017). Sautet critiques top-down cluster policies, advocating instead for spontaneous industrial diversity and market-driven innovation.

His research spans topics such as economic development, policy implications of Kirznerian economics, and the intersection of virtue ethics with business practices. Sautet’s work is characterized by rigorous theoretical analysis grounded in historical and institutional contexts.