Consumer Learning, Connectionism and Hayek's Theoretical Legacy

This paper considers using Hayek's theory of knowledge as a theoretical framework for interpreting consumer learning processes. The paper begins with an analysis of Hayek's theory of knowledge, related to his criticism of the general economic equilibrium theory, then illustrates how Hayek's approach is profoundly connectionist and is not at odds with the methods of the neural nets. Moreover, the link detectable between Hayek's approach to learning and Simon's approach to bounded rationality is illustrated. Finally, it is demonstrated that Hayek's approach is suitable for representing the procedures used by enterprises in strategies for convincing customers.