This is the second of two essays on the influences of Peter Drucker's exposure to proponents of the Austrian School of economics on his writing and philosophical views. In the first essay, “On the Foundations of the Drucker Vision,” I review the major influences that appear to have shaped...

Milton Friedman once argued that profits are the chief purpose of business. Profits do matter, but today we know more about how business contributes to society. Good firms bring innovation to the marketplace, which facilitates their growth. Innovative, growing firms generate economic growth and...

Following the development of knowledge economies, there has been a rapid expansion of economic analysis of knowledge, both in the context of technological knowledge in particular and the decision theory in general. This paper surveys this literature by identifying the main themes and...

This paper focusses on the definition of the word ‘innovation’ as used in scholarly manuscripts (books and articles) about the Innovation. The research was done in 1988, and reported in the Dutch Language in a Research Paper of the University of Eindhoven (The Netherlands). As preparation...

Ever since the dire predictions of The Limits to Growth (Meadows & al. 1972) failed to come true on time, it's been all too easy to ridicule environmentally-based arguments against economic growth as pessimistic and "Malthusian." In contrast, this paper accepts, for the sake of argument, the...

The prevailing aid orthodoxy works well enough in stable environments, but is ill-equipped to navigate contexts of volatility and fragility. The orthodox approach is adept at solving straightforward technical or logistical problems (paving roads, building schools, immunizing children), but often...

This study investigates major features of land-use strategies that German municipalities have adopted to attract innovative firms (IFs). In this context a two-stage competition model is introduced: firstly a municipality should solve economic and interest conflicts related to its preference for...

The prevailing aid orthodoxy works well enough in stable environments, but is ill-equipped to navigate contexts of volatility and fragility. The orthodox approach is adept at solving straightforward technical or logistical problems (paving roads, building schools, immunizing children), but often...

Objective: This research describes and validates how business incubators act as dynamic mechanisms that promote the innovation capacity of companies.Methodology: There are two parts. First, a review of the literature related to entrepreneurship, mainly from reports of organizations focused on...

This paper presents and comparatively analyzes three case studies of productive development agencies (PDAs) in Brazil: Embrapa, Finep, and ABC Foundation. Following a discussion of the main hypotheses and the methodology employed, the paper describes each case, the related counterfactual and an...