Recently, it has been suggested that the process of economic development should ideally be viewed as a socioeconomictransformation. Such a view requires a comprehensive understanding of how agents learn and changetheir behaviour. However, these aspects have only been inadequately addressed in...

According to the principle of Normative Individualism, the evaluation of economicstates and processes should be guided exclusively by the wishes of the individuals whoare seen as the only bearer of values. Despite its intuitive appeal and its almost universalacceptance in normative economics...

This paper studies the frequency of observing a certain number offirms or employees in a region for a given industry. Various predictions for thesefrequencies are deduced from theoretical considerations. Then, the empirical distri-butions of 198 industries in Germany are analysed. It is found...

We discuss how firms can replicate practices and knowledge embedded in practices byfollowing principles, with no direct reference to an extant working example (template).Definitions are provided for the key concepts of templates, principles, and backgroundknowledge. We address the challenges of...

The models used in economic theory, though necessarily abstract,should be consistent with the nature of decision making behavior. Aformal metaphor of individual behavior as a continuous flow indicatescertain requirements that theories of consumer, producer, and economywidebehavior should...

The objective of this paper is to relate entrepreneurship to a theory of the humanmind, setting both within an evolutionary perspective. The first requirement,therefore, is to indicate what this perspective implies. As a generic concept, I takeevolution to be the self-transformation of a system...

A characteristic feature of economic development is the ever changing structure ofconsumption patterns. Reducing the explanation of this phenomenon to changingprices, finally caused by changes in the availability of goods (or characteristics),would neglect a major force driving this change, i.e....

A growing body of work emphasizes the role that the spatial component plays in the in the innovationprocess. These perspectives brought the region’s infrastructure and its endowment withcrucial factors into the focus of research. Given that these factors do significantly influence...

Twentieth century demand theory is an outgrowth of the revision of the utilitarian program undertakenby Jevons (1879) in the so-called marginalist revolution. In the original, Benthamite version, theutilitarian program was based on a naturalistic, hedonic theory of behavior. Utility was...

This paper explores and explains the emergence and growth of new firms in the knowledgeeconomy. The resource-based view, capabilities approach, and evolutionary economics are usedas a foundation for a developmental approach. The development of the firm is conceptualized interms of processes that...