The Contribution of the Neo-Schumpeterian Approach to the Development of the Economic Theory: Emphasis on the Meso-Economic Level

This article tries to show that there are alternative approaches to the economic theory, besides the well-known economic schools, Classicism, Neoclassicism and Keynesianism. The neoclassical principles allow a formalization – widely accepted by experts – that provide effective tools for measuring the effects of the economic activity. The economic science pays a special attention to the study of the economic agents’ behaviors, and to the economic results obtained by them through economic activity. Any human science uses principles and works with assumptions, and the neoclassical assumptions have generated efficient tools for quantifying the economic outcomes, and for accounting the economic growth. But these hypothesis, such as the assumption of economic agents’ rationality, allow a very limited understanding of the behaviors of economic agents within the markets. The recent invention of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance device, allowed the emrgence of a new scientific paradigm, the development of neurosciences. Researchers can observe at a high level of graphic detail various types of activities that occur in the human brain, and some economists have introduced in the study of the economic theory, for example, the assumption that the consumer is driven by emotions when purchasing quantities of goods and services. So, economists may look for additional theories to explain the behavior of the economic agents. An increasingly importance is given to the theoretical contributions built on the work of the economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter, who has an original economic approach based on his own principles. It is proposed to focus the attention on a mesoeconomic vision about the industry, to understand how resources are being allocated and reallocated between companies, and to study the economic processes of evolution, which are influenced by the emergence and dissemination of the innovations. It is supposed that the price is allocating the resources in the economy, but the companies’ behavior is generated by a competition and cooperation for innovation.