IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ssa/lemwps/2004-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Toward a Neo-Schumpeterian Theory of the Firm

Author

Listed:
  • Sidney G. Winter

Abstract

This paper offers a sketch of what an economic theory of the firm would look like if it were founded on the thought of Joseph Schumpeter, particularly on Chapters 1-2 of his Theory of Economic Development. Schumpeterian analysis requires an intuitively appealing and realistic conceptualization of the distinction between routine and innovative behavior, and in particular, a conceptualization relevant to complex organizations and complex tasks. It is argued that the production theory found in mainstream economics does not meet this requirement, particularly because its characterization of productive knowledge involves an overly sharp distinction between “technically possible” and “technically impossible” – a distinction which has no counterpart in the realities of organizational knowledge. The main elements of a Schumpeterian view are described and contrasted with those in the mainstream view.

Suggested Citation

  • Sidney G. Winter, 2004. "Toward a Neo-Schumpeterian Theory of the Firm," LEM Papers Series 2004/20, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2004/20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lem.sssup.it/WPLem/files/2004-20.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sidney G. Winter, 1964. "Economic "Natural Selection" and the Theory of the Firm," LEM Chapters Series, in: Yale Economic Essays, pages 225-272, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fulvio Castellacci, 2007. "Technological regimes and sectoral differences in productivity growth ," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(6), pages 1105-1145, December.
    2. G. Dosi, 2012. "Economic Coordination and Dynamics: Some Elements of an Alternative “Evolutionary” Paradigm," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, issue 12.
    3. Lazaric, Nathalie, 2011. "Organizational routines and cognition: an introduction to empirical and analytical contributions," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 147-156, June.
    4. Malo Mofakhami, 2022. "Is Innovation Good for European Workers? Beyond the Employment Destruction/Creation Effects, Technology Adoption Affects the Working Conditions of European Workers," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 2386-2430, September.
    5. Daniele Tori & Eugenio Caverzasi & Mauro Gallegati, 2023. "Financial production and the subprime mortgage crisis," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 573-603, April.
    6. Costa, Rodrigo Morem da & Horn, Carlos Henrique, 2021. "The co-evolution of technology and employment relations: Institutions, innovation and change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 313-324.
    7. Callegari, Beniamino & Nybakk, Erlend, 2022. "Schumpeterian theory and research on forestry innovation and entrepreneurship: The state of the art, issues and an agenda," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    8. Sidney G. Winter, 2017. "Pursuing the evolutionary agenda in economics and management research," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 41(3), pages 721-747.
    9. Bogliacino, Francesco & Rampa, Giorgio, 2014. "Expectational bottlenecks and the emerging of new organizational forms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 28-39.
    10. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    11. Jung, Eunjun & Lee, Changjun & Hwang, Junseok, 2022. "Effective strategies to attract crowdfunding investment based on the novelty of business ideas," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    12. Makkonen, Hannu & Pohjola, Mikko & Olkkonen, Rami & Koponen, Aki, 2014. "Dynamic capabilities and firm performance in a financial crisis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 2707-2719.
    13. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Grazzi, 2006. "Technologies as problem-solving procedures and technologies as input--output relations: some perspectives on the theory of production," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 15(1), pages 173-202, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marina Bianchi, 1994. "Evolutionary metaphors and the justification of economic efficiency," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 17-29, Spring.
    2. Pascal Seppecher & Isabelle Salle & Dany Lang, 2019. "Is the market really a good teacher?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 299-335, March.
    3. Singh, Ajit & Singh, Alaka & Weisse, Bruce, 2002. "Corporate Governance, Competetion, The new International Financial Architecture and Large Corporations in Emerging Markets," MPRA Paper 24305, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Jessica L. Cohen & William T. Dickens, 2002. "A Foundation for Behavioral Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 335-338, May.
    5. Jeroen van den Bergh & John Gowdy, 2000. "Evolutionary Theories in Environmental and Resource Economics: Approaches and Applications," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 17(1), pages 37-57, September.
    6. Sidney G. Winter, 2017. "Pursuing the evolutionary agenda in economics and management research," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 41(3), pages 721-747.
    7. Abhijit Banerjee & Jörgen W. Weibull & Ken Binmore, 1996. "Evolution and Rationality: Some Recent Game-Theoretic Results," International Economic Association Series, in: Beth Allen (ed.), Economics in a Changing World, chapter 4, pages 90-117, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Earl, Peter E., 2015. "Anchoring in economics: On Frey and Gallus on the aggregation of behavioural anomalies," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-25.
    9. Geoffrey M. Hodgson, 2010. "Limits of Transaction Cost Analysis," Chapters, in: Peter G. Klein & Michael E. Sykuta (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics, chapter 28, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Jack Vromen, 2013. "Competition as an evolutionary process: Mark Blaug and evolutionary economics," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 9, pages 98-124, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Krstic, Bojan & Krstic, Milos, 2015. "Rational Choice Theory And Random Behaviour," Ekonomika, Journal for Economic Theory and Practice and Social Issues, Society of Economists Ekonomika, Nis, Serbia, vol. 61(1), pages 1-13, March.
    12. Ajit Singh, 2003. "Competition, corporate governance and selection in emerging markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(491), pages 443-464, November.
    13. Beker, Pablo F., 2008. "Retained earnings dynamic, internal promotions and Walrasian equilibrium," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 114-156, March.
    14. William P. Barnett & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2017. "Special Issue Introduction: Evolutionary Logics of Strategy and Organization," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 1-1, March.
    15. Arie Y. Lewin & Silvia Massini & Carine Peeters, 2011. "Microfoundations of Internal and External Absorptive Capacity Routines," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 81-98, February.
    16. Christian Schubert, 2009. "Darwinism in Economics and the Evolutionary Theory of Policy-Making," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2009-10, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    17. Peter G. Klein & Michael E. Sykuta (ed.), 2010. "The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4136.
    18. Uwe Cantner, 2017. "Foundations of Economic Change: An Extended Schumpeterian Approach," Economic Complexity and Evolution, in: Andreas Pyka & Uwe Cantner (ed.), Foundations of Economic Change, pages 9-49, Springer.
    19. Kant, Shashi, 2003. "Extending the boundaries of forest economics," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 39-56, January.
    20. repec:dgr:rugsom:97b06 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Teppo Felin & Nicolai J. Foss, 2004. "Organizational Routines A Sceptical Look," DRUID Working Papers 04-13, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Theory of the firm; Schumpeter; Innovation; Knowledge;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2004/20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/labssit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.