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Bounded Rationality in the Economics of Organization: Present Use and (Some) Future Possibilities

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  • Nicolai Foss

Abstract

The way in which bounded rationality enterscontemporary organizational economicstheorizing is examined. It is argued that,as it is being used, bounded rationalityis not necessary for producing the results of organizationaleconomics. It is at best a rhetorical device,used for the purpose of loosely explainingincomplete contracts. However, it is possibleto incorporate much richer notions of boundedrationality, founded on research in cognitivepsychology, and to illuminate the study ofeconomic organization by means of such notions. A number of examples are provided. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001

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  • Nicolai Foss, 2001. "Bounded Rationality in the Economics of Organization: Present Use and (Some) Future Possibilities," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 5(3), pages 401-425, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jmgtgv:v:5:y:2001:i:3:p:401-425
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1014007330294
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    Cited by:

    1. Pelikan, Pavel, 2006. "Markets vs. Government when Rationality Is Unequally Bounded: Some Consequences of Cognitive Inequalities for Theory and Policy," Ratio Working Papers 85, The Ratio Institute, revised 03 Sep 2006.
    2. Nicolai J. Foss, 2010. "Bounded Rationality and Organizational Economics," Chapters, in: Peter G. Klein & Michael E. Sykuta (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Morten Huse & Robert Hoskisson & Alessandro Zattoni & Riccardo Viganò, 2011. "New perspectives on board research: changing the research agenda," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 15(1), pages 5-28, February.
    4. Foss, Nicolai J., 2003. "Bounded rationality in the economics of organization: "Much cited and little used"," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 245-264, April.
    5. Foss Nicolai J., 2004. "Cognition and Motivation in the Theory of the Firm: Interaction or "Never the Twain Shall Meet"?," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 1-24, March.
    6. Cristiana Parisi, 2013. "The impact of organisational alignment on the effectiveness of firms’ sustainability strategic performance measurement systems: an empirical analysis," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(1), pages 71-97, February.
    7. Szymon Kaczmarek, 2017. "Rethinking board diversity with the behavioural theory of corporate governance: opportunities and challenges for advances in theorising," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 21(4), pages 879-906, December.
    8. Libby Weber, 2017. "A Sociocognitive View of Repeated Interfirm Exchanges: How the Coevolution of Trust and Learning Impacts Subsequent Contracts," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 744-759, August.

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